Posted: May 26, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized
I don’t have a lilac bush (yet) in my garden but my neighbour does. I think this is the perfect week for lilac blooms, so I asked permission to cut a few stalks so that I could sketch them. But I hadn’t sketched in over a week, and it’s always hard to get started after a break. Here are a few tips that help me when I am feeling a bit rusty. Maybe these can help you too.
1: I clean my workspace. If the surface of my drawing table is clean then my head is clear too and I’m ready for a fresh start.
2: My palettes are freshly filled and the mixing wells are clean AND my brushes are clean and organized. I try to do that when I finish a painting session so that I’m ready for the next time.
3: I have pre-cut sheets of paper. Since I buy full sheets of watercolour paper but work on 1/2 or 1/4 sheets, it really helps to have a pile of paper that I can just grab when I am ready to paint. I spent several hours on a recent rainy weekend cutting up paper. I had full sheets of Arches Rough and CP, Fabriano, Strathmore Gemini and Saunders Waterford in a drawer but now they are all cut, stacked and labelled in my print drawers. Ready for studio or outdoor work.
4: I set time aside at the beginning of the day. If I don’t do that, other chores take over. But if I plan on one hour that is just for me, I can usually get something done. And I have to admit that if I get an hour of painting in first, the chores that I do have to do (like weeding my garden) are so much less onerous.
Anyway, I hope you get a bit of time to paint today too! I’m off to weed now!!
