For the month of September I challenged myself to create 30 watercolor paintings—one for each day of the month. I did this by following along with a list of prompts from Doodlewash, a blog and online store run by artist Charlie O. with an emphasis on watercolor painting.

Doodlewash puts out a different list of prompts each month. Those who wish to share their creations on Instagram can use the monthly Doodlewash hashtag to connect with other creators. It’s not unlike Inktober or NanoWriMo (Yes, I’m aware those are both challenges that have some negative controversy surrounding them in recent years.) Though, the Doodlewash challenges run year round with a different set of prompts each month.

For September the prompts were: light bulb, bottle, circus, barn, dog, shoes, trees, gourds, chocolate, goldfish, sky, tea, drink, half moon, bridge, pyramid, mouse, yo-yo, historic, pelican, spoon, grapes, boater, candle, hot air balloon, milkshake, origami, boots, poppy and bubbles.

I decided to follow along and do all of the September prompts because I wanted to get a little more comfortable in working with watercolor paints. Having the list of prompts was nice because it helped me to figure out what I should paint next. It was also a way to push me out of my comfort zone a little bit.

As you can see from the collage of paintings above, I am clearly not a master watercolor painter, but I had fun creating these different little paintings. I completed all 30 prompts in the challenge, but technically I didn’t paint every day. For those not familiar with watercolors, the medium does require some amount of waiting for paint to dry (and since we all know that’s not a terribly thrilling activity) it’s a good idea to work on more than one painting at a time so that you can get started on the next one while you’re waiting for the first to dry. So I usually would do a batch of 3 or 4 paintings at once.

The weather was nice enough here through most of September that I could do my painting outside. The only challenges this presented is that one day there was an ant who seemed way too interested in my paint, and when I was attempting to paint some bubbles the wind decided to carry my painting off before it was dry, leading to some dripping bubbles. I call that artwork a collaboration with Mother Nature.

With the exception of the goldfish, I painted all of my paintings with a set of Kuretaki Gansai Tambi watercolors. These come as a set of dry paint pots that are activated with water not unlike the watercolor sets we used as children, though admittedly of a much higher quality. (In the photo above you can see them on the top right next to the painting of the dog.) I really like the feel of these paints. The goldfish was painted with a set of Arteza Enchanted Forest metallic watercolors. I do like the cool metallic nature of the paints, but I much preferred the Gansai Tambi paints. Both sets were purchased from Michaels.

This exercise definitely made me more comfortable with watercolors, and while I look forward to creating some more watercolor works in the future, I’m not doing this month’s prompts. That said, I can’t rule out trying some more Doodlewash prompts in the future.

If there’s some creative pursuit that’s always intrigued you or something else you’ve always wanted to try this is your prompt from me to go for it, and most of all to have fun with it!

— Alissa

---

Weekly Inspiration

What I’m Reading: The Naked Tree by Keeum Suk Gendry-Kim (translated by Janet Hong)

What I’m Watching: How to Die Alone

What I’m Listening to: “All the Pretty Girls” by fun.

---

Find out more about my books at alissagrosso.com

Find out more about my digital art at alissacarin.com

---

---

My apologies for the typos and such this post is almost certainly riddled with.