The Art of Overthinking

February has been a little crazy for me so far. I’m not sure how it happened but I began thinking a lot about my art and what I actually want to create (and how I want to create it).

I don’t know why it’s so difficult for me to figure out. Or why I seem to overthink it all.

I have paintings that I want to create, but I feel like I won’t be able to do them with watercolors. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m right. I don’t know. It’s something I'm thinking about.

This led me to think about the mediums I actually want to use for my art.

I thought I wanted to start oil painting again, so I spent a couple hundred dollars 😭 and bought some supplies that I needed to start. After a week of waiting for all my materials I did 2 small paintings over 2 days and realized it wasn’t that fun to do.

The preparation, the clean-up, and the whole process in my small apartment was too much work. Then figuring out where to put the paintings for drying, etc. Overwhelming for me. Just not worth it all.

That was kind of a bummer to be honest, because I was so excited about using oils again after 5 years of not using them. But I just felt disappointed.

Instead I decided to try gouache again. I have used them in the past a couple times and luckily I already had all the supplies for them.

After a couple small sketches I felt good about using them. I experimented a bit with what kind of palette to use and figured out which would be quickest and easiest for clean-up.

That’s one thing I love about watercolors, is that there is virtually no prep or clean up. I can set up and almost instantly start painting with a bit of water and cleaning up is just a matter of putting the materials away.

I guess I’ve lost all patience over the years haha.

For now, I’ll keep exploring with gouache and watercolors. These seem to make me happy to work with and use for my art. (and they are cheaper and more affordable too).

And I’m sure I’ll continue to overthink everything and question it all.

Why am I doing this? What’s the meaning of these paintings? What’s the point?

Let’s just hope I can get better at ignoring these questions and thoughts for the most part and just enjoy the process creating art and making something beautiful.

More to come soon. Enjoy your week 🙂

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📽️My Future YouTube Videos

From now on, I'm focusing on producing quality videos and probably won't be releasing each week anymore.

Focusing on quantity isn't working for me, and I want to only put out videos which I'm actually proud of making. I'm hoping to still be able to do 2-3 videos per month moving forward.

I hope you'll be patient and understanding with this decision.

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Thank you for your time and support,
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Brandon Schaefer
​Creativity Fueled by Curiosity