Daily Painting

Good morning friends of the Rosy Life! How do these last few days of September find you? 

I connect with so many of you on Instagram, and I love that.  It doesn't replace blogging for me, but is a quick way to capture the snippets of goodness here and there AND connect with you at once.  This week I jumped to over 1,000 followers! I'm not usually a numbers gal (and that's putting it lightly, numbers are my worst subject!), but I think that's pretty cool.  I am honored and I thank-you for joining along with me on this bumpy, adventurous, both high and low thing called life.  

(real life confession: I'm sitting here writing this at 6:15 where every single morning a LOUD airplane flies right over my house and every morning I pray it doesn't wake the girls up. It almost always does…….maybe I should go wave a flag at the plane, lol)

A couple of weeks ago I had a birthday and my older sister got me the coolest book ever, Daily Painting.  I have stacks and stacks of artsy books and even quite a few painting ones.  But this one has really caught my attention for different reasons.  There are plenty of books out there to simply inspire and fill your mind with pretty projects to try and create yourself.  I think of this book as the meat and potatoes.  It digs deep where other books stay light.  It delves right into the "why" of painting daily, chronicling the artist's struggles, insecurities, and hang ups when first beginning as an artist.  

Friends, it was as if I was reading my own journal page!  The book preaches daily painting for several reasons.  One, you're less emotionally attached to your paintings. If you mess up or don't like what you see, no big deal.  Try again tomorrow!  Also, you are using less supplies at once, so the fear of "using something good up" is replaced with a rational thought that it's ok to try something on a small scale.  The biggest reason for daily painting?  It makes you better, defines your style, and improves your art.  It just simply does.  The author makes it every clear that it is normal to take years and years to improve as an artist.   Whoa, mind-blown for me.  In our fast-paced society with BIG internet stardom and BIG shop sell-outs and all that jazz it can feel like "slow" is a bad word.  It's not.  It's normal! 

Slow matters. 

I've only made it through the first two chapters or so and already I'm this fired up. Can you imagine by the time I finish the whole book-ha! Another thing I also really appreciate about the book are the stories by other artists, telling how they jumped their own hurdles and handled not wanting to paint anymore (they did).   I hope you'll give the book a read.  It has deeply settled some questions and fears that have been rolling around in my head for a couple of years or so.  I've realized it's ok I am day by day getting better at art.  It's ok to say "I'm in this for good" and then consider my life as an artist a lifelong learning journey.  

Without further ado, let me show you what I've done so far! After getting so wound up about the book I went right back into my old habits and told myself "I'll start a daily painting project in October!" Immediately after the next thought followed that was, START now! Don't wait until October silly! 

I introduce to you, my daily paintings thus far. 

*Art Tip*--I really like to sketch first with a Sharpie fine-point pen or a simple mechanical pencil.

*Art Tip*-When stamping, I always use my Faber-Castell Big Brush Pens which gives such a clean stamp, no extra smearing around the letters.  These "pens" are actually like a marker and an expensive one at that! I recommend either ordering from Blick, buying at Hobby Lobby one by one with a 40% off coupon, or look for the special-priced gift box (like I have) on Amazon that usually comes around Christmas. I have had my pens almost two years and they still work perfect.  

Already the critic in me is SO bothered by her hair, but that's another reason to paint daily!  You can "fix" or adjust things day by day you weren't pleased with the previous painting session. 

I called this little lady "Miss Middle", she was neither my favorite or least favorite painting but I still liked her.  I wrote some notes to myself next to her for improvements next time!

The journal I painted her in is a mixed-media journal, found at Hobby Lobby for 40% off. 

I recommend stocking up when they have their art journals on sale!  

I showed you my stack of art journals from the last two years a few posts back and this is why I think they're so valuable to have around.   Most of the pages I look at my eyes just widen in amazement because I can see I really am improving!  But even since the beginning of my painting journey, there are little snippets here and there (like this page) that show up that I love just as much now as then.  

I think of these daily paintings like my photography.  When strung together an endless thread of hope seems to connect them all.  They tell a story, the "good" paintings and the bad.  They are each one a stepping stone to the bigger picture of my art as a whole. 

Do you paint daily?  I'll write more about my time management later, but let me say this. Sometimes my daily painting might be 10 minutes of Crayola Watercolors with my girls! And that's ok and wonderful and beautiful too.  Your whole life doesn't have to change before you start.

Have an art-related question for me?  I'd love to answer! 

(I'll be answering your IG questions on the blog later this week)