soaked a full sheet last night and now I can't leave the apartment until it dries
I'm not joking, there's a 22x30 Arches block drying flat on the kitchen floor right now and I've built my entire day around not stepping on it. I wanted this soft wet-in-wet sky for a bigger piece, and I got greedy and flooded it, and instead of beautiful soft edges it did that thing where the pigment backruns and you get the cauliflower bloom in the middle of what was supposed to be a clear wash. Three years of formal training and I still do this when I'm impatient.
Anyway, this is my eighth month full time and I keep noticing how much of my day is just... waiting. Waiting for a wash to dry, waiting for the light to come back to the window, waiting to see if the thing I just did ruined everything or made it. I don't know if anyone warned me about that part. The painting itself takes like an hour. The rest is standing around trying not to touch it.
Also my partner asked why I was crouching on the floor staring at it like a weirdo and I said "checking for blooms" and they said "you made those flowers yourself?" and now I'm in love with them even more, so that's the story of my Tuesday.
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Eight months and you already know the cause. That is not nothing. Plenty of people flood a wash for years without ever connecting it to their own hurry.
The waiting is real work, though I would put it differently. You are not waiting, you are letting the paper finish something you cannot do for it. I work with paper every day and I have learned to treat the drying time as part of the making, not the gap between it. Put the kettle on, look at the thing from across the room, leave it alone. The backrun happened because you kept going. The next version of that sky will be better because today you learned where your hand should have stopped.
Also, a 22x30 on the kitchen floor is a serious commitment. I have taped pieces to the bathroom wall and eaten dinner standing up for two days, so I understand the arrangement.
This is the part nobody warns you about. I trained as an architect and we were taught to keep working the drawing until it was right, so the first year of painting was me fighting every wash. Architect brain says fix it now. Paper says leave me alone.
The kettle thing works. I also keep a small sketchbook nearby so the hands have something else to do while the big sheet settles. Otherwise I just stand there and hover, which is the same as touching it.
Architect brain says fix it now, that is EXACTLY it, that's the whole problem in five words. I came out of a program that also rewarded fixing, so I get the muscle memory. The worst part is knowing the wash is still moving and my hand is just... right there, hovering, absolutely certain it can help.
The sketchbook thing is smart, I've been doing dishes badly instead which is not the same and also now my kitchen is a disaster. Stillness is basically the entire skill and nobody tells you it's 80% of the job. I keep thinking I'll get faster and then realizing the good painters I know are just more comfortable being bored.
Did it take you long to stop fighting them? Like is there a point where the architect brain shuts up or do you just get better at ignoring it?
"letting the paper finish something you cannot do for it" ok that reframe is going to live in my head rent free, thank you. Because you're right, and the annoying part is I KNOW this, I say it to other people, and then the second a wash is 80% dry my hands are like "what if we just... touched it." The kettle thing is a good call actually. I've been standing over it watching it dry like that's going to speed it up, which, hilariously, it does not.
Can I ask what paper you work with? I've been on Arches forever because it's what I learned on, but I keep hearing people swear by Fabriano for wet-in-wet and I'm too scared to switch mid-piece.