30 days of June - 30 mini direct gouaches - they all are scanned and you can view them in one folder here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23173190@N07/albums/72157668966517847

you can read more about this challenge in my previous post here:
https://blog.apple-pine.com/2018/07/30x30-direct-watercolor-challenge-at.html

So - 20 Brushstrokes or less!
My rules (for myself) were:
1. No drawing under the paint;
2. One brushstroke continues as long as brush does not leave paper.

Things that helped me make this happen:
1. Having a list of things I want to paint (for the days when I was not sure).
2. Having all tools packed and ready to paint (which means clean and replenish them after each painting session).

3. Having a border around the image (made with artist's tape) and using it to move around the painting without lifting the brush.

4. Loading brush with several colors to create special color effects or just paint with both colors on a same brushstroke;
5. Planning my colors to have certain colors showing through the cracks in others.

Things I learned:
1. I love using wet gouache to start the painting and should do it more often.
2. Limiting myself so much made me think about technicalities more and I lost some of the freshness at some point because I was more concerned about the number of brushstrokes - so having some constraint is great but leaving room to wiggle is important too.
3. I am now better at looking for and painting negative shapes.
4. Mixing enough paint is important (I knew it before but now it's a MUST :)
5. After a month of this game I missed most a chance to place separate, singular brushstrokes!
6. Apparently there are way fewer opportunities to paint landscapes in my life without special planning - so I should get out more (I thought that I would be mostly painting landscapes all month but it was a rather crazy time and I ended up mostly with stuff on my table :)

Will I do it again? DEFINITELY!

30x30 direct watercolor challenge - at a glance!

In the month of June I participated in a The Thirty by Thirty (30×30) Direct Watercolor Marathon. It was organized by Montreal artist, Marc Taro Holmes and the goal was to do more painting and use daily practice to get better at something. As I am working hard on my gouache skills I decided to adjust rules and did a month of direct gouache paintings and I wanted to try and use minimum number of brushstrokes (twenty or less). It was an interesting month and I am scanning all the images and will write more about things that challenged me, things I failed at, and things I learned (actually it's more or less the same list ;) But for now - here is a glance at my instagram feed with a #20brushstrokes hashtag.