This month, the time I can spend in the wheelchair is limited (doctor’s orders as I heal from a pressure sore). Since I am supposed to tilt the chair every 15 minutes and can only be up for a couple hours at a time, I couldn’t imagine how I could draw using the slow watercolor pencil materials. Instead, I experimented with watercolor markers.
In retrospect, it would’ve been good to really play with the markers, trying different techniques of blending and using water. Instead, I launch right in to a drawing I hoped to use in my monthly newsletter.
I chose this subject because the three birds leaning against each other and keeping each other company exemplify giving and receiving without hierarchy.
The markers – along with four months in bed – invited me to avoid reaching for realism. I reveled in the bright colors. That’s why these birds are pink and blue instead of the photographic gray. I did do enough rough sketching to enjoy trying pointillism for the birds’ heads and the back and forth sweep for their tails.
I used a bit of watercolor pencil for their bellies, because I wanted something more subtle and don’t have a light gray marker.
Creativity is frequently driven by the limitations of materials and this is no exception.
Hooray for a return to making marks!