One of the guys on WetCanvas was concerned about the time he has to practice watercolor, while trying hard to learn painting for many years now. This made me think how much time I actually spend these days with watercolor.
I started with my first pencil drawings back in 2000 (wow, it seems to be so long...), after a few years, on WetCanvas, I discovered watercolor and just love it! From time to time I try acrylics, watercolor pencils or pen and watercolor, but I am still learning watercolor. Each time I say about something "ok, I can master that now" I realize that there are so many other things I would love to be able to say I master them... so much more to learn! And the big problem is that painting is my hobby, so I spend about 50% of my time on the "bill paying job" (~8 to 9 hours a day, 6 days/week), another 40% with my kid and household tasks, about 10% with other obligations, about 5% on other things I like to do (e.g. reading, movies, etc), and it is only about 5% that is left for watercolor (maybe ~20 minutes/day). Out of these 20 minutes, I need to put together 2hours twice a month for the workshop that I volunteer to teach at the Community Center, about 1-2 hours per month which I spend to check WC (not much time to post anything), and in the end I have maybe about 2-3 hours per month which I use to actually practice and paint in watercolor - not that much, uh??? No surprise that I am so slow at finishing paintings...
The big questions is how can I change this, and find more time? Sleeping less is not really an option, because then I under-perform to all things, and I will need even more time for each... I need to figure this out!
I started with my first pencil drawings back in 2000 (wow, it seems to be so long...), after a few years, on WetCanvas, I discovered watercolor and just love it! From time to time I try acrylics, watercolor pencils or pen and watercolor, but I am still learning watercolor. Each time I say about something "ok, I can master that now" I realize that there are so many other things I would love to be able to say I master them... so much more to learn! And the big problem is that painting is my hobby, so I spend about 50% of my time on the "bill paying job" (~8 to 9 hours a day, 6 days/week), another 40% with my kid and household tasks, about 10% with other obligations, about 5% on other things I like to do (e.g. reading, movies, etc), and it is only about 5% that is left for watercolor (maybe ~20 minutes/day). Out of these 20 minutes, I need to put together 2hours twice a month for the workshop that I volunteer to teach at the Community Center, about 1-2 hours per month which I spend to check WC (not much time to post anything), and in the end I have maybe about 2-3 hours per month which I use to actually practice and paint in watercolor - not that much, uh??? No surprise that I am so slow at finishing paintings...
The big questions is how can I change this, and find more time? Sleeping less is not really an option, because then I under-perform to all things, and I will need even more time for each... I need to figure this out!
It is so hard to work and have a regular life and then find time to do watercolors too. I know when I was still working I rarely found time to paint...I was just too tired. Hope you find time soon.
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