For 2018, I am a committed to continuing my daily habit of creating. The daily challenges offered by CreativeBug makes this super easy with the added benefit of learning new techniques and playing with new mediums. January’s monthly challenge was all about painting patterns using gouache, an opaque watercolor to paint patterns.
After 31 Days of Patterns, here are a few takeaways. The most important thing is to start. A blank page can be intimidating in the same way that starting a new project can be or really doing anything new for the first time. With painting, it can be especially terrifying with the placement of color on the page. There is no eraser, there is only moving forward.
Moving forward is another important takeaway. Once that brush stroke lands of the paper you continue to work with what you have. This can lead to unexpected results. The repetitiveness of patterns provides lots of opportunities to practice and refine one’s technique and approach. In the end, the wonky looking objects are my favorites as they create visual interest and draw the eye to what otherwise might be a perfectly boring look.
I think that some patterns are more successful than others. Some are more likely to find their way into my sketchbooks and other future creative endeavors. None of this would have occurred without starting. More than 400 days into this daily creative habit, I’m thankful to have started and kept it going with new techniques and mediums.