Small Floral Watercolor Study and Inspiration Links
Have you painted any floral watercolor still life art recently? I’m working small to finish fast in this busy season. This postcard sized floral watercolor study of yellow roses and lilacs is just the thing to exercise creative mojo when art-making time is brief.
Tape a scrap of watercolor paper to a stiff support. I use foam core (like this stuff), because it’s sturdy, lightweight and I can cut it to size with a utility knife.
Draw a loose, light pencil sketch from a photo from your cell phone. (If you haven’t used your phone to collect painting fodder, read this post of tips.)
Painting Small in Small Spaces
Painting small is also a good idea when your art-making space is a little squeezed. (Here is a post with tips for making art in tiny spaces.)
I wish I could bring you into my living room in the evenings. You’d find me on the couch, with a lap desk, work in process taped to a support, a small palette, brushes and rinse water, or a rolled cloth holder of colored pencils. I usually listen to an audiobook while I’m working, but if you joined me, we’d chat.
Small Watercolors = Quick Finish
If completing art projects fuels you to keep painting (I have my hand up), working small is a good idea. Especially if overwhelm is a typical reaction to the idea of making a painting.
Call your still life watercolor a study rather than a painting. Study implies exactly as it sounds – you’re studying an image – or practicing.
You can sketch loose, paint light and finish fast. If small painting works for you, try taping down 2-4 small postcard sized watercolor paper scraps, and work on several studies at once.
Inspirational Links
- There is a lovely, very brief poem about a father and son by Ron Koertge called Negative Space. It was the inspiration for a short (five minute) stop animation film made with resin and sewn cloth puppets by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata. Have a look, and let me know what you think.
- Jay Lee is a Taiwanese watercolor painter with tons of beginner painting tutorials on YouTube. This paint-along floral watercolor demo is perfect if you need a nudge or a hand-hold to grab your brushes, and paint a simple, transparent, soft layered flower.
- Have you ever made a sun print or a cyanotype? It’s easy to create botanical prints with light sensitive paper you can get online (I bought 24 sheets on Amazon), and this video tutorial is a good introduction to the simplicity of the process. No chemicals necessary! Just plants, sunlight and water!
- Campbell Walker – known as Struthless – created a thought provoking 12 minute video essay on the relationship between procrastination and creative freedom. He refers to Jerry Seinfeld’s approach to harnessing our internal creative stallion, and embracing Done is Better than Perfect. If you’re stuck in a bog of creative inactivity, Watch it here.
Done is Better than Perfect
I’m gathering inspiration with the camera in my phone outside in the garden, during walks in the neighborhood, and with cut flowers in glass vases placed strategically around the house.
Everything is paintable. I’ll be more inspired to make art when I aim for Productivity over Perfection. Tonight, on the couch, I’m working on a failed monotype print that has potential for repair with colored pencils. What will you be working on? Join me?
Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you in the next post –
Belinda
P.S. My Etsy Shop has been updated with new work – both framed and unframed, watercolors and printmaking. If you haven’t visited in awhile, take a peek over here. If you see something you like, use the code July2025 for a discount during check out. 🙂
Art Quote
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it. ~Anne Lamott
Seven Questions to Help You Roll Past Creative Block
Stagnant creativity feels like a heavy fog pill slipped into your coffee when you weren’t looking. How do you get past Creative Block?
You want to make things. But there’s an invisible sludge haze blocking creative idea generation, inspiration and motivation to get something started. <---Started is the key word.
If you feel like your creativity is blocked, and inspiration eludes you, try this exercise. Sometimes, you just need a hand to hold on the Start part of making art....
Tools
Instructions
- Secure 30 minutes, a pencil or pen, a note pad, and some quiet time. Sit in a favorite chair, in a sunny spot in a quiet corner. If home is too chaotic, go to a coffee shop and sit in a sunshiny spot. In either case, if it helps, use earbuds or headphones, and listen to instrumental (no words) music. Fill in the blanks below…
- If I were the King/Queen of the world, and I could sweep a magic wand to clear time and space to create a beautiful piece of art, I’d work in (fill in your medium: oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, pen and ink, colored pencil, graphite)._____________________________.
- I could make something abstract, or impressionistic, or representational – and since I have a magic skill wand, I think I’ll choose _________________________________.
- Since I’m in charge, when I think about size and format, I’d like to make something (small, medium large, huge)__________________________, and in a (horizontal, vertical, square)___________________________ format.
- I’ve got a hankering to work on (paper, yupo, aquabord, canvas, panel, gesso’d paper)_____________________________________.
- I’m imagining colors that appeal to me right now, in this season of my life, so I’ll focus on a prominence of these three colors, with supporting hues around them: ______________________________________________________.
- I know I can choose any subject that appeals to me, like figurative, portrait, still life, landscape, city scene, interiors, sky/cloudscapes, animals, ocean/shorelines and genre scenes. So, right this second, I feel like painting a __________________________________, with elements of __________________ and ____________________ included.
- Now, flip open to a fresh page on your notepad, be The Boss, and stomp on that creative block by doodling some layouts, angles, and compositions (no details, see below) that might fill the format of your preferred paper or canvas.
Notes
Feel free to print this, and alter the questions or add new ones that fit your style. Think about times when your art-making was more active, and jot down elements from that time (positive, encouraging) that you can visualize and pre-plan to help you get past the hump of stuckness.
Interrupt your mental naysayer. Lock it in a cellar. Any thoughts that sneak in about squeezed schedule, family obligations, guilt, lack of skill, insecurities or road block reasoning should be kicked to the curb for enough minutes to finish these brief questions. Gift that time of imagining to yourself.
You aren't alone in this. Every artist in history has felt creative block at one time or another, so we are all rooting for you. Set some time aside, and slay it. You've got this.