I did it! I reluctantly signed up for another daily painting challenge for the month of February.
It has been a hot minute since I have done a daily painting challenge. Leslie Saeta use to host a 30-in-30 paint challenge every year, but she hasn't hosted one for the past 4-ish years. It was time for another so when my friend, Sarah, invited me to do her 28 Days of Delight for February, I said "Yes".
Painting, creative, maker challenges are the perfect opportunities to develop or learn a new skill, and that is how I have always used these challenges.
My first challenge, I focused on loosening up by painting each painting with only a palette knife.
The second challenge, I focused on painting landscapes because they intimidated me therefore I stayed away from them.
This current challenge, it's all about "moody" color palettes and dramatic lighting (some of the paintings have more drama than others, though).
The month started out with study paintings from Caravaggio, who is a master from the late 1600's who was known for his tenebrism (dramatic lights and darks). After painting 5 of his works, I began to create my own paintings using his technique. Some paintings I set up as a still life mimicking the dramatic light, and some I tried to create the dramatic light as I painted. That was a challenge for sure.
Then there are some paintings where I veered away from the dramatic light and just used moody colors such as my landscapes.
Another goal I set for this challenge was to record a timelapse video of each of the paintings even if the painting was done digitally on my ipad such as this one...
I have had so much fun participating in this challenge and sharing the videos on my facebook and instagram. It is hard to believe there are only 7 days left. But... I have decided to keep it going. I can't promise a daily painting especially on weekends, but I will give it my best effort for as long as I can keep it going.
Be sure to follow along on social media or signup for my newsletter to see behind the scenes of my daily paintings as well as other new collections. Don't forget to make note if you see something you would like to purchase because each week (or after 5 paintings) I will give my subscribers exclusive access to the paintings for purchase, but after the month is over (2nd week in the next month) I will release them to the public.
(first half of the challenge)
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