For the past month, I’ve been taking a course on Udemy called “How To Plan Awesome Watercolor Artwork”. It’s been mind blowing. I am learning concepts for composition, value, color and style that I’ve never been exposed to before.
The course is part lecture, part “learn by following examples” and part do it yourself. I do not enjoy the lecture part at all. The teacher speaks slowly and repetitively. He drills his messages home over and over and over again.
I don’t know how I ever made it through 12 years of public school and 3 years of college. Most of the teaching was lecture based back then with the teacher droning on in front of the classroom, repeating basic concepts as my eyes glazed over. There was no fast forward, skipping or tuning out that was possible.
Still, even with my challenges with the lecture portion of this Watercolor course, I am fascinated with what I’m learning.
Now when I look at the 100 paintings I have hanging only wall that I created over the last 3 years, I see them differently. I am beginning to understand why I like certain ones and not others. I can see major flaws in many of them – trees sprouting up randomly, colors popping out that make little sense, focus being scattered haphazardly all over the painting.
I wanted to learn how to create compositions and I’m learning.
It’s pretty cool.