30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge - Two Thirds Complete

I’ve been doing some number crunching. Last night I finished my 20^th painting of this year’s challenge. I made number 11 on June 7^th. This means that it took me 11 days to make the 10 paintings 11-20. If I keep to the same pace it means I should finish on Monday 29^th. That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room, but then it is rare for me to finish with more than a day or two in hand.

The most comforting thing is that I did have a feeling that completing this second ten was going to be more challenging, and that the likelihood was that I would end up having a couple of non-painting days and a far less productive weekend during this period. So the fact that I only had 1 day when I didn’t paint at all is very encouraging. Here’s a quick run through of the second ten:-

11) Hoverlloyd SRN4 Hovercraft

So, the second linking theme I decided on was methods of transport. This segues nicely between the two themes. The SRN4 was the largest civil hovercraft ever built. These giants used to carry over 200 passengers and 30 odd cars between England and France between 1968 and 2000. I like this picture - sadly I never got to ride on one myself.

12) Old London Bus

The best painting I made in my very first completed challenge in 2018 was a bus just like this.London buses, trams and trolleybuses are a subject I come back to a lot. What can I say? You can take the boy out of London . . . 

13) Eenee Stanit

This is an old deliver van, from I believe the 1950s, for the London Evening Standard Newspaper, my favourite paper until I moved to South Wales in 1986. But why Eenee Stanit? Ah, if you know, then you know.

14) Pit Stop

Back in 2022, there were two paintings I made during the challenge which made me step back and (I say it as shouldn’t) think – blimey – that’s actually good! -. One of them was an old grand prix car at Goodwood. Ever since then, whenever I’ve completed the challenge I’ve made a painting of an old grand prix car as part of the set. 

15) Mel's Safari

My friend Mel and her husband have just returned from a once in a lifetime safari to celebrate her 60th birthday. I used on of the photographs she took as a reference for this painting. In 2023 I painted a terrible picture of elephants. Thank goodness this is quite a bit better.

16) The Seaton Tramway

As well as the 30x30 Challenge, my birthday is in June. I love trams and so my youngest daughter and my son in law took me to the Seaton Tramway as a pre birthday treat. The Seaton tramway opened in 1970, a narrow guage tramway which is run by 14 tramcars based on classic British tram designs, all built to either 1/2 or 2/3 scale. 

17) The Finish Line

Well, we're a week on from my hovercraft picture that combined beach and transport and here we are back combining the two again. This time it's a bike race, One of the less successful of this year's crop.

18) Prague Tram

I came up with an idea yesterday. Mightn't it be fun to take some of the subjects that I painted in 2018 and try painting the again now? I don't know how many more comparison pieces I'll do, if any, but this was fun and it got me right back on track too. 

19) Beach Again 

It works like this. I knew that I was only going to have at maximum 90 minutes between getting in from work and having to go out again. I needed a subject that I could finish very quickly in that time. I had been saving this subject for just such an occasion.

20 The Fourth Doctor

This is a second comparison piece. I’ve been a fan of Doctor Who for a very long time, and like a lot of people my age, the magnificent Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor was my absolute favourite.  I painted him in my first go at the 30x30 in 2018.

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *20 The Fourth Doctor

This is a second comparison piece. I’ve been a fan of Doctor Who for a very long time, and like a lot of people my age, the magnificent Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor was my absolute favourite.  Painted him n my first go at the 30x30 in 2018.

Here’s my 2018 painting of the great man:-

It was actually one of my better efforts from 2018, but again, I hope that the comparison shows the journey I’ve been on with watercolour over the last 8 years. I think it does.

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30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *19 Beach Again

 

It works like this. I knew that I was only going to have at maximum 90 minutes between getting in from work and having to go out again. I needed a subject that I could finish very quickly in that time. I had been saving this subject for just such an occasion.

So after feeling guilty for not having painted on Monday, I've done two in two evenings and one more will mean I've completed two thirds of this year's challenge.

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30x30 Direct Watercolour Chellenge *18 Prague Tram Revisited

A couple of days ago I posted showing comparisons between my depictions of trams throughout the challenges and my depictions of formula 1 cars throughout the challenges. This led on to the idea – wouldn’t it be fun to take some of the subjects that I painted in 2018 and paint them again now, for a comparison? I don’t know how many others I’ll do, but my latest painting, number 18, is a Prague tram, and I also painted one of these in 2018. Here’s today’s

And here’s 2018’s

I’m easily tempted to pull apart and criticise the 2018 picture, but I have to remember that I didn’t know any better. It shows at least that even then I could draw shapes pretty accurately with paint. But I had a long way to go to learn how to give different areas of light and shade to large blocks of colour. I had a lot to learn about using colour full stop.

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30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge and post birthday guilt

It’s early morning on Tuesday 16^th June and I’m feeling guilty. I didn’t paint yesterday.  I have an excuse. It was a working day, and it was my birthday. By the time I got home from work the house was full with my 5 children and five grandchildren. They trickled away during the evening, then we went for a celebratory meal, I was tired and went to bed after everyone had left.Do I blame myself? No way. It was a special evening that I enjoyed very much.

But this is one of the downsides of the challenge. If you’re not careful you can use it as an excuse to put pressure on yourself. I started this year’s challenge on express pace, making 11 paintings by the end of the 7^th June. This put me 4 pictures ahead of the one a day schedule. By the 14^th I’d only managed another 6 paintings. This still meant I was three ahead. But then not painting yesterday meant I finished the evening just 2 ahead, and this morning I’m only 1 ahead, although I plan to paint when I get in this evening.

This is my problem. Once I’ve really got my teeth into a challenge I get too driven and start to invest emotionally in it. On the one hand this means when you complete then you get a huge satisfaction from it as you do when you paint a painting you’re pleased with. But the other side of the coin is that I start fretting that I’m not going to complete it, and that my paintings are not as good as last year, etc. etc.

Now, the rational part of my brain says – so what? If you don’t complete 30 by the end of 30^th June, does it make the ones you’ve done into worse paintings?! Of course, objectively, no it doesn’t, but the obsessive completist in me wants them to be a really good AND complete set of paintings.

The great Marc Taro Homes writes of getting over the hump in the challenge, which I guess is like getting through the wall when you’re running a marathon. I hope that this is my hump and I can get through it in the next few days. If I can be at 20 by close of play on Friday Evening then I can’t be too unhappy.

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *17 The Finish Line

Number 17 and it has just worked out that it’s another one combining the beach and transport.

I don’t think it’s all that great, but I did my best with it. You have to accept that some of the painting in a set of 30 just aren’t going to be your favourites.

Last week, in one way, was hard work because the pictures I painted on the weekday evenings were complex and time consuming. I’m still 2 days ahead of schedule and that’s good, but I only did 6 pictures in the whole of last week, so it could be that this is going to go right down to the wire this year. Well, I’m pretty fatalistic about it. I have really enjoyed what I’ve done so far. Chances are I’m not going to have any more time in the evenings this week than I did last week, but I’m not going to just dash off any old rubbish to make up time. I WILL finish – but if the last couple end up in the start of July, that’s life.

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30x30 Grand Prix Cars 2021-2026

Switching from beach scenes to transport for the 30x30 means that I‘ve returned to some subjects I’ve done before. I thought it might be fun to compare them. So let’s look at Grand Prix Cars

I painted my first formula 1 Grand Prix car in 2021 – it just didn’t occur to me to paint them in 2018 or 2019

2021

For what it is, it’s okay. Proportions aren’t too bad and if it was done as some kind of speed challenge – paint an F1 car as quickly as you can then I would have no complaints. But this approach, quick application of blocks of colour with little or no attempt to show the background never produced paintings I really liked

2022

This is still one of my favourite paintings I’ve ever made for any 30x30 challenge. Car, figures, background, it all pretty much works. Together with the first tram painting I made in 2022, this pointed the way forward for me.

2023

What a disappointment. Sometimes you produce a painting that isn’t as good as a similar one you made the year before, but rarely one that is so much worse. Harsh? Well, if you want to make progress, it helps to be honest with yourself. Not the best choice of subject, but I really think that the car is not brilliantly modelled and generally the colours are too drab.

I did not paint a grand prix car in 2024.

2025

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s maybe quite as good as the 2022 picture. But it’s miles better than 2023. I really like the stand with the flags on the far left.

2026

One thing I’ve noticed about 2026 is that I’m loosening up a little bit from last year, and I’m liking the results. This is a good demonstration of this.