Hi everyone! I hope you had a great holiday. The past couple of weeks were busy with family travel, but I made time to work on the watercolor painting I mentioned in my last post. Luckily, I finished it before Christmas, so it could be a gift for my dad. If you missed my last post, here’s where I left off, along with my reference photo.

I lost motivation to finish because I wasn’t sure I’d be happy with the results. Over the break, though, I pushed myself to paint more, starting with unfinished work. This was my first time painting people in watercolor, so everything was experimental. I tried to paint what I saw without worrying if it matched right away. Knowing what my dad looks like made it harder not to fix things too soon, but I reminded myself to trust the process.

I filmed short clips of the process over two days to document my progress. Being able to step back after long sessions and assess the piece as a whole was helpful. If something wasn’t working or didn’t make sense, I could notice it and move on to a different section, instead of overworking the same area. There were still times I made some iffy choices, but the videos definitely helped. If you want to see the progress videos, my TikTok is @jenna0kbye. Don’t worry, I’ll show you the final product below, too.

Here it is! I’m proud of how it turned out! There are a couple of things I would do differently next time, but I’m glad I finished. I actually like the imperfections—they add nostalgia that suits the piece. I can’t wait to start new projects and will share updates soon! Stay creative 🙂

-Jenna