Watercolor is quite a challenging medium. Most of the time, it has a mind or.. life of its own. Yes, it is a wild and tricky medium to master.. but practice will tame it.. eventually.
I for one… am yet a master of watercolor but my passion for this medium started so young. I think my dad introduced me to it when I was about 5 or 6 years of age because I recall there was a painting I made on mom going to the market. Of course it didn’t look like my mother at all but the splashes of colors did suggest she was at the ‘wet’ market. I wish the painting is still around.. but we moved a lot from place to place.. so, I guess it is lost or stored in a decaying box somewhere.
As far as I can remember, painting someone’s face came quite naturally. When I was small, every time I drew someone I knew, he or she would surely give me a smile.. laughter or at least, a pat on my shoulder.. that made my heart leaped with joy. Perhaps those kinds of acknowledgements lead me to believe that I could make the world a better place.. or something like that.. with just making a drawing. So, I kept on doing just that.
Maybe it’s just meant to be.. because I have the passion to study a face or a figure.. I’m always fascinated by how unique and special human beings are as created by Him. There’s always something beautiful about every faces that I’ve painted and seen.. and sometimes, a portrait tells a beautiful story too. I don’t know if others could see what I see.. but I do hope to paint what I felt about those things I see through my heart.
Like I said.. I’m still quite an infant with this medium.. there’s so much to learn, explore and practice. But yes, I always and will strive to do my best with each masterpieces I produce. Just the other day, my brother Ali said that I’m a.. “Perfectionist.” That was what he thought of me as an artist after observing my Art for so many years. Me.. a perfectionist?? No, no, no… that can’t be. If I’m a perfectionist, surely my paintings would be more realistic or close to photo or life..? But he said, that was not what he meant.. From his point of view, I have this tendency to paint something near-perfect.. and if I paint, I would strive to make it beautiful..and I can’t really tolerate ‘mistakes’ or ‘ugliness’.. Whoa!! ” Could that be one of the reasons why I still can’t figure out how to paint abstractions?”, I thought quietly.
I sat back thinking… And this is my brother who always grew 4 years behind me throughout my life.. but I never realized he was now perhaps so much ahead of me in this field.. and was silently watching me struggling to find my niche while he found his.
Oh well, I’m not going to deny 100% of what he said might be true.. I’m still alive and still have so much to learn and understand about Art and life as a whole. Watercolor portrait is just one of many branches of Art that I love doing.. yes, I believe in variation. Doing variety of things keep me happy and sane and away from boring. Is that what a perfectionist would do? I don’t know.. I guess, I’m just being ME and hope to keep improving through thick & thin. But I do know that.. being imperfect is perfect!
On that note, I’d like to share 2 recent commissioned watercolor portraits..
Enjoy..
Yartstik's ArtBlog 