Never Give Up Never Surrender

Yes I stole this line from a movie. I can't remember the title of it. It was a funny science fiction one. Where an alien race was quite innocent and thought that a TV series (a bit like Star Trek) was a historical documentary. It will come back to me. Or not. Does everyone past the age of 50 experience these lapses in memory? Or should I be worried? Because my better half suffers from similar forgetfulness...

But my intention wasn't to talk about a movie (it's a few years old). But about watercolours. And no, being on the obsessive side of the spectrum is not something new for me.

I just wanted to say that sometimes, in watercolours as in any craft, you experience a eureka moment, a breakthrough.

I was struggling with a painting earlier this week, as you know. But I've been reading a book on watercolour that I received as a Christmas present. The kind of book that I probably would not have found useful a year ago - I would have found the concepts too advanced for me. Well maybe not advanced, but too abstract maybe. And now it's my new bible. (Watercolor Painting, A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium, Tom Hoffman) I've just finished the chapter about the relative wetness of the paper and brush! And one of the recommended exercises was to take an old  scrap painting and rewet an area of it that didn't really work and apply fresh pigment and see what happens. (This works best on lighter areas obviously).

And here is the result - a painting I did on cheap paper a few weeks ago. It lacked oomph. Much better now.

Before:
Oops - I forgot to take a picture. (or I can't find it in my 9000 files for Autumn/Winter 2016/17!)  So you'll have to believe me - the grass was wishy-washy and the sky as so pale it was as if I had forgotten to paint it.

After:

PS: I had to google the line - it was Galaxy Quest!