Watercolor's life lessons

School is working out okay so far.

I have my first test soon! So nervous!

Anyway! This blog is about my love for watercolors. (even though I do a lot of marker drawings.)

When I was young I started, like most young enthusiastic artist, with acrylic.

Those little tiny squeeze bottles that you get at the craft section of any American grocery store.

I fell in love with art immediately. I would paint everyday after school and one weekends.

As an adult, in my first semester of college back in 2007, I took watercolor.

I hated it.

I hated it so much, watercolor made absolutely no sense to me.

The complete opposite of acrylic.

While acrylic is still a water-based paint and you can dilute it with water, you would normally just dilute it with a lighter color, white or yellow, depending on what shade you wanted.

You would usually paint dark bases and then layer over the top lighter colors.

So when I tried watercolor, everything I knew flew out the window. I am still by no means a master of any medium. Keep that in mind.

Watercolor is unforgiving. Once the color pigment is on the paper, it's not easy to pull back up. With lighter colors, you can pick up a small amount with a paper towel or a clean wet brush.

But usually once the color is down, it's down.

I am a stubborn southern woman. I was not about to let watercolor get the best of me at 19 years old.

So I fought with it, for years I fought with it.

Now it is my favorite. It gave me a missing part that I needed.

I love watercolor now because it is as much my teacher as I am it's student.

Watercolor is unforgiving in some ways. The paint does what it wants. I can control most of it, but a lot of the time I have to let it go where it wants to go. 

This can be liberating. With my mental illnesses, prone to overthinking and trying to find order in my life at all angles. Letting go like this is insane.

I have to accept the path the water takes and see what I can do afterwards. Patiently watching and correcting when it needs. Letting go of any forethought. I had to learn to let go.

Watercolor also takes time. Layering small tones overlapping each other, letting it dry quickly or slowly. All of these are important to your end goal. Sometimes I can do a quick one in an hour, sometimes it can take days. I had to learn to be patient.

Watercolor can not only be quite freeing but also a pleasant surprise when things take an unexpected direction. I used to throw out a painting as soon as things didn't go the way I wanted. Now I see it until the end.

Much like my life, I have tried to make do in unpleasant situations. Without what watercolor has taught me, I know for  sure I wouldn't have been able to make it through my father's sudden death as well as I have.

Like I said, I am by no means a master of anything. But watercolor still gives me hope and the will to try.

old art kristinmillerart(old name) from 2012

Arlie Opal from 2016

SIDE NOTE: I do markers right now for the convenience haha. I live somewhere small and don't have a spot for my things. So I have to pull out everything (individual tubes, palettes, brushes, paper, etc.) when I want to watercolor and put it back afterwards. With college and stuff, I use the markers cause I just need to pull them out and do it on any old sketch paper. But I do miss watercolors :/

Keep watch of my growth on my social media accounts!

Instagram: @arlieopal

Tumblr: arlieopal.tumblr.com

Twitter: @Arlie_Opal

Everything else: Google Arlie Opal

I will try to post a new blog every Wednesday. Like really really try.

Comment below on how you feel about your chosen medium or the medium that chose you!