Fridays are for fun, right? Watercolor is my new fun hobby, but it was on my “to-learn” list for a very long time.
One of the things my first homeschool student and I were supposed to do is watercolor our observations from nature in a journal. But I home educated our first son from K-12 without ever figuring out how to watercolor. I felt like a failed homeschool mother when I thought about our lack of watercolor skills.
But Bonus Baby entered our lives, and I have a chance to remedy all the things I didn’t get done the first time around. (Ha!).
Bonus Baby and I picked up water-coloring last March, right before the quarantine.
Learning how to watercolor kept me sane through lockdowns and the death of my mom. I started learning to watercolor right before she became ill, and I wish I’d told her I had started. Watercoloring helps me do something enjoyable while I process this grief.
I’m surprised that I’m fairly good at watercolor–I offer a couple of my prints in my Etsy shop. I can’t paint a loose rose yet, but I keep trying–one of these days.
Learning to watercolor reminded me to jump in and try things instead of contemplating forever. I wish I’d have started watercolor painting ages ago. I love it.
What if I had tried it and hated it? I would have saved years of feeling guilty for avoiding it for one thing. I think trying something and disliking it is better than wasting time wondering and never giving it a chance.
What skill have you been avoiding? Maybe today’s the day to give it a try–find out if you like it or not.
Watercolor Resources:
My favorite watercolor paints are Prima, but I’ve also used a little Schimnke and Windsor Newton.
Bonus Baby and I learned to watercolor by trying the projects in Watercolor With Me In The Forest, but we’ve moved on to some Youtube tutorials. Our favorite is Let’s Make Art.
Empty watercolor tin–I used this to organize all my different sets into a setup that makes sense.
We haven’t settled on our favorite paper yet, but Canson paper works well.
Did you know that I painted a gift for my newsletter subscribers? Sign up and see what it is, then come back to tell me if you liked it or not.
Happy Friday–do something fun!