Finished a painting today, The Rainbow Fleet at Nantucket

I finished up a piece I have been working on. Although I mostly focus on animals or figural work, I do sometimes do seascapes. Here we have the Rainbow Fleet:

Living on the sea and loving the water certainly inspires me. Having also sailed and even owned a sail boat, such scenes bring joy to me to recall and to create. This work is representing the famous Rainbow Fleet of Nantucket here in New England, where I reside. This is an interesting article about the original rainbow fleet of the 1920's made famous by the photo taken by H. Marshall Gardiner.

I started with a grid and then sketch. Then I move to a loose rough sketch.

Following that I begin to color in and fill out the background, keeping the rough sketch lines to guide and inspire me. I play with color and form at this point.

Of course the lines go away as I am finishing up the final stages of the work. A piece like this can take up to a month if I am lazy, but this one took a week.

Ever since I did Inktober last year, I have been very good about diligently doing some bit of artwork each day. Sometimes this can simply mean doodling or sketching. I find doing so always leads to me at least laying out a piece or working on a current piece. It has made me much more prolific.

What art habits have you tried to encourage in yourself?

Do you set a schedule for your art or creative time?

I hope you have a lovely creative day filled with sailing boats and lapping waves on warm Summer shores, even if only imagined.