Background Art Challenge (the first 5 paintings)

What does one do when there is a part of your craft that you aren't skilled in? Force yourself to do this again and again. Not just once or twice but a ton. For me I have never felt skilled at landscapes, backgrounds, buildings or rooms. At my start I was much more interested in character design and more recently food. Backgrounds slipped through the cracks. So I decided to paint/illustrate 30 different backgrounds.

1- Garden: "In the Flower Field"

The first of these paintings was "In the Flower Field". I should have been worried when I went into this one so confidently. I have never been confident in my life so it should have been a sign. I really sat down picked up the gouache that I hadn't used in months and was quickly humbled. Should have done some practice paintings beforehand. The painting didn't turn out bad but it also didn't quite live up to what I envisioned either. The reference used for this painting was a photo I took years ago. I had planned to use this for a painting for a long time but I definitely had planned to use oils.

2- Library: "My Little Library"

My second painting was to paint a library but I'm extra and have a lot of ideas. So rather than paint a normal library I gathered photos of "leave a book, take a book" boxes and grand libraries. I had big dreams to paint a library that bugs and squirrels and tiny people could go to if they pleased. I was still warming up to gouache so all the little details were frustrating to me. There are tons of little books and drastic lighting changes. So I opted to go for less is more which helped.

3- Market- "Farmers Market"

After completing my first 2 paintings I was curious if it was the medium or the subject matter that was stressing me. I at the time was not happy with my first 2 paintings and decided that I had no business being an artist. That was possibly dramatic. For the Market painting I decided to do a farmers market. Where I live there are a lot of farms and markets. Oils were a lot more comfortable to use but at the same time I spent so long painting all the little fruit in the baskets that I thought I would die of hyper-fixation before completing this painting. Maybe then my husband would have been able to sell my works for millions. I really tried to use the rule of painting the shapes and not the things, that way I wouldn't overthink an apple.

4- Dock- "The Old Dock By the Bay"

We are back working in Gouache. This time without the anxiety. This reference was a personal one. When I was a child I grew up near the bay. My family used to fish and crab while my siblings and I went on adventures by the dock. This painting is based on the last time I saw the dock. Painting wise I was looking forward to blending together all the colors for the sky and the bay itself.

5- Waterfall - "As Water Falls"

This painting was very fun. I blocked in all the colors and placed where the mountain and waterfall would go lightly and gradually built up from there. I wanted to use the brushstrokes to my advantage in creating the textured rocks. I do enjoy the way that gouache layers and how different it is than oil. I think the difference in technique clicked with this painting better than the others. The greenery was also fun to play around with in dabbing the colors to create the effect. I didn't hate painting this one. 

Next I hope to write about the process and inspiration behind the Coffee house, Greenhouse, Observatory, Kitchen and Campsite. Check out all of these paintings on my website.