What I’ve been up to in the past week

Sitting. So much sitting.

3 watercolor sketchbooks I work in. Sizes: 5.5”x8.5”, 7”x10”, & 9”x12”. All 140lb/300gsm and all by Canson.

I did go on a hike that ended up being an adventure and I’m lucky to be even mentioning it now. But before I write about it, I still need to think about it and process it for the rest of my life.

While sitting.

I remember in 2011 when I tried to create paintings without sitting. So I painted them standing up, in the dark, in the air with flashlights. They were light paintings. I used a camera with a long shutter exposure to create the images, so they’re not Photoshopped, and have barely any editing other than tiny improvements like the contrast.

Definitely not much sitting.

The light paintings took me several tries. I was outdoors trying to create them for hours at a time. I’d still be doing this if only there were 72 hours in a day/night.

One of the light paintings I created in Chicago, IL titled “Electric Composition.” This was at Belmont Harbor in 2011. The fence was already there - it was white, I lit up the fence with purple light, then painted the music notes with a flashlight, and they play “Row Row Row Your Boat”

Recently, I’ve been sitting and thinking because I’ve been setting rules for my next watercolor & ink paintings. Setting rules instead of sketching them out, just like the process I shared last week about the videos I improvise. The good news is:

I don’t know how to count.

I thought I came up with 10 ideas to paint but I actually came up with 15.

Then I set some more rules about how I want to paint them. Again, all while sitting.

I’m finally now I’m at the point where I can just like, wow, just start drawing and painting them …while sitting?

Instead, I paused and thought about the patterns I’ve noticed in my life. While sitting.

My art studio in March 2022

It’s so easy to just start painting like I always have. But what if this time, I upgrade from sitting to standing?

I’ve done some paintings standing at a watercolor easel in the last couple of years and they turned out very well. Took some practice and the use of muscles I didn’t know could be sore.

From my livestream, while I was painting “Weather, Don’t Play, It Reigns.”

And I’ve been collecting a new easel, painting palette, paintbrush holder, and other things to make this happen and improve that process.

Now I’m sure that I can consistently do the next 15 paintings this way.

Originally, while I was collecting that stuff, I wanted to paint on an easel outdoors. But in practice, that stuff is heavy. And while I’m outdoors, I just want to walk and hike and look at stuff—anything but stand in one spot.

But before I do 15 paintings standing at an easel, what else could I upgrade to another level in this scenario?