JOSHUA ELEK: WATERCOLORS

Category: Water Color

  • 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

    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 […]

  • Proko Challenge Landscape Thumbnails: #1

    Proko Challenge Landscape Thumbnails: #1

    Proko has a challenge going right now, and I decided I would try to enter. I hope I can finish in time. The challenge is to paint 5 thumbnail landscapes. They can be painted in any medium, but they must be 2” x 2” large. The biggest focus of the challenge is to learn how […]

  • Edge of the Woods: #4

    Edge of the Woods: #4

    Two days ago, I wanted to Practice painting clouds. I painted this: I liked it in general, but felt like the bottoms of the clouds got over worked. So I tried again. I like this one more than the first, and decided to try to paint clouds again, with a more definite focus on the […]

  • Barn: #1

    Barn: #1

    December is nuts. Thanksgiving, then three birthdays, then Christmas… it’s busy. And my favorite time of year. But that means I don’t have much time to dedicate to writing these posts. Tonight, I finished a painting I’m pretty proud of, so I figured I would post it. This is my attempt to put into practice […]

  • Nimishillen Creek: #5

    Nimishillen Creek: #5

    I drive through Spiker Park three times a week, to take Norah to swim, or Winnie to dance. The West Branch of Nimishillen Creek goes through Spiker Park, and I drive over it on the way. Almost every time I do, I am struck by the strong contrast in the reflections on the water. When […]

  • Bluebirds & Random Drawings

    Bluebirds & Random Drawings

    I honestly don’t feel like writing about these, because I just typed a metric tonne about that Homer drawing. But I also want to publish these paintings, because I want to document my progress. Like I said, I’m really tired after working all day, then painting, then writing a ginormous blog post… I want to […]

  • Bargue Plate: Homer

    Bargue Plate: Homer

    It’s been a while! I haven’t posted recently because I got Covid, and I’ve been playing catch up ever since. If you are curious, read on. Skip ahead if you don’t care about Covid. TL/DR; Covid is real, and really dangerous for some people – but I’m fine and I never got terribly sick. My […]

  • Drawing Practice

    Drawing Practice

    I have decided to put a more concerted effort toward being a better draftsman, because of all the things I have tried, nothing has improved my paintings more than practicing drawing. I don’t know “how” to practice drawing. I have seen a thousand videos of people drawing. I’ve watched dozens of tutorials explaining perspective, edges, […]

  • Farm Road: End of Year 3

    Farm Road: End of Year 3

    Well, I’ve been painting for three years now. It’s time for me to do my little progress check. When I first started painting, I decided to try to paint the same thing every day for one month. It was the first watercolor painting I had ever really tried, and I figured painting it over and […]

  • Monarch Butterfly: #1

    Monarch Butterfly: #1

    Well, I am often too hard on myself when it comes to my paintings, but today, I finished a painting that I am happy with. Actually, I am very happy with this painting. I’ll go so far as to say I’m proud of this painting. One of the things that I think makes this painting […]