Back at last!

l know! It has been sooooo long! Alas, an awful lot of painting of the not so fun kind (the house!) has been in the way! And you know what l have discovered? It is really hard to complete a picture when you only get to work on it for a few hours here and there over several weeks. I don’t just mean the obvious, that it takes a long time. But it is really hard to get not only the motivation but also to carry on where you left off. I forget which colors l was using, in which order. I forget how l was drawing something!
​I wished like anything it hadn’t been this bad boy iguana that l was drawing when all this extra decorating needed to be done urgently.

Are you wondering why l said that? I love drawing all types of lizards .... but, and it is a big but, for me they take huge amounts of concentration and time. I have to work myself up to it for months before drawing one. So many of the textures demand such a high degree of accuracy, start going the wrong way or the wrong size and suddenly the whole piece looks wrong! My eyes have to work really hard and they know they have worked hard at the end of the day!
So each time l had a few hours to work on this it felt like l was beginning afresh, familiarizing myself with my colors again.
I have promised myself as my reward for sticking with it and completing it that l will have the treat of drawing a hummingbird next.
lt reminded me yet again that patience is one of the most important things to learn when it comes to art. Whether that it the patience to complete a piece, the patience to add more layers, the patience not to rush. The more patient we can learn to be, the better the art we produce (whatever our skill level may be).
If you want to see how l draw lizard skin the link to my tutorial is below. And l will be back very soon with a new hummingbird!

Lizard skin tutorial