Two weeks of painting in gouache
From Ki’s Corner: painting everyday for a whole month + what I've learned so far.
Hi, Bonjour,
In the spirit of trying new creative endeavours, especially the ones I'm bad at. I took it upon myself to illustrate 22 gouache painting in the hopes of getting better at painting. From setting up my work station in the morning to the final brush strokes on the page. The system of sticking to something for 22 days is no small feet. Here's some of my findings.Welcome back, Happy Tuesday! Welcome to Ki Corner. In this part of the world, I write about all things from being a freelance artist to my daily life. This week is is an updated on my 2 weeks of Plein Airpril challenges, painting in gouache. What I've learned, how my routine has shifted. But also how it affects my own work outside of the challenge.
What is plein Airpril?
Plein Airpril was started by the Warriors Painters group:
To celebrate Earth Day and engage with plein-air enthusiasts across the globe, Warrior Painters initiated the #PleinAirpril Challenge in 2017. The #PleinAirpril Challenge is a social media campaign that challenges artists and painting enthusiasts to paint and share one plein-air painting a day during the month of April. Over the past eight years, thousands of artists worldwide have participated in the challenge!
Like any art trend or challenge, I stumbled upon this challenge one day on Instagram. Beautiful landscapes rendering of all kinds from artist I loved in the animation. As a fellow background artist, I knew this was right up my alley. A brilliant way to connect with other artist but also test your skill as a painter! What's not to love? Every April since 2022, I've tried a version of this challenge. It's a way to push yourself to practice painting but also try something new. I'm not a huge fan of any other art challenge —think InkTober or Huevember, this challenge is one that I've always kept up with. This time around, I'm playing with a new medium and illustrating my cat, to bring a more illustration feel to the challenge
Le set up + Tools
There's something about having 2 designated spot to be creative. Enjoying my morning while I set up,listening to YouTube commentary video while I sip my ice mocha, wondering what I'm going to paint for the day. Honestly it's the best part my morning.
The set up is pretty simple, my coffee table infront of my tv. I have all my painting gear ready to create a new piece. It's not that I couldn't do that same work at my desk but, My desk is mostly reserved for my digital media, admin task and what have you. A reminder of what I've yet to finish and what is waiting for me on the other side of the room. Taking the morning to really be in the moment with what's in front of me, letting myself learn and create without worries of messing up.
Discovery?
Art challenges always find a way to spark new ideas or new discoveries that you'd never expect would happen. The opportunity to create without fear of messing up, allow us to just try something different, bringing new ways to approach yourwork. For instance:
Deciding how an art challenge works for you:
This one maybe be obvious, but as a resident perfectionist and rule abider. Completing a art challenge to a tee is essential. 30 days 30 piece regardless of what happens and if you skip a day you ultimately fail as an artist and human being. The pressure of making art is what's holding us back from making art! For this challenge I knew I had to limit myself, if I want to be able to post and make content along side painting I had to allow myself to have days off from the challenge. So instead of painting for 30 days, I'm painting for 22 days, giving myself the weekend to rest but also upload the work from that week. Breaking down. The challenge like this let's me be a better artist and avoiding the dread of not keeping up with daily painting.
Natural fall backs + Developing my own style:
After the first week of painting I notice a particular pattern in my work that I didn't notice before, field of flower. Theses are my default when painting, where I seek comfort and understand the fundamental to exicute the painting properly. Nothing wrong whith having natural fall back. In the upcoming weeks I will keep this in mind find new ways to explore and challege myself to paint something diffrent. I also realized I love a hot pink underpainting. I dont know why I just find it looks better. Its cuter, silly and overal intesives my greens in a way I love. I would love to implente this when working digitally. I wonder how a digital piece would look with a pink underpainting and it makes me excited to draw again.
Thanks for reading. So far I've been loving this art challenge, I can see myself improving each day. Thanks for all the support! I've been posting them regularly on my page and plan to do so till the end of the month. Feel free to share anything that you’ve done this month! Bye for now! À bientot!
Bisou, Bisou ♡
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Thank you, these are beautiful and quite touching.
I love seeing this! They are beautiful done!! ❤️❤️❤️