Watercolor Dawn Purple Sunrise Painting - My painting progress over 9 months

In today’s post, I’m sharing two paintings, one from August 2020, and the other from April 2021.

The reason why I'm sharing both as a comparison is that they were painted from the exact same reference photo, nine months apart.

I was pleasantly surprised to be able to 'see' that I had moved my work forward in a way that I am proud of.

We often spend most of our time comparing our work to the work of others, when the best measure of progress is comparing our work against...our own work.

In the act of reflecting on our own work and comparing where we were at to where we are now, we can gain a unique perspective and possibly even give ourselves some credit for the progress we have made.

It is not uncommon for us to be our own worst critiques. We forget to stop and celebrate what we have accomplished. Instead, choosing to focus on what we have yet to achieve.

I’ll share something I celebrated when I recreated this piece: I noticed I have made progress in my ability to ‘let things go.’

Letting go after I’ve laid down a wash
Letting go so I don’t overwork the painting as much
Letting go so that I can push forward and finish instead of giving up

I think these things are what allowed this “newer” version to feel softer, less overworked, and more luminous. Of course, there's always room for improvement. But, at this point, I'm proud of where I am at. What I painted was the best I could do at that moment, and I’m proud of how far I’ve made it.

I know the more I paint, the better I’m going to get. And that is true for you, too!

So I hope that this post has encouraged you to take a moment to see how far you have come and know that you can and will continue to make progress as long as you keep trying.

I created a YouTube video that shares what the painting process looked like for both versions of this painting. If you’re curious and you’d like to watch how I approached them and listen to a few notes I had on the process for the April 2021 version, click here or on the image below to give it a watch!