I kicked off the year by sharing some goals and dreams for 2105. One of the most important of these was to get back in touch with my artistic roots, which I quickly decided would be much more fun to do with friends. And so began the Creative Challenge— a way for creatives from around the world, to come together online and tackle one artistic project per month.
Challenge #2: Watercolor
Unlike last month’s challenge, I felt a little more confident going into this one. I don’t have a ton of watercolor experience in my repertoire, but I did take a community class a few years ago. Fortunately, I still had all of my supplies leftover, so no shopping was needed this time around!
I procrastinated for a good two weeks. The hardest part of this challenge for me was figuring out what to paint, but finally decided the perfect subject— my favorite place in the world: Cape Cod. Namely, my family’s house there, which I lovingly refer to as “home”.
I started out by sketching an outline of the house, using a photo I took last year, as my reference. Once my drawing was complete, I recalled that in my watercolor class, we had used a method where we traced over a photograph using tracing paper and then applied the image onto our sketchpad using transfer paper. It probably would have saved me time, had I remembered earlier, but it felt good knowing that I did my sketch freehand— no tracing for me!
Next was filling in the sky and base of the house. It’s kind of hard to see in the photo, but I tried to start with the lightest shades, so I could slowly build up the richness and intensity of the colors.
James and I started up Season 3 of House of Cards, and before I knew it, I had pretty much finished up painting the house.
I took a few days off (or was it a week?) before returning to my pad to tackle the grass and the greenery. Unlike the house portion of the painting, where I was pressuring myself to replicate every detail of the photo, I felt free to take a little bit of creative license with these colors, strokes and shadows.
After signing my name, came the best part: removing the painter’s tape. I love how those clean, white edges really make the colors pop. Now comes the hard part. Do I keep this for myself or gift it to my mom and dad?!
Once again, the community of creatives that joined me in this challenge blew me away with their talents. If you have been participating in the Creative Challenge, and haven’t joined our Facebook group yet, we would love to have you be part of our growing community! Here’s a look at just some of what was created this month:
Photo Credits: (L) Amy // (M) Arianal // (R) Ariana
Photo Credits: (L) Bernadette // (M) Bernadette // (R) Bernadette
Photo Credits: (L) Brindha // (M) Chelsey // (R) Christy
Photo Credits: (L) Corinna // (M) Courtney // (R) Courtney
Photo Credits: (L) Dana // (M) Dede // (R) Dede
Photo Credits: (L) Dede // (M) Erica // (R) Erica
Photo Credits: (L) Isabelle // (M) Jackie // (R) Jen
Photo Credits: (L) Kim // (M) Kim // (R) Lauren
Photo Credits: (L) Lauren // (M) Lauren // (R) Leah
Photo Credits: (L) Leah // (M) Leah // (R) Loreta
Photo Credits: (L) Loreta // (M) Meredith // (R) Meredith
Photo Credits: (L) Meredith // (M) Natasha // (R) Noora
Photo Credits: (L) Noora // (M) Rebekah // (R) Shanique
Photo Credits: (L) Shauna // (M) Susie // (R) Theresa
Photo Credits: (L) Regina // (M) Linda // (R) Gina
Some of the bloggers in the group even wrote their own posts:
Dwell Beautiful // The Thinking Closet // For My Love Of // Planq Studio
The second challenge (paper flowers) is already underway! If you’d like to join in on this challenge, or any of the other challenges planned for the year, we would LOVE to have you on board. Until next month…#gocreatives
