I know, know, I already posted “Gaia Watches the Moon Pull Her Fertile Belly,” but I have more to say about her, because she’s been driving me crazy. This is all about process.
Gaia + Moon + Sun came to me at 3am just before the full moon. I was sketching, unable to sleep, a common time for me to be awake. I drew this little sketch, right, and thought they were all wonderful. I love the raw sketches!
Then I did the watercolor below, and liked it, but saw room for improvement in the difference between what I had in my mind and what I painted. Watercolors are still new to me, remember? I have visions and can’t execute them — which is hard for someone who is good with another medium. Her nipples inadvertently slipped from her breasts, melting like a cake in the rain. Were it acrylic, I’d just go in and “fix” it. But I am learning that this is hard to do with watercolors. You can end up with a mess, removing when you try to add, a blob of paint, ARGH.
The next version I liked even less, below, though as the days pass, I like her better. Molten lava hair and her face bothers me, but I love the mossy look of her, and that her nipples are not melting or sliding off her breasts!
Still not happy, I tried painting the whole image again, right. (I was never going to show this image.) This was bigger, though I reversed the sun and moon, so Gaia was talking to the moon, not the sun (for LUNAR Moondae!) Worse. now the hair is like hardened lava, rigid, not what I wanted. She looks uncomfortable, and finally, she has FLIPPERS! I added the faces on the sun and moon because I saw where it was going . . . cute? They are all having a chat!
Why do I think they look worse with each try? I’m not a negative artist, and often like my work – that “just right” feeling.
The sketch and the first image feel free and unselfconscious, loose and fresh. The others try too hard, and have a feeling of stiltedness. Happens with overworking. Can you see that?
Several days later I tried again, bottom. I put the sun where it was in the original sketch, and in doing so found a bit of my mojo. Her hair is more varied, she doesn’t look sleepy or bored (maybe a bit surprised?), and the sun and moon look pretty good.
And I STILL like the first one best!
Moral to THIS story, I think, is that watercolors are a zen thang, and I need to just loosen up and let it flow. If I don’t like it, just move on, no redos. Very hard for an old acrylics person like me . . .
© LunarMoondae 2013.
Images courtesy DKatiePowellArt.
Lunar Moondae 
Love your goddess. Happy PPF, Annette x
http://nettysartadventures.blogspot.co.uk/
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Thanks Annette!
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Kate – i like the first one best, too. Perhaps you are being taught something new through this experience. Just as the medium is different, so too is the outcome. In acrylics you might have many ways to affect the outcome. With watercolors, perhaps the outcome is less in your control, and you cede more of it to the medium itself. (After all, your medium IS water, and we never truly control nature).
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I started out using acrylics too, but I have turned more and more into watercolors. I like them much better than acrylics now. I think it’s all about practice, one learn to know how they react and act thereby. No doubt I like your first painting best also.
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Sammy, good reminder — water, the great emotional body, is uncontrollable!
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Laila, I keep being drawn back to them too. As I am learning to pull the intensity of the color it has helped me to be wooed by them, and the brightness and transparency. Love your apple blossoms!
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Reblogged this on Lunar Moondae and commented:
I am getting ready to teach an exciting class, and here is a hint. The Earth Watching the Moon Pull at her Belly. Follow Lunar Moondae for announcements on this and the Lunar Moondae Challenge!
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Reblogged this on D.Katie Powell Art and commented:
I am getting ready to teach an exciting class, and here is a hint. The Earth Watching the Moon Pull at her Belly. Follow Lunar Moondae for announcements on this and the Lunar Moondae Challenge!
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¡Viva 3 a.m.!
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I am a fan of the original sketch. There’s something in the sleepy expression of Gaia and the thoughtful/listening expression of the sun that I like. In the last painting, Gaia’s arm looks too much like an eel to me and her expression is too coolly assessing. The second one feels too muddy. So I’d choose the first painting, too. It’s funny. I’m working on several children’s stories right now, and I find myself doing the same thing with the written word. Which one will ever feel “just right”?
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I sometimes get the “just right” feeling, and I look for it, but sometimes not, and don’t know what I have to do to get there. Mitchell likes the first one best, too. I didn’t like it because she had no face.
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