Daily Diary

Daily art project update from one month of practice

I started my daily project on January 6th so I’ve been doing it for about a month. I’m still enjoying it and I’m glad I found something that is both quick to do and also interesting enough to explore derivatives and to keep me engaged. I am working with three different processes here, and the way they combine.

1. A wet in wet watercolor wash that can be loose and expressive. I’m enjoying watching pigments spread and separate and love the challenge of complimentary colors. Winter loves skies and clouds that go from gold to violet. My next exploration might be to step away from reality and document more about how I feel. Sometimes I try to focus on mixing accurate colors, but I’d love to get more inventive there too and think more about the colors I remember or feel vs. the colors I observe. In my nature journal pages, sometimes I will include how I feel in the metadata, and I want to spend more time developing the concept of nature journaling ourselves. To me that doesn’t necessarily mean drawing myself, but including more of my emotions and feelings into my sketches because we aren’t completely passive observers. These watercolor washes can be a combination of my inner and outer worlds. The theme I pick is often based on the world around me, but weather and color is changeable and what I pick is influenced by my emotions.

2. A contour drawing with pen. These also tend to be loose and expressive, but they take more time and kinesthetic work than a watercolor wash, which I find meditative. I like drawing the textures of things and exploring the somewhat abstract shapes of trees. I enjoy the challenge I set for myself that each of these is one continuous line. For me this process is less about reflecting on my emotions and more about slowing down and leaning into the present moment.

3. Writing a sentence or two and the date. I actually forgot to include this in my first draft, but realized my oversight. On each of my pages I usually start with writing the date and a sentence about what I am thinking or trying to capture. This started out often by describing the weather or what I was drawing, but I think there is room to explore and to go other places. I included my page from today, which doesn’t have a pen drawing yet so you can see the work in progress.

4. Steps 1-3 and how they relate. This is the fun part. I love each part of the process but the how the whole thing ends up is the best part. It often makes sense to have the watercolor be a background and the line explore an element of the foreground. This makes them feel quite landscapey, and often they are. I am happy when each part addresses two separate but related subjects and when the drawing, the writing, and the color have a conversation with each other and match up, but not too closely.

5. Mistakes. The best part of having a daily art practice is that I can create failures which is how I feel about my firework attempt above. Space for experimentation and creating something that is decidedly not what I was trying to make is a part of the process.