Day 8 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Watercolor & Ink on Canson, 140 lb, 6×6

This is another copy of a painting I found on Instagram. When having doubts about whether or not I should copy other people’s work, someone brought up a valid point. When I was learning to play piano, did I start off from the beginning composing my own music? Or did I first learn to play what others had written? That’s all I’m doing here. Why am I telling you this? Because it still seems a little weird to me.

You may find the original painting here. Her colors are much bolder than mine. That may have to do with the quality of the paints, but I have a feeling it’s more about her superiority as an artist. My purpose was not to make an exact replication, but simply to practice further with the sketching technique, using her painting as a model. I’ve chosen several others that I wish to imitate as well. For as long as I can remember, no matter what my medium, I have always used a realistic approach to painting and drawing. But that isn’t working for me in watercolor, so I’m turning toward line-drawing and sketching. It’s more akin to painting in a coloring book, only I’m also the one creating the line drawing. (Not knocking adult coloring books. I have a couple of my own.)

The bold lines were done with an oil-based Sharpie paint pen, while the fine lines were drawn with the 0.3 Micron pen. I have not mentioned it before, but my watercolor pencils are General’s Kimberly brand, and for this project I used the following colors:

• 708 Orange
• 710 Pink
• 716 Heliotrope
• 711 Yellow
• 707 Green
• 714 Light Green

My paper measures 9×12, but I wanted to work with 6×6 pieces. This left me with two 3×6 pieces when I trimmed it down, so I decided that for every 6×6 painting, I’ll make a matching 3×6 bookmark.

6″ x 6″ card with a matching 3″ x 6″ bookmark

As I did yesterday, I’d like to include a short poem to go along with the painting.

Tonight’s poem is based upon Job 14:1-2,

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.

Like Flowers and Shadows

God grant in full the threescore years and ten,
And add to that another score again,
Yet sum the days: they’re only but a few—
A breath of air, a misty morning dew.
Like flowers and shadows, so our days must fade,
Our bodies come to rest in earthy shade.
But oh, our souls, now longing to be free
Will in that day rise to eternity!

Copyright © 2018 Angela Umphers Rueger – All Rights Reserved

If you are interested in joining the challenge, you can sign up at Leslie Saeta’s 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge and then post and/or view the other entries at the linkup.