Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Kitten on fence

 

As you will all know, I run a small Art Forum on my web site. My site and the forum are specifically aimed at encouraging beginners to art in the hope that we can help them through that initial "I can't do this" phase. 

To that end we run a few projects and challenges and one of the most popular is the Monthly Painting and Drawing Project which invites all the members to paint or draw the same subject. Members often find themselves attempting a subject that they wouldn't normally attempt, and the expression "out of my comfort zone" is very common.

Being outside of one's 'comfort zone' is an excellent place to be because it causes you to have to try harder and it leads to more mistakes, and as we know, 'mistakes' are where you do all you're learning. There's not a lot to learn from something that you can do easily and competently.

One of the members chose this picture of a kitten walking along the top of a fence for one of the challenges. I can't imagine I'd have ever chosen this subject to draw under normal circumstances but I really enjoyed doing it. My young granddaughter loved the picture too, so it's now hanging on the wall of her bedroom. Happy days!!


Some more Pencil drawings from my web site

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6 comments:

  1. Joan Tavolott19 May 2023 at 21:20

    Interesting subject. I rarely do animals since I do most of my painting and sketching from life. It would be out of my comfort zone too.

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    1. John (JWJarts)20 May 2023 at 11:09

      Oh yes, I wouldn't attempt one without a good reference photo .... even then I find them challenging. LOL

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    2. Joan Tavolott21 May 2023 at 00:27

      One year I was taking part in a challenge to do "30 Paintings in 30 Days" to start off the month of January. So I challenged myself to paint pets and asked friends on FB to send me a photo of their pet if they were interested in letting me do a portrait it. But then when the challenge was over I once again I stopped doing them. lol

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    3. John (JWJarts)24 May 2023 at 10:31

      I can't imagine painting 30 pets in 30 days.... that's crazy. ;-)

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  2. Jo Castillo25 February 2025 at 04:42

    Great kitten! Yes always good to get out of our zone. I think I have painted one cat in all my paintings. Our Scavenger Hunts get us to sketch out of our comfort zone. Someone will put "under the sink" or "garbage', etc. I have sketched some very different things. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. John (JWJarts)26 February 2025 at 19:23

      How lovely of you to visit Jo. Yes, I can see how the scavenger hunt would present you with subjects you wouldn't ordinarily choose. It's certainly a great way of honing our skills.

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