Why not now?

So quite awhile ago I finally splurged and bought some Golden Fluid Acrylics. I have been dying to try them since I first heard of the possibility of painting like watercolors with the permanence of acrylics. It would mean getting to paint on canvas and not needing glass to frame. But when I bought them, something came up and I didn't get around to trying them. And then I got a little intimidated by them and felt like I didn't have the time to figure them out. Ha. Kinda ridiculous, eh? There were times when that was true like when I was up against a competition deadline or working on commissions, but basically it was a fear of trying something different and being bad at it. I get so little time to paint that I feel a lot of pressure to make every second count but the thing is, some of those seconds need to be used for learning and experimenting. So I spent a night sifting through photos until I was finally inspired by this one, and decided to give it a go with those unopened fluid acrylics. I maybe should've picked an easier picture to start on or a smaller canvas or something, but the reflections in the photo just were so exciting! Reflections always mesmerize me. It's like they're already paintings, but ones that are constantly moving and if you blink, you might miss the best one yet. 

So it's been sadly very slow going. Even the drawing took forever and after each painting session I've been a little discouraged to see how little progress has been made.

I mean, I worked so hard and long between these two! And you can hardly tell.

I was actually done for the night after that last photo, but when I looked at how little it seemed like I'd done, I picked my brush back up and filled in one more color so there seemed to be a little more to show for my time. 

All that blank canvas is the problem. Filling it in (even if it's just a preliminary layer that'll get painted over time and again) always makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere. So that's my goal for tomorrow!