Well, Caroline, here we are.  As you know, on Friday, I missed my day, so you assigned me a project.  And I figured, well, I’d better do something today.  And of course, you remember the project you assigned:

Oh my. That’s GLORIOUS.  IMPECCABLE.  It’s perfect.  Anything (perhaps everything?) I could possible create would be far beneath the majesty of this… this… entracing art.  But I don’t think that excuse would fly… so I gave it a shot.  You suggested watercolor in the style of Monet.  I went for it.

So!  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

SPACE CAT!

And let me tell you, it was an interesting process getting to this point, to say the least!

So yup, that’s right, I’ve done a watercolor of Space Cat.  When you first suggested the project I was a little bit unsure as to exactly what I was going to do, but I said to myself… watercolors?  Didn’t I do that when I was… eight?  I’m not really a painter, but I’ve done oil painting before and I’ve taken art classes…  Could it really be that hard?  What could go wrong?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Guess what.  Watercolors are hard.  This was not the only bad portrait, as you’re about to see.  Overall, however, it was a super educational process (I think there’s some improvement between this and the final product above) and I’m really glad you suggested it!  I definitely did not expect to be doing watercolor paintings when I started this project, and I’m glad to say that now I have!

So, this weekend, I went down to the local artist supply store in Cambridge.  I think the last time I went down there I was getting the clay I used in the previous entry.  And that was a while ago.  I stopped in, picked up some brushes and watercolor paint.  The clerk kindly noted that I should stay away from the cheapest watercolor paint, as it was designed for eight-year-olds.  I almost bought it anyway, but decided to go one tier up just in case.  The right call?  Probably.  Oh–and there’s also apparently paper designed specifically for watercolors, but at this time I was feeling pretty reckless, so I just settled for my normal notebook paper.

I got home and quickly realized that even though I had paper, I didn’t have anything to paint on.  Using the sparse materials available in my house, I built a makeshift easel out of a music stand, a notebook, and some paper.

Once I had organized the paint, I was ready to go… or so I thought.

So, why was painting good ol’ Space Cat so challenging?  Am I exaggerating when I say the watercolors are extremely difficult?  Well, maybe a little bit, but consider this:

• You can get LITERALLY every shade of a color with a single color, light to dark.  When you paint with oil or acrylics, every pigment is pretty much a single color.  If you want to get a darker or lighter pigment you mix with white or black.  With watercolors, that isn’t really true.  Depending on how much water, how much pigment, the wetness of the water and pigment, the shape of the brush, and the moisture on the paper, you’re pretty much getting a different shade AND opacity for whatever color you’re painting with.
• Thus, in watercolor, there are NO SOLID COLORS.  Every brush stroke is, to some degree, translucent (the degree of opacity depends on the water, pigment, brush… you get it)
• Because of that, EVERY STROKE COUNTS!  There’s no going over previous strokes (especially of dark colors!). Once a stroke is on the sheet, it’s pretty much there for good, and you’ll always see it because everything is translucent.  And that’s entirely true, except…
• NO STROKES ARE PERMANENT.  If you’re frustrated because I seem to be contradicting myself, imagine how I felt when REALITY contradicted itself with water-based sorcery on paper.  Even if you let the painting dry, the paint is, afterall, WATERBASED, so new strokes can lift and move around previous strokes.

Obviously, the experienced painter knows all this and more (and is probably laughing right now).  If it seems like I’ve painted (haha) this experience in a negative light, it really wasn’t that bad.  Just a lot of patience and learning, and it was pretty fun!  Here are some progressions through some of my attempts, after my first attempt… which is just frightening (it’s above: the “AHHH” painting).

Attempt 2:

This one got a little chaotic at the end, but it’s an interesting progression nonetheless.

Attempt 3:

I’ve also learned that I need a better camera than a cellphone.

Thanks for reading!  And for your support!  And if you want to see any of these paintings up close, let me know!  Or at least point me to a better camera.

OH! And if you want to see a real good watercolor painter in action, check out my friend William at http://ashwara.tumblr.com.  He makes excellent watercolor paintings and gave me some great advice while I was struggling!