I had great plans for #Inktober2020, back in September when I was on vacation, and had too much time to think, and make big plans. However, I should have been setting realistic goals.
Also, most of my art supplies were at home so I couldn’t really get started.
In fact, while I was on vacation, I planned out a whole month of paintings for #Inktober, one a day. I drew some sketches on Procreate. I even took some on location photos for street scenes. Which I’m sure I’ll use someday.
But when I got home, reality set in again. I realized that there was no way I could complete a painting a day. Setting goals like that for myself just creates a lot of anxiety.
However, I’ll share the paintings I completed here. You can see the sketches and progress shots on my Instagram. Perhaps the story will be continued . . . next #Inktober .
In the watercolor story that I imagined, my character started off visiting a hat shop. After trying on several hats, she settled on a witches hat, of course. And that’s as far as my paintings got. I posted the last watercolor I finished, of her trying on the witches hat to Instagram on Halloween.
See, the other thing is, when I was planning all of this lovely painting, I sort of forgot that I’m really a sculptor, and a clay artist. And a blogger. And maybe that’s a good thing. When you live with anxiety, creating too many goals for yourself just increases your stress levels.
How Unreachable Goals Create More Anxiety in Our Lives
Hobbies are meant to be an escape from our stressful lives. But sometimes they take over and create more anxiety instead of relieving it. Posting our art and our dolls on social media just increases the stress to create more, or keep up with “friends” we don’t even truly know.
Even with just focusing on drawing, and painting watercolors throughout the month of #Inktober, I felt a bit overwhelmed because I’d set a goal I couldn’t reach.
It would have been better if I’d said to myself, “Just have fun with this!” Or “You’ve never inked paintings before. It’s okay if it doesn’t look perfect.” Positive self talk is not one of my strengths though. I tend to be a perfectionist prone to harsh self criticism.
So my character didn’t get to meet a black cat on the way home, chat with a neighbor, or borrow his broom on which she flew off to London. There were lots more plans, and I have them all written down. Somewhere.
But on a bright note, I did manage to finish 2 watercolor paintings in one week, and post them to social media!
How to Set Realistic Goals
When we make realistic goals for ourselves, it’s important not just to make a “to do” list for the rest of the year. In addition, spend some time thinking about what your day is like and how much time you have to work on the items on your list.
For example, I started learning to draw when my son was a toddler. The only time I had to myself was his afternoon nap time because I was following the attachment parenting model.
If I made a goal that I was going to practice drawing for 2 hours a every afternoon, learn to paint, etc., I never could have reached it, and would have ended up feeling angry and frustrated with myself.
Instead I set a goal to draw every day while he was napping. Some days, I got well over an hour to work on my hobby, but other days he only napped for 20 minutes, or I wasn’t able to get him to sleep at all.
Goals for Mental Health
Yesterday morning I got up an hour later after the time change, Since I haven’t changed my bedside clock, it looked like I’d slept till after 7!
I set about creating some goals for the week that I think I can achieve, but also I thought about what active steps I can take to reduce anxiety.
We are all living through exceptionally stressful times. It’s easy to get caught up in the constant flow of negative information that flows into our lives through TV and the internet.
These are the goals is what I wrote down to begin practicing daily:
Meditate 30 minutes every day
Practice conscious breathing
Go for a walk in the woods by myself
I have found that just reading articles or books about anxiety does nothing to alleviate it if we don’t take positive steps to actively reduce it, and make them part of our daily routine.
5 Tips for Setting Realistic Goals
Prioritize what you want to achieve.
Limit your list. (Only you know what is realistic for you.)
Set a time line, for example I keep both weekly & monthly goal lists.
Make adjustments when necessary.
Don’t procrastinate! Start working right away.
This is my list of things to accomplish this week:
Complete new drawing and start watercolor.
Finish blog post for Tuesday ** I did this, obviously!
Work on polymer clay food tutorials for BJD sized dolls (I’m making onions!)
Paint new head.
Just writing down the most important things that I want to finish this week makes it seem a little less overwhelming. Plus, when we write down a list, and keep in where we can find it to refer back to, we’re less likely to waste time on stuff that’s not part of our goals for the week.
Will I Do #Inktober Next Year?
I’m not sure yet. Somewhere in the month of October, I remembered that I moved on from drawing to sculpting a long time ago, and there must have been a reason.
I used to love to sculpt so much that I sometimes didn’t want to go on vacation because I couldn’t pack my clay along in my suitcase.
Somewhere, between home schooling my son, and caring for my mom, I told myself I didn’t have time to sculpt anymore, but I’d pick it up again in the future. And while I was telling myself that, years went by. It was a big mistake. We should never put our dreams on hold.
I’m back to sculpting now. I’m starting slow, making accessories for the dolls I sculpted in the past, and the BJD dolls I collect. I shared my first tutorial last week, How to Make an Easy Tomato Cane.
I have lots of items to make and more tutorials planned. As my husband and I complete my doll rooms for my MSD sized dolls, I’ll be making many of the furnishings, and the food. I’ll share my how-to instructions here in my Resource Library if you want to follow along. You can get a free password here.
When my grandmother lost her wedding rings in a house fire in the 1940’s, instead of a diamond, I don’t think they were in style yet, my grandfather bought her a beautiful sapphire ring to replace them. The ring was not precious because of the size of the stone, or the antique setting. It was precious because it had belonged to a lady whose influence and love I feel even today.
The Story of How my Grandmother Lost Her Wedding Rings
This is the story my mother told me about the sapphire ring, and how the wedding rings were lost.
There had been a little power outage at their home. My grandmother was probably there alone, so she got a stool, went outside and climbed up to reach the fuse box. The rest is quite too horrible to tell, but the stool tipped, and one of her fingers was torn off at the knuckle joint. As a result, the wedding rings were put in a glass jar on her dresser until she healed, and could wear them again.
However, a few days later, a spark from the chimney lit the roof on fire, and subsequently, the house burned to the ground. Apparently the little local fire department couldn’t get their truck started when they got the emergency call. A neighbor later said the fire truck drove past late that night. My mother always joked that they saved the foundation and the chimney.
My mother also told me how she and her sister spent days sifting through the ashes, looking for the ring. Clearly it was an impossible task, especially since my grandmother’s bedroom was beneath the section of the attic where the canning jars were stored. As a result, all of that glass melted in the fire on top of everything that had been in her bedroom.
Anyone who has been through a catastrophe like a house fire knows what a loss the objects containing sentimental memories are, but the greatest loss is when you lose a family member. Luckily, my grandfather was home that day, and was able to wake his father-in -aw who was taking an afternoon nap in the attic. Everyone was safe.
How the Sapphire Ring Became Mine
I don’t have any memory of my grandmother wearing her beautiful sapphire ring. When she died I was only 12. However, I do remember opening my mothers dresser drawer, taking out her jewelry box, and looking at it frequently. Sometimes my mother would let me try it on.
“You can’t wear it until you’re older,” I was always told.
How much older, I’m not sure, because at around the age of 16, I took it out and started wearing it. I realize that wasn’t how my mother intended for me to have my grandmother’s ring. I imagine she would have liked to have given it to me on a special occasion.
But the ring had a power over me. I was like Golum who craved to wear the ring, and I couldn’t wait until I was older.
It was really loose on my finger. Even though my grandmother had been quite thin as an old lady, she had been heavier when my grandfather gave it to her.
My mother never told me outright to put the ring back, but she did express concern it would slip off my finger. So when I was in my last year of high school, she had it resized. I wore it in my graduation photo.
The Ring Vanishes
By the time I was in college, I’d lost a lot of weight since high school. The ring was getting loose again. My last memory of the ring was playing touch football at a park on New Year’s Day in the cold. But I also have a memory that I put it somewhere. Whether it slipped off my finger on the football field, or I placed it somewhere it can never be found, I haven’t seen the ring in many, many years. And it’s loss is heartbreaking to me, because it was the one thing of my grandmothers that I had.
Lessons From Loss
We all do things as teenagers that we have misgivings about. And I regret taking the ring that wasn’t mine yet, just because I knew it someday would be.
I once asked a psychic what happened to the ring. She told me I did lose it on the football field. “A little girl had found it,” she said. And it was precious to her. Precious. She also said I lost the ring because it was never mine. It hadn’t been given.
When a New Ring is Forged
My husband doesn’t have the power to journey to the Mountain of Doom to reforge the ring for me. And luckily this ring doesn’t represent that kind of evil. No. It represents a woman from another era who I love, admire, and remember.
But what he does have is my high school photo which shows the rings design clearly. Someday when we have the extra money, he’s promised we will have it copied. I will be patient this time. I hope I have learned this valuable lesson. To never again take what I’m not given.
If someone asked me whether or not I was brave, I would probably say no. There’s still a very big part of me attached to that kindergartner who was so scared to go to school, she got sick in the morning. My extreme shyness made me a target for bullying in school.
Clearly, I still don’t look for adventure. I don’t climb mountains, or skydive, or travel alone to distant places where I don’t speak the language.
Consequently, I miss out on a lot of opportunities in life. Whether it’s attending classes or meeting new people, I miss out because I prefer staying at home.
I’m not as shy as when I was a child, and I worked hard to overcome it. But I still consider myself an introvert.
How my Son Reminded me of Brave
Growing up here on the island, summers were a flurry of classes and camps for my son before Covid. In the last few years, he emerged from a shy little boy to someone who, while still shy, loved to swim, acted in plays, played tennis on his high school team, and learned to sail.
He was only able to attend one camp last summer before starting his senior year in high school. But we were grateful the sailing camp was able to run. He had been attending every summer for 4 or 5 years. I still remember the last day of his first year of camp, the instructor was givingt out awards, and announcing who passed to the advanced sailing level.
When he called my son forward, he handed him his certificate he said, “This young man is fearless out there.”
Even so, my son still didn’t think of himself as fearless. Or brave. He still thought on a day to day basis of all the things he couldn’t do, or the things he was scared of. Nevertheless, when he was out there, just him and his boat ,the wind and the sea, he was and is fearless.
And he inherited from his grandfather the courage to stand up to bullies when he saw someone picking on one of his classmates.
Many of us are like my son. Maybe we think too much about how we will handle a situation, and run it through our minds again and again. Most often, that situation never comes up, so all of our rehearsing for the worst was not necessary.
But when we are out there in the moment, and the winds of life hits us, or when we stand up to mean bullies, we are braver than we know.
Why Introverts Relive Bad Memories
It should be noted, if you are shy, or an introvert, letting go of memories and experiences from our past proves difficult, because we ruminate on them. We live them over and over. Importantly, this is the very reason we must work through them. Because imagining the things we don’t want to happen increases the very possibility of attracting those things to us.
It’s not easy as an adult to step out of our shell. It’s difficult to put ourselves in situations where we, or our work, might be criticized, and made fun of. Or we express a belief and someone ridicules it. Nowadays, if we say the wrong thing, a thing that just last year it was okay to say, it can even be labeled as hate speech online.
But whether you are an artist, a writer, or you run any sort of business online, you need to be noticed. And we all have an innate need to share our opinions, whether is it with a friend, a neighbor, or the world.
Standing Up to Bullying in School
In particular, when you encounter a bully, whether in school, or the workplace, and definitely online, remember they are not really a brave person. Not only are they not a brave person, but the people who surround them are not brave either. They are afraid to speak up, and they defend the bully’s target because they fear becoming the next victim themselves.
Bullying in school seems almost epidemic today. We used to call it being picked on. And a lot of parents and teachers didn’t usually step in to help. My own mother wouldn’t even consider letting me change schools when I begged her. Instead she repeated things to me like, “Bloom where you’re planted,” or “You’ve just as happy as you make up your mind to be.” Then she returned to reading her evening newspaper.
In a way though, she was right. My own energy attracted the bullies. Being liked by the popular girls became too important to me. I wish I could have been like my son, who just doesn’t care about being popular. And speaks up when he sees someone being bullied.
But I did care about what the popular girls thought of me. Too much. And it made me a target. Now, as an adult, I realize that I wouldn’t want to be friends with them anyway. Not if being friends meant I had to watch silently, or join in when they bullied others.
Even if my mother allowed me to go to a new school, but I carried the same energy, I might have been picked on and bullied all over again. But I was really just asking her for a new start. A chance to change my energy in a new setting.
Change Location and Change Your Energy
I finally got a chance in a new setting when I went to college. My father died the previous year, and I didn’t care about being popular anymore. And my new friends at college? Many had been the popular girls in high school.
As a result of my own experience with bullying in school, if my child told me they were being bullied, I would listen and I act. Absolutely, it’s one of the reasons I choose to home school the last couple of years. It gives us more choices, and we are not tied to the school or their policies.
Most importantly though, standing up to a bully is one of the most fearless things you can do.
Online Bullying is the Perfect Domain for Hateful People
Bullies still exist in the adult world. It’s easier than ever for them to hide now behind social media accounts and avatars.
Stay Safe Online has tips on what to do if you experience Cyber-bullying.
These are things you can do to make yourself safe from online bullying while still sharing your light with the world:
If you experience a cyberbully in a forum, or see it happening to someone else, report it to a moderator
Use moderation on your website, or social media channel, and manually approve comments if that is an option. Or have a friend moderate for you. Regularly check the comments and delete things that are hateful, or must plain mean.
Don’t respond to a bully, just delete. They want a reaction .
Bullies in our adult world are still angry people, and they’re scared. Remember that. They’re scared. Otherwise they wouldn’t bother making fun of other people, or even trying to destroy them. It’s easier to stand up to them when we remember that they are the ones afraid.
Indeed, they are in politics, and they run counties. They might be raciest, but equally, they might hide behind titles of Social Justice and Equality while they nevertheless bully others. What they have in common is they are all full of hate. Often, they are scared. And they rely on us being scared too. That’s how they operate.
Face Down Bullying in School and Online
Whether you are facing bullying in school, at work, or online, the more memories you can recall of the times you have been brave in the past, the easier it is to stand up to them now. Standing up to a bully isn’t only brave, it’s fearless.
When you are out there in the world and something bad happens, how often have you been the one to make a decision that was fearless? Did you react on your instinct to do what you felt was right without thinking about the consequences down the road?
Being brave doesn’t mean not being scared, it means being scared, but doing the thing anyway.
When to Seek Help
If the memories in your past are really strong ones, (and for those of us who faced bullying in school, they sometimes are), please find someone to help you work through them. Bullying often leads to chronic anxiety which is now days considered as much of a disease as diabetes, or hypertension. There is no shame in seeking help.
Have you faced bullying in school, the workplace, or online? How did you handle it?
Many of us love to make resolutions in January, and plan out our year. How many creative goals in life did you set for 2022, and then abandon after a week or two? Whether it is learning how to play an instrument, finish a craft project, or learn a new language, it’s important to review your creative goals periodically during the year.
Since we just started the last quarter of the year, now is a good time to pull out those goals we set last winter, and focus on finishing up our projects.
I like to call these lists we make at the start of the year goals instead of resolutions, because most of us don’t keep resolutions very long. We abandon them quickly, often it is because they don’t reflect our true goals in life.
Also, goals can be broken down into steps. And they can be created anytime of the year! Resolutions were always hard for me because usually they would revolve around creating better eating habits, losing weight, etc. However, in my family there are 2 important birthdays, with chocolate cake involved, in January, so there’s little hope for me of starting a new diet on January 1!
My Goals in Life as We Head into Autumn
In an earlier post, I mentioned how I tried casting my doll into wax last year, but the recipe didn’t work for me. I’m working on refining the original pieces of both my 1/6 scale and 1/4 scale dolls.
It’s slow work. But I keep going a little each day while I can still get outside to sand before the weather turns too cold. However, sometimes it feels like I’m not making much progress, as I have other goals that jumped in front of finishing my dolls.
Casting a doll into resin in the future is still my #1 long term goal. Hopefully I will have a workable prototype finished by the end of the year.
Other things I’m working on:
Completing all of the dolls that I have started over the last 3 years
Making new miniature polymer dolls
Creating a diorama and accessories for my dolls
Drawing every day
I know! I’m really busy with all my hobbies!
Review Your New Year’s Resolutions
2022 will be over before you know it. But don’t let the last quarter of the year go to waist. Take some time to review your creative goals in life. Now is a great time review your list, and see what goals you can make and/or complete before the end of the year.
Maybe some of the goals you set in January are completed. That’s great! You can check them off.
Other goals might have been forgotten, or you lost interest in completing them. Now’s the time to remove them. If you want them to stay on your list, figure out how you can go about finishing them.
Deciding to Finish or Discard a project
When our craft area becomes filled with half finished projects, it is no longer an enjoyable place to create. But you paid good money for your supplies, and it is hard to get rid of them. It’s much easier to close the closet door and say, “Someday I’ll finish it”.
Make it a goal to finish all of the projects you have stared this year, or clear them from your space.
Is your computer filled with programs you don’t know how to use? On my own computer I now have Photoshop, Illustrator, Python and ZBrush. Of the four of those, I understand only Photoshop well.
My unfinished projects have moved with me from house to house. One of my goals in life is to finally finish these projects, or abandon them once and for all. They have moved their last move with me!
It’s really hard to let stuff go. I get it. In fact, my work space became unworkable because it was filled with stuff I’ll never finish. So I sorted everything into boxes, but some of the projects just had to go into a bag, and out to the trash.
One such project was a very intricate sweater. I’d finished the back and the sleeves, but ran out of several colors of yarn. I know I’ll never find yarn to match, and it’s not a style I like anymore. It was so, so hard stuffing it into the bag after I’d worked hard on it. But now it’s gone from my life and I have extra shelf space in my closet.
How Kids Help Us Learn New Skills
Sometimes it helps to have a teenager around, because by helping my son accomplish his goals in life, I learn things I wouldn’t attempt on my own. When he was younger, I volunteered in his school art class. It’s great to inspire our kids to make art when they are young. It can become a life long hobby, or maybe even a career.
One of his goals this past summer was learning to create his own comic. In addition to helping him learn to draw, in the last year, we learned to use Procreate on the iPad, and to draw on a Wacom tablet with Clip Studio Paint.
I am also becoming more confident learning other computer programs that intimidated me in the past. For example, he taught me some things about using Photoshop I didn’t know that he learned in a class at the high school. We started learning ZBrush together. I might try learning some Python or Unity someday.
In addition we take an afternoon break many days and play a little tennis, because sometimes you have to do things just for fun.
5 Steps to Set Goals in Life You Will Want to Finish
1. Make a List of all your unfinished projects.
Spend some time thinking about each project, and what satisfaction you gain completing it. Only keep the ones you still feel excited about. If you still have all of the pieces and the instructions, you can send the others to the thrift store. Otherwise, toss them into the trash.
Think about your why.
What was the original reason you started the project? Is it in line with your goals in life? I started to learn Rosetta Stone French so that I could communicate with my French friends on Facebook, travel to Paris, and hopefully take part in the Ldoll ball jointed show someday. And also because I’d taken a year of French in college.
But I know most people in France do speak some English and this festival seems to no longer exist, so I need to decide whether that is enough of a reward to spend the many hours to become more fluent.
Even though some hobbies don’t clutter up your home, they still need to be mentally discarded if you chose not to pursue them. Sometimes you have to give up on one hobby so you can focus your energy on what you really want. Once you know what that is.
2. Choose just one project to finish at a time
Once you discard all of the projects or hobbies that you are no longer interested in completing, pick one project and break the steps down into individual goals. We all spend so much of our time multi-tasking. Now the goal is to focus on one thing at a time.
For example, I had a box of my small polymer dolls that all needed outfits. It was overwhelming. When I opened that box, I would just say to myself, “Why did you create so many dolls, and not complete their outfits?” And feeling intimidated, I closed the box again, and placed it back on a shelf. Oh course, I knew the answer. My love of sculpting outweighs my love of sewing. However, a goal this fall is to finish those outfits.
3. Put it on your schedule
Next, schedule a time to work on your project. Put it onto your calendar. If it is something like learning a new computer program, or learning a language, you are going to be working on it for some time. However, an unfinished sewing project will be completed much faster.
4. Research if you need to
Besides reading books associated with your hobby or craft, find a forum or Facebook group. The books will help you stay motivated, and through the groups you meet people who share your interest. Generally, seeing others posting about what they are working on, or learning, will motivate you to work on your own hobby.
5. Share your work with the world
Lastly, post your work online. You can post on social media, a blog, or a forum. For my own accountability with my artwork, I’ll start posting more regularly in both Facebook and Instagram, and also Den of Angels.
What Goals in Life Would You Like to Complete?
Start thinking about your big goals for the rest of the year, and break them down into easy to accomplish steps. Maybe get out a piece of paper and make a list. Also think about what you want to let go of and clear out of your home physically, and out of your mind mentally. It will make space to finish those hobbies that truly reflect who you are, and your goals in life.
I’ve started clearing out my craft room, and sorting things into boxes. I create a list for each box so I will know exactly where to find things. My plan is that if at the end of the year, a box has not been opened, it’s time to move it down to the garage, and perhaps maybe to the thrift store.
So am I sticking with learning French? No, decidí aprender español en su lugar porque queremos visitar México. (No, I decided to learn Spanish instead because we want to visit Mexico.) I’m using Mango Languages through our local library. Sometimes we have to let a goal go so we can replace it with something more beneficial to our current life.
Also, my son is taking Japanese online at college this fall, and I’m starting to learn along with him since I’ve already learned the most common for the 3 Japanese alphabets — Hiragana!
If you’ve been looking at my photos on the blog, you’ve probably noticed that there is a lot of water in the background. There are some photo shoots at the beach too. That’s because we live on an island! And if you want to get back to nature, what better place to live? My home here even inspired the name of my blog, Fae Cottage.
Living on an island is not as cozy and lovely as it sounds. Well, sometimes it is, but other times we sit in a long ferry line of tourists to get home after a day of shopping. When we first moved here, the alarm rang at 4:30 in the morning so my husband could commute to his job in the city. (But thanks to two years of lock downs, he now just commutes to his office in the basement.)
Getting Back to Nature Right at Home
But other times it is so lovely, quiet, and peaceful, I wouldn’t want to live any place else. When I see people writing about how to get back to nature, I don’t have to read on. I already live in the middle of a forest. How much more back to nature can you get than that?
We never intended to move to an island. Our friends lived here though, and sometimes I would think as we were leaving to return to the city, “Wouldn’t it be nice to just live here?” They always say, be careful what you wish for…
Then one day when we’d had enough of sharing a driveway with not so nice neighbors, our friend from the island just happen to email us that there was a piece of property near them for sale. They thought we should look at.
So on Saturday, we drove up. The property they had seen wasn’t right at all, and neither was the next one, or the next one we looked at. But before we drove back to the ferry, we decided to look at one last place. We drove down a gravelly, winding, dead-end road. And before we even got out of the car I said to my husband, “This is it!”
The salal and the huckleberry were so thick, our real estate agent fell down several times showing us the property. My husband turned to me and said, “Are you sure you want to get this back to nature?”
I looked around. “Do you see any neighbor’s houses?”
“No,” he said.
“Then yes, I really do want to get this back to nature.” And actually, we have lovely neighbors here. We just don’t see much of them.
Not Everything is a Sign
I learned this the hard way. Sometimes things you think are signs, like our friend emailing us that day, are just a coincidence. But we have been happy here for almost 15 years. Also, we’re lucky to have amazing old growth forest state parks nearby. I love taking long walks there with my dog year round
We’re islanders now, who talk about how to avoid the longest ferry backups when going over to the mainland, and look forward to the end of tourist season so we can have our quaint village to ourselves again. The other day I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Slow down, this ain’t the mainland!”
These are the things I love about Living on an Island
I never worry whether I’ve forgotten and left the car or house unlocked.
Even though we have the best neighbors now, we can’t see any other houses from our property
The beach is just a 15 minutes drive away.
We hike trails and visit parks several times a week.
It’s so quiet and the air is really clean
People are truly nice here.
When I’m outside in my backyard, I have no neighbors looking over the fence to see what I’m doing. It’s weird to me now how noisy people in the suburbs are. And neighborhood gossip! Just, no.
I love the privacy of living in the forest. It would be hard to go back to a normal suburban neighborhood without feeling like I’m in a fish bowl. And even though I write a blog, I love being also to share only what I choose about my life. No one stops by my house unexpectedly either, which is nice.
Not much to do. We have one small movie theater in the village that gets movies a couple of months after they are released.
The schools are not the greatest, and it seems like the best teachers leave for more pay elsewhere.
Mostly it’s the ferry lines. They keep me from going to the mainland very often. It’ hard to get home again when people from the city are headed out to get “back to nature” near my backyard! But when I’m in the city, the drivers are so crazy! I can’t wait to get home again. I think I prefer ferry lines to freeway backups.
You’re Happiest Where You Make up Your Mind to Be
My mother used to say something like that to me when I would beg her to let me change schools. I hated it then, but I’ve come to realize she was right. Even though there are things that I miss about living in the city, such as:
I loved buying a latte and browsing the magazines on a rainy afternoon at Barnes and Noble.
Shopping for craft and sewing supplies at the fabric store.
Dining at a nice restaurant for lunch I haven’t been to before.
I miss Indian food.
Going anywhere without making it an all day trip.
We do think about moving somewhere else, and someday we might move far from here. But for now, I’m happy getting back to nature here in my own forest, and knowing that I can go to the beach if I want to.
All across the country last fall, parents woke up to the fact that schools would not be returning to normal. Were you like me, a mom looking forward to free afternoons to practice your favorite craft? I love to paint with watercolors, however, it’s something I don’t have a lot of time for.
Whether you have been home schooling this year, or you are a teenager, like my son who is being home schooled, I hope you remember to make creating art part of your lessons.
Below are some simple exercises to get yourself used to working with watercolors, without the intimidation that many of us feel at the idea of creating your first painting. I recommend you try some of these first, and then tackling that first painting will seem much more simple.
I think art is so important for children, especially teenagers. Yet, schools have for many years been cutting their art budgets, despite studies showing that creating art helps in so many other areas of study including the sciences and math.
One of the reasons we returned to home schooling was because my son’s high school replaced an experienced, respected art teacher with a less qualified instructor who had no training in teaching multiple levels at the same time, which left the more advanced students on their own for most of the class period.
So do not think you can’t teach art at home, even to a teenager, because you can probably do a better job than many schools out there.
And if you want to learn art on your own, whether it’s drawing, watercolor painting, or sculpting, now is the perfect time.
I’ll be posting more beginner tutorials to help you get started in the next few months!
Painting with watercolors isn’t that scary. You just need a plan and some supplies.
In coming up with our own art plan last year, I questioned my son about how the art teacher he had liked so well when he was attending the high school full time had organized his class. He said, “Primarily we did sketching, but we learned to paint with watercolors, and sculpt with water based clay”
So that’s what we do also. Except we use polymer clay since we don’t have an expensive kiln to fire things in. Oh, and some Copic Markers too, because we both love Manga and Anime!
Start with These Easy Watercolor Techniques
I’ve been drawing for over ten years, but it wasn’t until last year that I really started learning to paint with watercolors.
Even though I’d taken a color theory class with a local artist, and another class taught at my neighborhood library, the complexity of painting still scared me, as well as the fact that watercolors are not the most forgiving medium.
I decided to start simple, paint with a limited pallet, and learn one technique at a time.
Many beginning high school art classes begin teaching watercolor in the first semester, so don’t feel like you need to put off painting until you or your teen’s drawing skills reach a certain level. The main thing is not to feel overwhelmed learning too many new skills at once.
Teaching watercolor along with drawing will keep your interests higher! I love to draw, but when I’m working on a painting, I really start to feel like an artist.
So whether you’ve always wanted to learn to paint with watercolors, or you will be homeschooling a teenager this coming year, and want to teach them traditional art methods, start simple like I did, and remind yourself that mistakes are part of learning. To discover what you need to get started, download my Beginner Watercolor Supply Shopping List.
3 Books to Help you Learn or Teach Basic Watercolor Techniques – Check Your Library for Lots More
The first book I purchased when I started learning to paint with watercolors was this one: “Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner”, by Mark and Mary Willenbrink.
While I didn’t exactly do any of the step-by-step paintings, I did learn a lot about different washes. A watercolor wash is one of the basic watercolor techniques beginners learn. Diluted paint is applied to a large area of the painting either as a flat or variegated wash to achieve a smooth result. It’s often used for backgrounds or skies.
This book also teaches how to add texture with salt, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil to make an impression in the paint.
Next, I checked out a book from the library, “Painting Watercolor Trees” by Terry Harrison. When one lives in the forest, painting trees seems a must! Recently, I purchased another of Terry Harrisonbooks – this one is entitled, “Painting Sea and Sky.
But what I love to paint most is portraits. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any books to recommend. The best ones I found were for acrylic paints. However, I have watched some YouTube and Instagram videos. Mostly I’ve learned by trial and error, and lots of practice.
If you want to get good at something, try to practice it everyday.
Paint with watercolors Must Have Items
1. Paper
Watercolor paper comes in various weights and textures. Paper that is at least 140lb holds up better through layers of washes and blending.
Another choice to make is whether to use coldpress or hotpress paper. Coldpress paper has a rougher texture, and is more forgiving of mistakes, and easier to blend when you are just learning. Hotpress has a smooth texture. Some painters can achieve an almost photo-like effect with it. There is also Rough, which has the most texture.
2. Brushes
I have a lot of brushes because the books I first read on watercolor painting told me I needed them. But I mostly only use a few regularly. For example on a portrait I recently painted I only used a round 2, round 4, and a 0 quill mop brush. For most all of my paintings I wet the paper at the beginning with a 3” flat brush. Some people insist that animal hair brushes are better, such as sable and squirrel. While I’m not a card carrying member of Peta, I don’t think animals should be killed when synthetic products can be used instead with almost similar quality.
3. Paint
There are two grades of watercolor paint, student and artist. The difference between the two is the artist grade has more pigmentation, and the colors are more vibrant. Also, professional grade are just easier to control. They are a bit pricier but it’s due to using professional grade materials. A bright spot is that a tube of watercolor paint lasts a long time.
If you’re looking for something more inexpensive, Windsor & Newton has a student grade line called Cotman. You can get a set of 12 for around $30, and sometimes find them ½ off with a coupon.
It’s fine to start with as little as 6 colors: 3 primary warm colors, and 3 primary cool colors. If you want to paint skin tones you will also need burnt sienna.
For a complete list of materials to get started with, check out my Beginner Watercolor Supply Shopping List which you can download, and take with you to the art store, or when shopping online. Check off supplies as you add them.
These are the basic colors you need to start painting with watercolors:
Primary colors, red, yellow, blue – in both warm and cool tones
AND if you have a bit more money to spend:
Warm and cool greens
Two browns
What do I mean by warm and cool color, you might be wondering. As one artist said, it’s all relative. Cool tones have more blue undertones, warms have more yellow-red undertones. So for example, with the color red, Cadmium red is more orangey, and Alizarian Crimson more blueish.
One more thing I want to mention before we move on to talking about the rest of the supplies is color mixing. Color mixing is a whole talent unto itself. It takes a lot of experience to mix the same color multiple times. Or to know which red and blue make the shade of purple you are looking for. But there are lots of books and online guides to color mixing!
4. Other supplies
Aside from these, you will need a pallet, watercolor tape, paper towels or Kleenex, brush cleaner, and a jar to hold your brush rinsing water.
This will get you started, and if you’re like me, you’ll continue adding more colors over time. Watercolor paint lasts a long time. Some of my paints are over 10 years old. They had all dried out in their tubes when I decided to paint with watercolors again. But I cut open the tubes, re-hydrated the paints, and they still work just fine.
I love to paint with watercolors! It’s fun and challenging, and if you are wanting to learn yourself, or as part of a home schooling art curriculum, now is the best time.
Making art together has really created a close bond between my son and me. Don’t let hesitations stand in your way, or fear, otherwise you could end up looking back ten years from now wondering why you didn’t start sooner. Remember, just start simple, paint with a limited pallet at first, and explore one technique at a time.
Also, if you are not ready to paint your own sketches, you can use coloring pages which many online artists have been offering for free. As they say, there is no time like the present.
