I was inspired to create this piece in February, but it took me a full month and a half to even attempt to try painting it! I tend to get in my head when I see things that inspire me to paint, telling myself it’s too hard, I’m not good enough to even try it, and I’ll waste my time and materials by even attempting it. I’m getting better about it, but it’s still a voice in my head that needs major work to silence it!
Title: Soar
Size: 8×10, framed with a mat
Medium: Watercolor and ink
Inspired by: In February of this year I flew to Texas to go visit my best friend and her family. It was my first time travelling by myself, and my anxiety was pretty high that entire trip down. As the day passed, I got more weary of flying and feeling anxious and I was feeling pretty done with it all. When the plane got closer to Dallas, the sun was setting and the way the dark earth contrasted with the sun rays was just magical! I knew I’d have to get a picture and recreate this later as a painting, and here she is!
Favorite part: I love how the yellow in the sky from the sun doesn’t turn green when it meets the blue (really hard to do, at least for me). I love the way the clouds turned out, too.
Least favorite part: There is one cloud that bothers me, but honestly, with how challenging the clouds were to paint, I’m surprised more of them aren’t driving me mad!
Challenging parts: The clouds, hands down. I painted the dark background first and added the white watercolor/ink on top. The problem with that is, is that when the white is wet, it’s partially invisible. I have no way of knowing what exactly it looks like until it’s fully dry. Think of it like invisible ink: you can’t really see it when you write with it, but as you make it visible, it appears over time. It makes it hard to know that what you’re painting is actually going to look like a cloud and not some random white blob!
Product availability: The original is available here in my Etsy shop, prints will be coming soon!
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