Tate Watercolour Manual

I've spent a few minutes today wondering what my first post back should be about. Obviously I would want it to be insightful, witty and on the pulse. I also thought about how it should be nothing like a buzzfeed article, yet still be able to draw in that clickbait (impossible, buzzfeed is clickbait entirely because of how it is written).

After that little bit of contemplation, I accepted that I wasn't going to put that much thought or proof reading into any of my posts, so instead I'm going to post about art, because today I did art.

I went on an overseas trip recently and was able to take a day to go to the Tate Britain Gallery in London. Before I left for the trip I had picked up an interest in watercolour, so cause and effect lead me to purchase the Tate Watercolour Manual while I was there. I bought it because it seemed a nice way for me to make a statement of my artistic desires, fuelled by the day of inspiration at the gallery. Usually items like that go on my bookshelf of good intentions, but it has turned out to be a great and really practical purchase.

The book starts with a clear introduction to the history of watercolour. This includes how the paints, paper and paintbrushes were originally created and used, and how they evolved into the forms we know today. Written simply and succinctly, I was surprised at how this little bit of knowledge helped when I started playing with the medium.

The exercises were easy to follow, giving a chance to play with colour mixing and becoming familiar with how watercolours work (sparking a new found interest in the skill of colour mixing- black and yellow makes green???). The authors suggest coming back to these exercises often, treating them like drills to develop skills, which I definitely will do. By the end of the exercises, which took me only a couple of enjoyable hours, I had a range of images that simultaneously made me feel like I had been successful while wanting to do it all again in hopes of creating something better.

The final exercise was a practice scenery, so I had something to put on the fridge and gloat about as an example of my afternoon's work.

I made this

The next stage of the book takes you through work of the Masters, showing techniques so that they can be mimicked and replicated. No doubt I'll be showing these as I work through the book, I'll probably be really proud of them considering how excited I am even a small scenery exercise.

Tomorrow will be an appointment with a new psychologist. If I continue with the trend from today I will be talking mental health tomorrow.