An apple a day…

In my perfect world, I would be a full-time artist. I would wake up every morning, clean the house from top to bottom (a clean house is a happy house), take the dogs for a long run (in my perfect world it’s also always summer), and then I’d make a coffee and head to my art room for the rest of the day. In my real world, I wake up every morning at 5 am (my alarm is set for 4:45), run around to clean/make breakfasts and lunches/work a full day in health care/take the dogs out/workout/dinner/dishes/and THEN if I’m lucky I can carve out an hour or two of painting before bed (if I don’t fall asleep on the couch first) and then it starts all over again. Just like Ground Hog Day. 

Painting and artistic skill is definitely like a muscle – the only way to get better is to do it consistently – in some small way everyday. Even if you’re tired 🙂 I’ve been really busy lately finishing up some Christmas commissions that I can’t share just yet. However, I really wanted to let you in on my painting process so I created this time-lapse video of a little warm-up painting I created tonight before diving into my commission work. For those interested, details about the materials used are posted below the video. Enjoy! 

For the painting, I used my new favourite watercolour paper – Canson Mix Media Artboards – it has replaced Arches for me as my go-to watercolour paper. The board is so thick you don’t have to worry about it bending when it gets wet and the surface texture is half-way between hot and cold press so you can use ink easily which I love. 

Sharpie markers (another product I love – they don’t skip and they create really sharp, dark lines – I have gone through so many dud markers), Winsor & Newton Artists’ Water Colour paints, and Robert Simmons round brushes #6 and 8. 

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🙂