A Perfect Day of Fish and Abstract

Today was perfect. 

Life for the past year or so has been as close to perfect as reasonably possible, but most days have a niggle or two, even if only in the form of house chores; today did have chores, but they felt good because I was all alone, entirely peaceful and in no hurry. 

What, other than peace of mind and inspiration, makes a day perfect? Soft winter lighting, a cat napping next to me, some relaxing piano in the background, and managing to finish at least one watercolor thing I'm pleased with. 

Here's my safe space:

We'll start with the best:

Charlie confiscated my chair and went to sleep on it, but was receptive to the occasional cuddle and did purr at me galore.

My first attempt at painting abstract, following the current book's instructions, failed; what do you mean 'paint a design of random shapes'? This is what I got the book for, woman! If I knew how to come up with pretty designs made of random shapes I wouldn't need to learn this... 

Right, so, out of 12, more than half looked like a hot mess so I cut them off the page and stuck them in my practice book in the shape of the pile of rubbish they are:

While the ones I liked - and I can't analyze what makes them better - I glued at the top of the page, neatly arranged:

Then I thought maybe it's best to skip the 'invent random shapes' and go with what the book calls 'abstract scenery'. Combined a few tutorials from the book to make this, then used it to progress with the current practice book spread, which is sea-themed. And I rather like it! It's not too sucky, so I consider it my first decent abstract.

So about the practice book spreads. Before this obsession with watercolor I had a brief obsession with scrapbooking; and while all the glittery stickers are currently in the drawer, I sort of made the watercolor practice book into a 'scrapbooky' thing, because I don't just stick the paintings in it, but vaguely arrange the pieces by topics on separate spreads, and then paint things to complete the spread and make it look nice. So if there was a rustic lantern tutorial from Dream and Draw, and a mountain cottage painted for practice, and a loose potted plant to finish the paint on the palette...

...Then I can give it a title and use the rest of the palette's paint on it, then spend two weeks trying to think what fits with that page...

It ended up with that pinecone decoration, the birds and the shelf, and - my favourite - painting worn wood, and I have no idea why I liked it so much. 

Anyway, the current one is sea-themed, because Dream and Draw had a tutorial for a coral, and I painted a crab with the same technique; and Negin Armon had this beautiful abstract sea scene, which used about half my tube of tippex because I messed it up so badly; so clearly some sea-things needed to happen.

Here's what I have so far; the sun piece and the fish are what I did today.

Things that excite me, #01: I'm making pieces specifically for the spread, meaning the composition of those rocks with the starfish on them was tailored to fill the space there in what I hope is an interesting way. I'm also proud of that painting - it's entirely my own, composed from a few underwater photos with some good practicing of shapes in space and what Dream and Draw teaches; I think my art school teachers would approve. 

Things that excite me, #02: I was painting the inevitable fish - from photo reference - and got stuck. I knew what I'd painted didn't look finished, but I had no idea what details I should add or how to make it better. So I took a photo of what I had, fed it to AI and asked Nano Banana to 'add detail and improve it'. This is the third time I do this - there was the white flower and the Fords of Bruinen - but this time I actually used the feedback to successfully finish my painting - look!

And I learnt so much! Like, the glossy strip on the back, or the delicate details of the fins; the fold under the eye or how to paint a fish eye to begin with, with a fineliner circle around the white, to make it pop; that the scales grow smaller the closer they get to the tail, and that they can be shaded with a drop of pure pigment where they emerge under another scale. For some reason, I couldn't deduce any of this when I looked at the reference photos; it's as if I freeze with the abundance of visual detail. I'd like to learn to reduce that detail in my mind, rather than have to ask AI to show me, but it showing me and me taking notes is a good way to learn when there's no teacher around to ask. 

The fish palette was this:

It's been a while since I got that Coral Reef tube from Daniel Smith; I was in love with it in the shop, but then it arrived and looked like weird flesh, and it has white in it - I should have known - so it's not as transparent as I like my paints to be - but, I mean, I was painting a sea-themed spread, it had to be used there. Though right now it's only on the fish.

It's not entirely clear to me how to finish this spread; I know I don't like the swatches above the abstract sun piece and will prolly paint something different instead. It'll also be good to come up with a title which is not the 'Under The Sea' cliche, but not as elusive as 'drowning - the locals approve', which made me laugh and I enjoyed painting, but will likely be misunderstood, or just missed, by anyone seeing it. And I still need to visually connect and frame the page on the left...

This is both frustrating and somehow inspiring. It drives me, I find; the need to complete, to finish. In this time in my life, where I do things almost entirely for leisure, this is not a bad thing. 

If I thought there was a greater, intelligent force out there, I'd be thanking it every day for this; for the love, the cat, the inspiration, the peace, the... the lack of... daily negative influence from a person I can't escape. It's so... alien. And wonderful. Whoever, whatever is not out there: thank you.