My biggest challenge I am facing every time when I need to choose a new painting challenge is a complexity of the chosen subject. I have tons of gorgeous compositions but to paint them in 3 weeks would be a full time job, possibly without any sleep. Clearly it is "mission impossible".
To make life more colorful mother nature made every naturally arranged subject complex enough so that a new artist immediately feels frightened and runs away. Where is the middle ground? How to inspire and motivate everyone to join and pick up that pencil or brush they left many years ago?
I would like to thank to all of you who kindly informed me that current challenges are too complex to start with. The next one will be a simple still life, so be ready for it.
About the photo referenceThis is a small baby duck enjoying late afternoon swim at Ontario lake. There were 8 of them together with their mother. So I tried hard to simplify.
Here I am not concerned about the fact that the duck is almost centered and there is not much of the sophisticated composition. Sometimes it is good enough to practice and simply practice ... and there is a lot to practice here. Water waves - ever challenging with all folds and sky reflections. Feathers and duck reflections - another challenging texture. Obviously this is not a simple subject, but it has a great learning potential.
Due to my plans to take the last week of July off (July 24th-Aug 02) and be away from internet, this painting challenge is extended up to August 03. Any paintings arriving within this time frame will have to wait to be posted on Aug 04. The next painting challenge will be posted on August 04.
