Reality Bites!

Now is the season of our social media discontent! All those fabulous summer posts, perky boobs, peachy posteriors, thousands of those exotic locations being posted to make all those sweltering in drabber climes envious; posting art is no exception! Swathing through my social media feeds I see endless photos of meticulously clean desks, paintbrushes and pencils artistically poised and primped. Am I guilty, well of course! Not the perky boobs and peachy posterior, nahhhh! Those days are long gone (if they every really did exist at all), I'm guilty of the peachy sketchbook and perky pencil jobs, sneaking their way into your feed (if of course you follow me). 

Being the peony season (one of my favourite flowers) I decided to do a mixed media sketch of a bunch of peonies bought at the weekend, sooooo here is the insta version! 

And now, reality bites! If you’re keen on tidiness, I would seriously think twice about getting together with an artist because this is what the truth looks like:)) 

There is truly everything in my sketch; gouache, acrylic, coloured pencil, watercolour, pastel, pastel pencil, watercolour pencil, graphite and Uncle Tom Cobley and all. To be honest I don’t think (but I'm not sure) that the luminous marker pen was used but it’s lying there just in case! This is an A0 drawing desk and there still isn’t enough space. 

Sooo, if insta envy hits you, remember this, everything’s fakeable, not only can you photoshop your less than perfect rear end, you can do the same with your artwork. A friend of mine is always bemoaning those ''work in progress videos or photos'', what do you do if the final painting is a disaster she wails. The answer is easy, you post your work in progress only when you've finished and you know you can post the beautifully, perfect piece of art. Maybe not as attractive as a bum you can crack nuts with but in the art world just as desirable. 

As for my sketch, well I learned a lot from it too, I should have thwacked the paper on the easel and worked standing, so I could splodge that paint more freely, and I prefer working larger better. I also took (millions) of reference photos and would have preferred a darker grey background like the background of my photos (no filter, no photoshop!). Funnily enough, my camera had real problems with the sketch, the photos were too warm or too cold and no amount of fiddling with filters sorted it, there you have it ....... reality bites!