JOSHUA ELEK: WATERCOLORS

Category: Water Color

  • Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 1

    Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 1

    I enrolled in a watercolor class at the Canton Museum of Art. Last week was the first class. In that session, we covered a lot of the basics about what materials are used to paint in watercolor, why those materials are used, and a little bit about some of the techniques you can use to […]

  • Getting Better

    Getting Better

    Some of you who have followed this thing for a bit know that I struggle with depression. This year been very challenging for a number of reasons, but I am doing everything I can to get better. A few months ago, I participated in an intensive outpatient therapy group to work on things. I met […]

  • Gesture Practice

    Gesture Practice

    A big part of my recovery is focused on doing things. I spent a lot of time trying to reset by taking time away from things, and just slowing down a bit. Now, part of my next steps are getting back into things, though I’m trying to do so without putting so much pressure on […]

  • Winter Brook: Rick Surowicz Tutorial

    Winter Brook: Rick Surowicz Tutorial

    This is a painting I did, following along with a YouTube tutorial by Rick Surowicz. If you haven’t checked him out, you should. I really value his pedagogy. My version doesn’t look exactly like his, but that’s ok. Maybe I’m starting to see a little bit of a style of my own – with those […]

  • Hills, Rocks and Streams

    Hills, Rocks and Streams

    Here is a great example of an awful painting that I made. I make a lot of terrible paintings, and I try to post them even when they are awful. More and more often, these paintings are so discouraging that I can’t stomach the thought of posting them, but I need to. Paintings like this […]

  • Plein Air Monument Park

    Plein Air Monument Park

    After my first day at IOP, I went to the park and painted this before I went home. I wasn’t expecting my first day painting outside in over a year to result in anything mind blowing – I simply wanted to force myself to go do it. I am intimidated by painting outside because so […]

  • Luna Moth

    Luna Moth

    Part of the IOP program I just went through included art therapy. One day, I drew a painting of a pot on a fire, and surrounded it with spooky Scooby Doo eyes. When I showed the image, they thought the spooky eyes looked like moths – which I kind of liked. Instead of scary eyes […]

  • Daffodils

    Daffodils

    It’s been a long time since I have posted, but I have made a few things in that time. I don’t feel like writing up each and every one, but I do want to include them here because I want a record of my improvement that I can look back on in the future. So, […]

  • Getting Better So I Drew a Foot

    Getting Better So I Drew a Foot

    I don’t really know how to write about this. I want to explain what has been going on in my life because I know these recent events are not unique to me. I like to think that being transparent with the mental health issues I deal with from time to time can help encourage others […]

  • Unwell, OK.

    They say it’s ok to not be ok. I am not ok, I am unwell. This is not ok. I can’t explain how much it hurts to be alive right now. I’m not looking for attention, I’m not crying into my beer. I’m not sad because things aren’t going my way, or because I feel […]

  • Autobiography: #1

    Autobiography: #1

    I have been very busy over the past few weeks… life has been… a lot. Between driving kids places, working, a colonoscopy, Rachel getting a biopsy and a lumpectomy – I’ve been very busy. But, I am still trying to find time to paint and draw. Recently, I finished this painting, which is one of […]

  • Sketching Practice: Faces and Gesture

    Sketching Practice: Faces and Gesture

    I haven’t painted anything since my last Farm Road painting, but I haven’t been idle. I have been working on my draftsmanship by trying to draw my way through the Portrait and Figure Drawing courses on Proko.com. I purchased the Portrait course a long time ago, and won the Figure drawing course in the Proko […]

  • Farm Road: End of Year Four

    Farm Road: End of Year Four

    This year I posted fewer paintings than any of my previous years. There are a few reasons for this. First, I painted less. I spent a good bit of effort this year on practicing drawing. I tried learning more about perspective in particular, because I want to be able to depict the things I’m trying […]

  • Appalachia #1

    Appalachia #1

    Firstly: it’s pronounced ”apple-LATCH-uh” not “apple-LAY-shuh.” I didn’t know this until I moved to Wheeling, West Virginia. Appalachia is named after the Native American tribe that Spanish explorers met in the mountains north of Florida in the 1600s (if I remember correctly.) For that reason, I think pronouncing it correctly is important. The US was […]

  • I’m Back

    I’m Back

    So, that was the longest delay between posts so far. I just typed up a whole lot about why, and what I’m doing now… I’ll save you from that. Instead of a big long post, here is a painting I just made that I’m proud of.

  • Putin Can Go Fuck Himself

    Putin Can Go Fuck Himself

    8 years, 1 week, and 4 days ago, a petulant, shirtless cowboy stole a part of the world. 8 days ago, in the sucking vacuum of accountability, he grinned, and stole peace itself.

  • Lots of Nothing

    Lots of Nothing

    Hey Internets… I haven’t posted in a long time. Because I’m very tired, completely discouraged, and have next to zero motivation. I hate everything I draw. I hate everything I paint. When I’m not drawing or painting, or working, I am trying to think of something – anything to fill the time so I won’t […]

  • Proko Challenge: Landscape #5

    Proko Challenge: Landscape #5

    I wanted to write up each Landscape thumbnail that I painted, but I ended up needing to dedicate the time to the challenge itself in order to finish on time. I am very pleased with the results that I got from doing this, and I think I’ll be working thumbnails like this into my workflow […]

  • Website Hacked

    TL/DR; My site was hacked, and you may have been redirected to a phishing page at some point when browsing my content. I have fixed the issue. If you are ever redirected to a strange page when visiting my blog – please let me know by posting a comment. I regret to say that my […]

  • Proko Challenge: Landscape Thumbnails #2

    Proko Challenge: Landscape Thumbnails #2

    This is the second post about the Proko Landscape Thumbnails challenge. The challenge was to submit five landscape paintings, each 2 inches wide by 2 inches tall. I started this painting off wanting to paint trees in the distance using wet-in-wet. I tend to do this often, but in my mind, there is this technique […]