I’m about halfway through a watercolour class which I’m doing online which is always fun. Actually yesterday was the two year anniversary of the very first watercolour class I ever took. I still feel like a newbie at this art stuff but it’s been a fun two years and I’ve learned and lot and have improved a lot in that time. Over those two years, I’d say I’ve learned that I lean more towards a fairly loose, illustrative style which is fine by me. But I’ve always loved botanical art (and am always taking pics of plants and flowers like the above and drawing/painting them) and whenever I find myself stumbling over those very realistic botanical watercolour images, I sort of gaze at them and think “how do you do that?”.
I find realism pretty daunting given that I’m still learning to draw and see like an artist. But I’ve learned enough to know that yes, talent plays a role but a lot of art is skill based. So after finding myself looking yet again at more contemporary (less scientific) Botanical watercolour pics on Pinterest and watching the Ted talk I linked to in my last post about how long it takes to learn a new skill, I decided what the heck.
So I’m setting myself an art challenge to try some botanical art. I’ve signed up for a Craftsy class (and, being me, bought a couple of books, one by Anna Mason whose class I’m doing and the other by Billy Showell) and am going to see what I can do. I’m sure it’s going to be frustrating and a long process. But I figure at worst, I learn some new skills to apply back to my other style and at best, I find out I can do it and that I like doing it.
How about you? Go something you’ve been wanting to try?
