Getting out of a slump

Long time no motivational art blogging! Actually, this time I'm going off on a bit of a tangent, but it's all applicable to anything and everything that you might be working on a lot at any given time, plus it's a quick read so ho hum. ;)

Today hasn’t been great, I’ve been a bit off-colour in the art department (’scuse the pun) and things have been feeling a bit iffy with my webite, shop and general social media stuff, like I know there’s more I could do, and that I could do it all better, but something is holding me back. The thing is I’ve had this sort of crises with my work so often that I know it always inevitably precedes a kind of leap of progress, so I’m not getting too worked up about it (it also helps that one of my favourite video bloggers, Lachri Fine Art, mentioned having a similar sort of revelation with her work: a slump generally proceeds a big improvement). That’s not what inspired this blog post though, funnily enough – but it does involve the exact same thought/panic/revelation process as art!

See, it’s actually dog sports I wanted to talk about. My dog is fantastic, as I’ve mentioned many times before, she’s all you could wish for in a sports companion: endless motivation, enthusiasm, very fast and agile, is willing to work for toys and treats alike… So colour me surprised when every now and again (not frequently, thank goodness!) we have a really terrible training session.

Tonight it was frisbee. Freija girl LOVES those disks to bits, and usually I have no trouble getting her to at least attempt a catch (we’re not great at flying catches yet, not least because I am completely useless at throwing what is essentially a rubber pancake in such a way that it’ll fly smoothly). That was not the case this time, she wouldn’t go for the disks till they simply dropped in front of her to pick up. We wrapped up the training session fairly quickly when I realised things weren’t going to work, and left the little football pitch we practice on in a decidedly frustrated mood.

As a dog owner it can be difficult to hide that frustration, especially if it’s aimed at yourself (“why can’t I get this throw right?” “why am I not giving commands clearly enough?” etc.). What I try to do is take a deep breath, pause the training for a few minutes and figure out what’s going wrong while giving girly girl a chance to sniff around for a moment. If it seems like she’s too excited to focus on catching practice, I’ll let her chase a couple of rollers (where you throw the disk on it’s edge so it rolls instead of flying) and end the training there. If it seems like she’s getting irritated at not getting the catch right and receiving no praise, I’ll have her do a trick she knows and end the session on a happy note. And if it’s simply me being rubbish at throwing, I’ll go and practice that throw without Freija so I can get it right for her next time.

When we practice anything, whether it’s painting, crochet or even doggy tricks, there will be moments when it feels like we’re up against a brick wall. The first time (who am I kidding, the first ten times) this happens, we’ll get annoyed or even angry at ourselves for not being able to overcome the obstacle. That is not going to solve the problem – you have to make yourself take a step back, take a deep breath, and work out what’s going wrong. This can take a minute, a day, or several weeks, but you’ve got to let yourself get over that frustration and really focus on what you can fix in order to get better, and once you do you’ll soon forget that you had to go through that process in order to progress. That’s why I’ve written this post, as a little reminder that you’re capable of improving in whatever you’re working towards, as long as you give yourself a fair chance. :)

Finding the right kind of paint

I have a confession to make: painting was my least favourite part of making art up till late spring in 2014. I know, I know, how on earth did I survive art school without enjoying painting? It’s a real mystery, somehow the actual painting courses just whizzed by without me really noticing at all. In fact, considering I got into that school with an entrance exam that included me accidentally tipping water all over my nearly finished watercolour piece, effectively ruining it, I reckon I did quite well to pass any courses at all.

Over the years I’ve tried lots of different mediums, starting from kid’s poster paint to really rather professional oils. For years and years I struggled with watercolours, which I had convinced myself ruined all my work, since nothing turned out how I’d have liked. In art school I took up acrylics, and used them for everything imaginable – painting on canvas, wood, even handmade fimo pendants. Somehow I left that particular medium there and haven’t picked up my once-cherished plastic paints since. At school we slaved away with oils, starting from the gesso base on our handmade canvases, to the layers upon layers of colour applied with palette knives and all manner of non-brushy equipment which was simultaneously exciting and tedious. If there’s one thing I absolutely hate, it’s working on a painting for more than about a week – I get bored of looking at it and loose all motivation the longer it takes to complete. I gradually settled into working solely on my tablet in photoshop – no mess, I could pick it up where and when I liked, and it was heaps faster with no waiting for each layer to dry.

"Lewes Corgis", one of my first Scenic Dogs illustrations in watercolour.

So what changed? In early 2014 I was still sticking to my digital art like glue. Still, it did feel a bit odd not having anything physical to show for my hard work, after all no originals existed, if I wanted to display my art it had to be printed. I was longing for something tangible. I’d taken up crochet and it was SO fulfilling, and through that I sort of began to think about getting back into traditional art and painting. The watercolour set from before art school was still sitting in a cupboard, so I grabbed a brush and started experimenting. Turns out, after all that time, I just needed to WANT to paint, and the results were wonderful. It took effort, but since I had the motivation to keep at it, I was finally pleased with my painted work. Inspired by the first few successes, I took on a series of dog illustrations now known as Scenic Dogs, and haven’t looked back since – it’s all about the painting now! ;)

"Canis Major come out to play", one of my recent gouache paintings.

Recently I have of course been learning to use gouaches as well. I find they’re a happy middle ground between my usual watercolours (gouache is a type of watercolour, of course) and the acrylics I was so fond of in art school. They’re opaque but can be watered down well, and mix nicely. I adore the chalky matte effect the produce when dry, and I like that I can combine them with watercolours without fear of paint crumbling off or other mishaps later down the line (like mixing oils with acrylics had taught me).

So that’s how I discovered my favourite kind of paint! Brands are of course another matter all on their own (my rule of thumb is to stick with Winsor & Newton or Daler-Rowney when possible, but others can be good too). :)