Hey everyone, it’s Kate here! Today’s video is a little different. I’m creating a trio of abstract watercolor paintings with doodles.
I wanted to play with watercolors, and using three sheets felt like a good way to experiment with different colors and compositions. Plus, I’d get to add some doodles with my pens and markers on top!
This whole project was a blast, and the final video is almost an hour long. But hey, we can relax and paint together, right? No pressure to follow along exactly, just do your thing!
A big reason for doing three pieces was to practice mark-making and doodles in general. I’ve been trying new things in recent videos, but sometimes with one piece, you get scared of messing up. You might hesitate to experiment because you don’t want to ruin it.
Well, honestly, you can always paint over something or try something else. But for what you’re trying to achieve, sometimes it just doesn’t work out.
That’s why I thought having three pieces would be a good idea. Painting all three at the same time and doodling on them all at the same time would make me less precious about my mark-making. And guess what? It totally worked!
I ended up liking all of them – they’re all a little different, a lot of fun, and turned out great!
I’m not focusing too much on specific colors or placement. I’m just working intuitively, adding different colors to different areas that feel right on the paper.
Speaking of practice with mark-making, one reason I started this YouTube channel was to document my art learning journey. I picked up some watercolors and basic supplies about six years ago, but it was very sporadic.
I learned that if you don’t make time and have a purpose to do something, it’s easy to put it off. So, I never really made progress, even though I enjoyed it when I did paint.
This YouTube channel helps me do all those things – create art, document my progress, and hopefully inspire others. For this video in particular, I feel like I hit a new point.
Part of it really comes from making more than one piece. It seems simple, but I just didn’t have to care as much about ruining it or not having it turn out the way I wanted. I just sat down with the idea that this is for fun, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Because if I did something I didn’t like, I had two other sheets right next to me, and I could make as many more as I wanted. The practice part is really important, and I ended up enjoying the marks I made more than in most other videos, probably because I didn’t worry about it as much.
One of the best ways to approach art – don’t be afraid to take chances!