Skills Do Crossover and Practice Does Lead To Improvement

I have made a commitment to myself to draw for 30 minutes each day. My goal is to draw with intention, so that I can eventually sketch live subjects from life, not pictures. I don't know if I will get there or, if I do, how long it will take. At the same time, I have to find a way to fit acrylic painting back in my life, because I miss it so. How this will work with a busy life in gardening season, I am not completely sure. One of my goals, post-drawing class, is to figure it out. The first priority each and every day is to draw.

My current strategy for getting in more painting time is to paint smaller and to also use simpler items. That should make it easier to pick up a paint brush more frequently each week. I also need to be realistic and remember that priming surfaces with gesso, finding things or images to paint, and drawing prior to picking up a brush all support my painting practice. When work is less busy, I have more time to paint and frequently will carve out time to finish a painting in one sitting. That's not the present situation and carving out 30 minutes either in preparation of painting or actual painting several times a week is worthy and good.

Enough of that.

I did take time to paint today. This is a 5" x 5" painting.

It was a wonderful experience. Mostly because I felt in control and was in a better place about seeing shapes and values, making decisions about what I wanted to do, and executing that. With seeing, I feel like slowly this bigger more interesting world is unveiling itself before my eyes.

I also feel like I'm seeing a payoff from the drawing class and spending the last month trying to soak up the content from the class and also drawing from 3D subjects. The idea of the shapes created by the changes in values makes more sense to me.  I shouldn't be surprised by how much I think the crossover from drawing to painting went, but I am!

In this painting, I like the shapes and the values of the colors that support and define the shape. It captures the actual pepper pretty well. Although, this painting is on the darker side so was the pepper, plus it still works from across the room. The one thing that I'd like to improve upon is slowing down and taking more care with painting the highlights.