The 100 Day Project 2018 – Watercolour Sunsets

It’s been a while since I posted my last round-up of paintings for The 100 Day Project. That’s because I actually took a whole month off!

I am very pleased to be back to it though and have thoroughly enjoyed painting each evening. The sunny summer evenings are just perfect for painting!

This week I picked up where I left off at the start of May with Sunsets as the theme. I will also reveal next week’s theme today.

Why The Absence?

May was ME Awareness Month and within a few days of bed-activism I was no longer able to maintain the amount of exertion required to raise awareness and paint daily. I ended up spending most of that month in my bed in the dark.

I am happy to finally be coming out the other side of that flare and am back to daily painting. I’m also trying to draw every morning, but I am going to allow myself the freedom to not do it some days, taking the pressure off. Today is one of those days – woke up really late and in a lot of pain. Unsure why. So no drawing this morning. I have enough on my plate and that’s okay.

I found that I often bite off more than I can chew and put a lot of pressure on myself to stick to the plan, but I know that that is not the best way to go about things. I need to be kind to myself and adjust the plan as necessary. It was what I did as a teacher too – the plan is a guide, but you have to adjust your lesson according to your students and how they are handling the work on the day. Why could I not offer myself the same flexibility?

Watercolour Sunsets

This week’s theme has been so much fun! I loved the bright colours and contrasting silhouettes. The reflections and water gave me much to practice and learn from and there were many firsts for me this time! Click on pictures to zoom.

My first sunset was a typical orange sky with a lake scene. I jumped right in and tried to paint water. I love the trees in the foreground and the grass, so I tried to replicate this in the next painting too.

You can see I had prepared both backgrounds in advance so that they would have time to dry properly before painting over them. The items I painted in the foreground were things I had already painted in previous weeks. The little islands with pine trees were from my Night Skies week and the trees were an adaptation from my Leaves week.

The 100 Day Project, Watercolour Sunset, Orange TreesThe 100 Day Project, Watercolour Sunset, Pink Trees

The next 2 backgrounds I painted were not my favourite and I was worried about how I would make them work. But I found a place on each one where I could see a horizon, so I decided to go with water again.

This time I painted many things for the first time:

  • The wave details in the water
  • Flying birds
  • Palm tree
  • Pier
  • Fence
  • Buildings

Considering these were my first attempts at painting these items, I am super happy with how they turned out. I initially was very disappointed with the Cityscape as the reflections were just not working. I re-painted them a few times and was about to give up when my sister walked in and said something that changed my mind. She said “Wow!”, like I had painted something amazing.

It’s incredible what a small compliment like that can do. I decided not to bin it and post it instead. It’s actually growing on me now. We really are our own worst critics, aren’t we?

My sister often tells me to “wait till it dries” or “wait till tomorrow” because she knows that I am usually less critical of my work later on.

The 100 Day Project, Watercolour Sunset, Orange SeasideThe 100 Day Project, Watercolour Sunset, Cityscape

The following 2 days I went really bright with the sunset skies! I love the colours and these are possibly my favourites from this week.

I was more intentional about the colour mixing for the backgrounds, really thinking about where the horizon would be and where the colours would reflect.

In the first one, I went back to the seaside for palm trees and islands with something other than pine trees and I again added wave details to the water and birds. In the end there was much empty space in the water and I felt uncomfortable leaving it that way – I seem to have the need to fill empty spaces – might be something I need to work on.

I decided to have a go at painting a little boat – another first. I think it came out quite well. I do scroll through Instagram to find photos as references when I paint something for the first time, so this is not completely from my head. I just look for each element and look at it carefully before I paint it.

The 100 Day Project, Watercolour Sunset, Rainbow SeasideThe 100 Day Project, Watercolour Sunset, Pink Mountains

In the second painting I decided to do mountains which I had already painted in the Night Skies week. I really enjoy painting mountains – creating the shadows and crevices. It’s a long process though and I do tend to stay at the desk too long when painting them.

Again, once I was done, there was a lot of open space in the middle, so I went and added the 3 foreground trees.

My sister thinks it was better without them. And I’m not overly excited about their placement either, but I didn’t want to cover the mountains and for some reason I thought smaller trees wouldn’t be right.

I seemed to have an idea in my head and smaller trees just put that all out of perspective for me, so huge trees, right in the middle it was!

As usual, I am happier with it today than I was yesterday – I almost cried yesterday, really thought I had spoilt it, but now it’s one of my favourites.

Watercolour sunset lake scene with pine trees in the foreground. Title reads, The 100 day project, Chronically Hopeful Art, Watercolour sunsets.

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Supplies Needed For This Sunset Project

New Theme For Next Week

So since we are at the end of the week, it is time for a new theme. I initially did each theme for 10 days, so I would have 10 themes for the 100 days, but I’ve already missed a month so I’m just going to carry on with this theme thing indefinitely, but have decided to change it up a bit. And really I don’t have to complete one picture a day, I just want to paint something, anything, each day. So now I’m doing each theme for 7 days – one a week.

The New Theme Is:PASTELS

I’m quite excited about this. After the dark and bright colours of my sunsets with the contrast of the black silhouettes, these pastels will be a fun change!

Oh, you might be wondering where the seventh painting is since this week I have managed one a day, it’s incomplete. I Have the background done, but since I’m not doing too well today, I cannot sit at the desk any more. I’m currently lying down on my back with the curtains blocking out the gorgeous sunny day while writing this last paragraph.

I’ve only been back here on my bed, lying down for a few minutes and already I’m feeling better. This doesn’t mean I can get up and do more now, it means I’m finally doing the right amount for today’s issues. My body is happy with this, although I’m still shaking. So I’m going to get off the computer and do some deep breathing meditations and let my body rest properly for a few hours and postpone my bath for another day. Haha…

Tell me…

  • Do you struggle with meeting deadlines or accepting your limitations?
  • Have you managed to stick to The 100 Day Project so far?
  • Which of these sunsets is your favourite?

​Art Supplies I ​Love To Use

​Links go to Amazon. *Affiliate links used* Thank you for your support!

Tubes of Gouache

A tube of Winsor and Newton Gouache

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​Paint Brushes

A set of Winsor and Newton Cottman paint brushes

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​Watercolour Paper

Bockingford watercolour paper test sheets. Hot pressed and cold pressed.

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​Water Brushes

4 Aquash brushes with Pentel written on top left corner

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​Ballpoint Pens

A set of 5 Uni-ball Eye Pens

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Fine Liners

A set of Uni-pin Fine liners

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​White Gel Pen

Uni-ball Signo White Gel Pen with its cap off

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​Paint Pens

A set of Posca Paint Pens in pastel shades

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​Stardust Pen

A Sakura Gelly Roll pen in Clear stardust colour

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​Large Brush Pens

A set of 6 Tombow dual brush pens

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​Small Brush Pens

A Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen and cap

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​Blendable Markers

A set of 6 Spectrum Noir blendable alcohol markers

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​Thank You For Stopping By!

​For ​more news, personal updates, inspirational quotes and conversation, ​join me on The ME/CFS Community | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Bloglovin’

email chronically hopeful char at gmail dot com

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Chronically Hopeful
Chronically Hopeful

Char was born and raised in South Africa, but has been settled in Europe for over 20 years. She's passionate about finding ways to live well, despite chronic illness.

Apart from blogging, she enjoys art, cooking, reading, gardening, gaming and learning new things. She speaks English, Italian and Afrikaans fluently and is slowly learning French too.

She used to be a teacher, but has been housebound with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis since 2015. Since then, she's focused on spending the little energy and strength she has each day on the people and activities she loves. Finding joy in the little things and celebrating the ordinary.

13 Comments

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  1. These are just wonderful Char. But I’ve been stalking your Facebook page so you already know I think that ?

    I’ve had a bunch of huge deadlines lately and yes, it’s been a massive struggle to meet them. The stress is something else.

    • Haha.. Thank you!

      Yes, deadlines are stressful. We must be careful not to impose too many on ourselves though, causing unnecessary additional stress. I know I do that all the time.

      Must remind myself that I don’t need to publish that blog post or complete that picture today, it can wait if necessary, it’s it’s causing stress then it’s not healthy. Definitely something I need to work on more. ?

  2. These are beautiful, I’m not very good at sticking to these challenges, I’m always signing up for them and although I start with all great intentions and I have this vision in my head of committing to the project every day, I seem to fall by the way side sooner or later ? oh well.

    • It’s really hard, I have yet to finish any challenge I have started, LOL! COnsistency is very hard with chronic illness being so unpredictable and fluctuating. I decided the best this is just to try, to do my best, and listen to my body. Some is better than none. At least I tried. Right? We shouldn’t beat ourselves up over what we can’t achieve but rather celebrate what we can.

  3. Love Love Love! Especially the ones with buildings in and the one with the boat as they remind me of being on holiday and that’s something I haven’t done for so long! Looking forward to seeing your pastel work…

  4. I struggle with taking things ‘easy’ and slow but then pushing myself too much because I think I ‘should’ be doing things. I’m glad your turning the corner from the last flare and are enjoying getting back into daily painting. These watercolours are absolutely beautiful! xx

    • Thanks Caz. It’s such a hard lesson to learn and I think it’s one of those things we have to keep learning… We inevitably will overdo things in life when too enthusiastic or life happens and we cannot rest… So the cycle will keep going. I guess our big assignment is to accept that we will constantly fluctuate and that’s okay. The trick is to recognise it and rest before too much damage is done.