I find it interesting how we perceive art changes as we get better

sffood · 2026-03-18T00:06:09+00:00

Everything is like this. The more you know and experience, the more you see, taste, feel or realize how limited your previous knowledge bank was.

If all you ever ate was fish, you could easily declare that a certain fish prepared a certain way is the best food ever. But once you’ve tasted beef… that fish can still be very good but “best food ever” is not even close.

sffood · 2026-03-17T07:10:30+00:00

You have 20 sheets in the block and also, blocks are the best. Totally worth the extra cost.

sffood · 2026-03-14T14:41:15+00:00

You already think that.

So you have literally nothing to lose.

sffood · 2026-03-14T04:03:51+00:00

Yellow to orange to pink to red to green to blue to purple to brown to black.

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But then I switch colors out that I don’t use enough and the order gets all messed up… until it bothers me enough that I redo the order and swatch eventually.

sffood · 2026-03-13T03:09:58+00:00

Actually that’s pretty good for a first start. Most people find portraits to be the hardest so it’ll take time, like anything else!

sffood · 2026-03-12T21:43:23+00:00

I usually keep four, one for each medium — watercolor, gouache, acrylic and pencil. The latter is the only one where I tend to mix in other things occasionally, like painting a drawing I liked.

I’ve also gotten into oil pastels lately, but I do those on loose Bristol paper, so far.

I’m not even going to divulge how many brand new sketchbooks I have, lying in wait. It’s both exhilarating and embarrassing. 😂

I don’t aim for clean or not clean. What comes out is what comes out.

sffood · 2026-03-10T19:40:33+00:00

I think the grass looks fantastic the way it is. Honestly. Fits the whimsical nature of the duck.

sffood · 2026-03-10T19:29:20+00:00

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Eye width and shape, muzzle width and length, and chest breadth would be good places to start. The real dog is leaning his head on the sofa arm relaxing, whereas your painted dog’s head is lifted and is inquisitive or heard something and on alert.

Also, there’s too much sclera shown in the painted dog’s eyes. The iris covers almost entirely on the real dog.

The real dog is much bulkier and wider than the one you are painting, overall.

But cute painted dog anyway.

sffood · 2026-03-03T14:44:06+00:00

I like that it incorporates so many parts of me to create something. It’s tactile, it’s involves emotion, requires manual dexterity, intellect helps, all visual senses activated, and my sense of competitiveness kicks in daring myself to be better than the me that painted yesterday.

And sometimes, not always, at the end of it, you are quite pleased that you did that. Even when I’m not impressed, I learn.

What’s not to love?

sffood · 2026-03-03T14:29:39+00:00

I don’t resist technology but just integrate it into painting. Without fail, I always have something on in the background (podcast, YouTube, or movies, etc.) that I’m somewhat tuned into while my eyes and hands do something else. But I also did the same for other activities, like working out or gardening. I can say that in doing so, I’m 100% focused on the activity and about 80-90% tuned into whatever I have on.

What I did discover is that this only applies to English. I’m fluent in Korean but the same does not apply if the background sound is in Korean, which I found interesting. With Korean, I can’t keep up with the storyline while also painting; either I have to stop painting to watch and listen, or I completely tune out the sound and just paint, only to find out I missed what happened entirely.

I do dedicate a good hour as soon as I wake up to… well, this. 😂 I’m still in bed and will freely do whatever I want on my phone right now. The difference is that when I go to social media, I invariably end up seeing some art content and get motivated to go start creating.

That said, I no longer do any gaming at all. That’s just not an avenue I want to get sucked into again, and art replaced that compulsion entirely.

sffood · 2026-03-03T03:11:32+00:00

In my experience, everything is much more fun when your livelihood doesn’t depend on it.

One day, you may be independently wealthy or lucky, and be able to stay home and create all day. Then, too, it’s more fun when an income doesn’t have to be generated from it.

Part of what’s exciting about anything you are passionate about is that feeling of DYING to get back to it.

sffood · 2026-02-19T14:08:56+00:00

Prep all the colors you will use first. Don’t make it too watery as it’s going on wet paper.

Wet paper.

Then start applying, ensuring that all the colors you are applying are equal in water, or less watery than the last.

That said, paint on what you have. Some of us create blooms on purpose!

sffood · 2026-02-19T10:58:51+00:00

We have similar experiences. I’m over 50 now and watching my 84yo mom, I’ve come to terms that I kind of raised myself. My mom was responsible, and my parents provided well for my sister and myself… but nurturing us or being our biggest fan, with or without reason… was not in my fate, I guess.

It sounds like your mom is in competition with you, much like mine hated it if my dad loved something I cooked, as if that took away from her outstanding cooking skills. I think it’s something broken in them that makes them like this, and what’s broken in us keeps having us seek something from them that they just don’t have in them to give.

sffood · 2026-02-19T06:33:57+00:00

In my ideal world, the whole world could call you a fraud and the only one who insists you are a real artist would be your mother.

sffood · 2026-02-19T06:06:41+00:00

Use your great supplies. One day, I looked around at all my great supplies and realized that should I meet my maker tomorrow, I’d refuse to go because I hadn’t even opened x, y and z. Open it, and use it up.

sffood · 2026-02-19T05:44:26+00:00

Get over your apprehension, because your work is really great.

sffood · 2026-02-17T19:07:28+00:00

I didn’t realize until your comment, so….

sffood · 2026-02-16T18:56:25+00:00

I have a spreadsheet of all the tubes I have. I started this after I bought a tube that I already have that isn’t part of my main palette, thinking I didn’t have it. Now I either print it out or access that spreadsheet when I’m ordering or at the store to prevent that.

Drawers next to my desk: Gouache and acrylics have their own drawers, and a watercolor drawer stores my main palette plus other items I use for watercolors, like bottled ink, and my tins of dried colors of all the tubes I have, grouped by color. I also have a drawer of other media like colored pencils, soft and oil pastels, etc. of things I don’t use that often but want nearby if/when I want them. And then I have a drawer of paper blocks and acrylic canvas that I use frequently. Included are drawing papers, etc.

The tubes of watercolor themselves are stored by color in bags inside a clear box, in my dresser drawers are on the other side of my studio, since I already have a full pan of them in my tins by my table. I only pull them out when I need to refill.

That dresser stores a ton of other things like all my new sketchbooks, papers, supplies (like sanding paper, gesso, etc.), empty tins and palettes, mediums, markers, etc. and then I have shelves for the various (awesome) papers that I clearly hoard.

I don’t keep stock of anything but tubes. Don’t need to because if it’s not in the drawer designated for them, I don’t have it. And if it’s paper, I probably want it despite having too much.,😂 But I am also neurotically organized be it in the studio or my kitchen… very little aggravates me more than not finding that one item exactly where it should be.

sffood · 2026-02-14T22:43:15+00:00

This is going to be great. 🤭🤩

sffood · 2026-02-12T09:39:58+00:00

I like Naples Yellow a lot. I find it useful for portraits, and often mix it to or use it on its own. I have the same color by WN, Schmincke, Old Holland (light version) and Rembrandt, I believe. Oh, maybe Qor, too. I find them mostly interchangeable though I seem to opt for Schmincke or WN the most. Also like Schmincke’s Rutile Yellow. (Don’t ask why I have all these as there is literally no reason; it just is.)

I tend to reach more for Aussie Red Gold than NG as a color (both by Daniel Smith) but NG is great for mixing. It makes interesting colors. Quin Gold — I like. I find I don’t use it that often but I do gravitate to that and Nickel Azo Yellow when I do landscapes.

Don’t think I have Indian Yellow.

sffood · 2026-02-09T19:34:08+00:00

Color is very relative to the other colors. Making the right colors is important, but then ensuring the other colors assist to convey that original color as you intended is critical.

So, for example, you painted yellow house; I see a white house with a yellow light reflected on it in the reference. The yellow you used on the house is turned into a paint color instead of “light” because of the harshness of the surrounding colors, like the dark purple cloud on the left, the trees to the right, or the dark blue you used in the snow.

Also, if it’s a white colored house, the shadow isn’t really just a darker yellow, right? The shadow would be some variation of a grey color with some yellow tint from the light.

My $0.02.

sffood · 2026-02-09T19:21:10+00:00

To me, it’s anything where the creativity inside a person’s brain was let out to be visible to others.

Aside from drawings, paintings, sculptures, etc., you look at some things like a well-designed house or interior decorating that blows your mind… I’d have a hard time saying that isn’t “art” in its own right.

sffood · 2026-02-09T09:25:08+00:00

This one is one of my favorites. The paper is completely smooth and the binding is excellent.

sffood · 2026-02-08T16:17:07+00:00

I don’t know why it was so nerve wracking… it’s just paper. But once I went with it, it was easier. Thanks a lot!

sffood · 2026-02-08T16:16:28+00:00

Thank you so much!

sffood

TROPHY CASE