Painting – A Reawakening

It has been years since I finished a painting for myself. I’ve made small, random pieces for friends and family. Mostly nerdy things like Pokémon or comic book stuff. Don’t get me wrong, they’re enjoyable to paint and the happiness they give makes it worth it.

They weren’t for me though. I had no inclination to paint them outside a request or gift idea. There was no magic in their making or the sweet indescribable feeling one gets when creating for the sake of creation.

After some much needed encouragement from my fiancé and many of you amazing followers, I painted tonight. Not for an Etsy commission, not for a gift to anyone, just for me. Just because the image in my head was one I wanted to see in real life.

I scrambled to get my painting gear together and hauled up to the office. It’s all nicely organized (the first major indicator that they don’t get enough love, I mean what painter is organized?). I poured a glass of moscato and some jelly beans onto a plate, donned my headset playing some of my favorite music (The Jabberwocky by Erutan to start with), and started.

I could not for the life of me decide what to make. Cottage in the woods? Eh, not feeling like trying to draw perspective lines. Geeky tribute, too much self-inflicted pressure to meet fandom expectations (for those unfamiliar with the word Fandom – it refers to the fans of particular fantasy, sci-if, or generally geeky media like Harry Potter or Dr. Who). Just woods? Ok, yes that sounds pleasant and doable!

I fished out my browns and greens from the buckets of paint and got started! It turns out that after two or so years of neglect, acrylic paint starts to turn into colorful gelatin rather than a nice creamy consistency. Thankfully mixing water remedied the situation well enough!

I have two brands of paint I used and found out that I have the exact same shade of brown with different names! Very neat but made creating trees of different colors difficult.

I decided to stick with a very abstract idea and build from that. I was thinking a forest with trees overlapping one another of all different species. Nothing like this would survive in real life and I liked the idea of making something a little unrealistic.

I really actually loved this stage of the painting. It reminds me of a log cabin with all the colors and lines or of a wood staining project done with varying shades. I wanted to add some greens in though to make the illusion of a forest more apparent.

I also wanted to add fairies in and forest orbs. I’m not very skilled at orbs yet with the whole transparent and only just visible but catching enough to draw attention aspect. I’m going to try to capture that look more in future paintings. I wanted to stay simple tonight.

Upon opening my white paint though I was sad to see it had seen its last days long before tonight. I’ll admit I used it well but I was sad to see the last bits were unobtainable. Goodbye sweet white stallion of paints. I have also never painted with long nails (I usually break them but somehow haven’t yet! Knock on wood). I didn’t realize how grubby my nails would get!

I settled for yellow and a sparkling blue color for my fairies. They look more like fireflies but I suppose the effect is the same! I couldn’t get my yellow to stay opaque without doing 5-6 layers. The best part though was using my favorite brush! It’s itsy bitsy!

I added in the final touches, making sure the little fairies were shining and bright and that no white from the canvas was visible. When it was all said and done here was the final result!!

It’s really simple but I had a fantastic time painting it and fell in love with the design after I finished it. Taking it slow and easy as I dive into the more hands-on artistic side of myself again. ❤️

Thanks to everyone who is encouraging me and for reading my post!!

Have you tried anything new or out of the ordinary lately? Do you enjoy any hobbies? I’d love to hear all about it below!