A long time ago in a land far away there lived a girl and a bunny… No actually (weirdly) I didn’t start out with a story for this piece. I have taken to drawing bunnies everywhere — in notebooks, on napkins, by math notes, etc. — this year. They are sometimes dancing or running or painting or playing, but they are always saying something. A big speech bubble will extend from the top of their head and offer me encouragement or advice along the lines of “you can do it!” or “almost there!” During this project, I struggled to create a watercolor painting that I really liked, and drew many bunnies during the process. After discarding a version I had worked on for weeks, I decided that the bunny had to be featured in my final product. She sits beside me (the girl with hair as long as I wish mine was), a silent supporter. Beside them both is a projection of one of my original watercolor paintings; they worked together to create it. The painting also touches on the relationship between nature and technology, something I explored in my pastel painting as well.
Watercolor painting is an exercise in trust. The experience of overworking a painting is one that I think is universal to anyone who has experimented with watercolor; there are always many times where you can stop painting and call the product finished. However, I think that it is still important to continue to explore new ideas without fear of ruining existing work. The idea of storytelling through watercolor is so important to me. Any form of art can be intimidating to approach, and watercolor is no exception. As important as technique is, I think that having a real emotion or idea you want to portray is even more essential. It is what differentiates art from exercise. When I was little, my parents got me a book called Beautiful Oops that was about how mistakes can be salvaged in unexpectedly wonderful ways. I think that is part of the reason that I connect so strongly with watercolor. The paint bleeds and flows in ways that you can’t anticipate but are grateful for in the end.
Although both experiences were equally valuable, I think I liked creating the watercolor painting more than the pastel. Armed with a little more practice and a little more freedom to experiment, I found the watercolor painting experience to be more exciting and less stressful. As much as I loved working in Photoshop to create these paintings, I still prefer analog painting. I love reading books on Kindle, but I still go to the library whenever I can. I like the feeling of paper and paint brushes and pens and pencils, and I really can’t imagine that I will ever change my mind.
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