Happy New Year everyone! I cannot believe that time has flown by so quickly. It feels like we just left for winter break, so it’s crazy to think that we’ll be back on campus in one week! 

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been spending some much-needed time with my family and focusing on some of my hobbies outside of school. I love to read, so I have been reading a lot, and I’m excited to crack into the books I got for Christmas. I have also been spending some time in my art class, which I’ve been taking since I was in grade school. For my most recent project, I am painting a wintery landscape with watercolors, which I don’t normally use that often. I thought it was time to challenge myself, since I haven’t really worked with this medium in a while. Here are some of my progress photos and thoughts as I have progressed in this project.

This was the very first progress photo I took after I started my painting. My class is only an hour long every Tuesday night, so I’ve been chipping away at it little by little every week. I started with a light blue wash all over the paper to help with unity and the overall mood of the piece. Then, I began to add the colors that would reflect off the snow on the ground, as well as outline the shape of the stream in the foreground.

At first, the colors looked a bit muddy to me, but I figured that as I added more colors and detail, they would pop more and not look out of place.

This was my second class working on this watercolor painting, and I began to add in the water and shadows into the foreground. I also blocked in the colors for the (eventual) forestry background. One of my favorite parts of this progress check is the stream because I really enjoyed trying to make it looks as realistic as possible while also still maintaining that watercolor vibe.

I was definitely happier with the added details in this progress check than in the last one. Adding more details and shadows made the original colors not look so dull, and I can see this piece coming together very nicely.

This is my most recent progress photo for this project. During this class session, I wanted to finish up the color blocking on the background and add in the main focal point of the barren tree. Eventually, I would like to add a bit more detail into the background to give it a more tree-like feel as they kind of just look like blobs at the moment. I will also be adding some more small branches to the tree and more bushes and foliage to the foreground and background, but that will probably be done with ink pens or a very fine watercolor brush.

Overall, I am very pleased with how it is coming along, and I can’t wait to see what it will look like when I finish it.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and New Year, and I can’t wait to see everyone back on campus on Monday!

– Cecelia