Throughout my drawing and painting lessons, the instructors remind me that it’s OK to change the scene I am painting. They resize buildings, add trees and people, change colors, modify the light source and redirect shadows. One instructor even said, “Never copy the image you are painting. Don’t try to match the colors. Your goal…
Author: Steve Ainslie
The “One”
A friend my age is looking for “the One”. He’s had girlfriends – some short term, others for years. But he’s still looking for his perfect soulmate to marry, have kids and grow old together. I’m lucky that I found “the One” when I was 21. I was naive, madly in love, overconfident in my…
No More NFL
I haven’t owned a TV for 4 years. I can’t tolerate the excessive of commercials on OTA TV and won’t pay for cable. Anything I want to watch, I stream on my iPad. I only miss two things about TV: Watching it with my wife. NFL football For the past 3 years, I was able…
Urban Sketching
After running across a series of watercolor and ink paintings that I absolutely adored, I’ve spent the last few weeks using them as inspiration to create my own. As I struggled to draw people and cars while mimicking the loose, flowy line art, I went down an internet rathole. To my surprise, I discovered that…
Finding My Why
The instructor for my watercolor class teaches a process that begins with the question “Why?” He says this is the most important step of the painting process. Several of his lectures focused on studying photos to determine the reason why you are creating a particular painting. The why could be the lonely feeling from a…
Let The Threads Pull It In
I was 50 years old when I was taught how to properly drive a screw into a piece of wood. At the time, I was working with my neighbor and his friend, who generously offered to help me rig out my trailer with solar panels, wiring, switches and gauges. Being the least skilled person on…
Code Red – We’ve Seen This Play Before
The North Carolina DHHS publishes the CDC’s Covid-19 risk levels by county each week. Each county is color coded for “risk of illness and strain on the health care system”. Green: Low Yellow – Medium Red – High Below is this week’s chart. My county has been Yellow or Red for as long as I…
Comfortably Numb
Rarely do I feel intense about anything. If asked how I’m doing, my typical reply is “Fantastic. My life is fantastic and I’m doing fantastic.“ That’s generally the case. But the real truth is more like, “I’m fine. Life is fine and I’m feeling fine.“ I’ve always been a fairly even keeled guy. Since my…
A Speck In The Ocean
When I used to fly back home to Ft. Lauderdale, the plane would take a southernly route over the ocean following the coast before turning West or East for landing at the airport. I studied the coastline, the ocean and the boats for many hours. Some boats appeared so tiny in the ocean that the…
Art School
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…