I seriously can’t believe I’ve been painting daily for 12 weeks. Even more, I’ve finished 75 paintings in 79 days. It all started with a 30 day challenge and grew from there. Before this challenge I hadn’t ever even used gouache. I barely knew what it was. Thick watercolor? And then I started using it. After a few tries I started to get the hang of it and now I’m thoroughly obsessed.

By no means does this mean that I’m giving up oil painting. I have plans to join in on a 30 day challenge this September. I’m a little nervous about it though. I haven’t touched my oil paint in a few months and I have oil painting built up in my mind as somehow more time consuming than my little gouache paintings. But to be perfectly honest, I probably spend the same amount of time on these later gouache paintings that I would on an oil painting. The only difference is that there is less down time while oil painting because I’m not waiting for anything to dry.

Once I’m finally finished with this challenge, I want to do a video of some sort where I flip through my sketchbooks. At this point some of the paintings have been cut out and sold, but there is a pretty obvious progression in skill still evident. Looking back at some of the earliest days I can clearly see where I could have done better. I’m tempted to go back and repaint several of my subjects to improve on them and to just paint them larger.

My original sketchbook has small 4×6 pages and it was very difficult to capture the tiny details of my subjects. I’m really enjoying my current sketchbook which is 6×9, but I could still go larger. I’m glad I started small, but now that I’m comfortable with the medium, I feel constricted by the small size of my sketchbook. I’m ready to create larger artwork.

Painting larger would mean my work isn’t as portable though. Having a little sketchbook to carry around means I can take it practically anywhere. I’ve really grown fond of taking it to the pool and sketching while my kids swim. I’ve even taken it camping. I haven’t actually painted in it outside my house, but I have a new love of sketching and I sketch out future paintings while I’m out of the house. Having completed sketches ready to be painted really saves me time when I finally do sit down to paint. Separating the sketch and the paint means that I spend more time on the sketch and do a better job of making a really accurate sketch before I start painting.

Follow me on Instagram where I post daily paintings and works in progress. I typically post a finished painting each day, but if I don’t manage to finish one that day I’ll post my current progress. These painting are also for sale. Contact me for availability and price. If you would like to commission a portrait of your pet, I’m running dangerously low on my own animal photos and would love to paint your pet. Email me at amber.honour@burntumberarts.com and we can discuss details.

See you all next week! 🙂