2018 has without a doubt been the most artsy year of my life. I've never painted this much before, neither have I experimented with as many different techniques and mediums as I did this year. I wanna look back at some of my favourite paintings and drawings that I did from each month of 2018, and give you a little back story on each of them. So let's get started!
JANUARY
I started the year slow, setting up my new home studio, and only making little drawings, trying out coloured pencils for the first time and loving it! This pair of lips was one of my favourites that I did using the Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I later on went on to buy the entire set of Luminance pencils and just fell in love with them!
FEBRUARY
I went through a pretty decent watercolour phase early this year, following YouTube tutorials and painting a bunch of paintings. It was fun and rewarding, but I realised that watercolour will never be my first choice of mediums, even though I think it is one that looks the most beautiful.
MARCH
In March, I bought the set of Caran D Ache Luminance pencils, and gosh, I was obsessed with them. (Still am!) They were so good to draw skin tones with, and even though they felt a little scratchy on the paper, it just turned out I was using the wrong paper. With the right paper, and the right solvents, they look nothing less than an oil painting, but I'm yet to create something that beautiful with these amazing pencils.
APRIL
In April, I returned to watercolours, and made this set of animal paintings, which were so free and fresh, and completely unlike my style. Incidentally, a lot of people told me these were brilliant for a kid's nursery, and I ended up selling prints of these. If you want, you can check them out here. The originals are still hanging in my studio, but I'm gonna hold onto those because I'm quite fond of them.
MAY
In May, I ventured on to paint the largest painting I'd ever attempted. It's not large by any gallery standards, it was just large for me. My love for London city, and everything black and white brought me this idea, and I painted this on a 20"x24" canvas board with Acrylic paints. While I understand this has some major perspective issues, I'm still proud of it, and I've put this up in my living room, till I find something better to replace it!
JUNE
By June, I was addicted to acrylic paints, and was loving painting large. I zoned into my favourite greens and blues, and painted a bunch of acrylic paintings, this one being my favourite. This is 18"x24", acrylic on canvas board.
JULY
In July, my husband and I went on a holiday to Greece, and those beautiful blue and white houses were too pretty and tempting for me to not paint within two days of us coming back home. This is done on a 9"x12" canvas, with acrylic paints and is one of my most favourite paintings!
AUGUST
In August, I finally took the advice of an artist friend, and bought the super expensive, but allegedly best watercolour paper, the Arches Cold Pressed paper. I realised how uselessly difficult I was making watercolours for myself by not using this paper till now. It didn't buckle at all, and the colours showed up bright and beautiful on it. I instantly saw the difference, and created a couple of pretty watercolour paintings. It was very satisfying and an absolute delight.
SEPTEMBER
In September, I wanted to move away from my usual blues and greens and make something appropriate for the season. I painted this little set of maple leaves, on 6"x6" stretched canvases. They were so fun to paint, that I created three sets in total, two of which sold off instantly, which, I can't lie, is a pretty great feeling. The third one is available to buy here if you're interested.
OCTOBER
In October, I actually made 5 large paintings, and it's difficult to choose my favourite, but this one is quite special because a) it's not the usual happy bright turquoise that I paint, and b) I mixed this colour using bright orange and bright blue only, which still feels like magic to me. Mixing and discovering colours is such a delight, and I'm gonna continue doing that. This is 18"x24", acrylic on canvas. This painting is available to buy in my shop.
NOVEMBER
Continuing on with my love for acrylics, I painted this bicycle in my favourite colour on an 18"x24" canvas. High quality art prints of this painting are available in my shop. I was surprised with how the background turned out on this one, blurred enough to make the bicycle pop!
DECEMBER
Keeping up with the season, and exaggerating it to quite an extent to what I actually feel (there is no snow where I live... Not even close!), I painted this winter painting. This was almost entirely done using a palette knife, and I just loved creating textures and random strokes with it. This is 24"x24", acrylic on canvas.
Here's hoping 2019 will bring more art into our lives! 😊