Three questions for this next week of April 2025 Spring Fever:

1- Would you like to have room for even more learning?

2- If so, what subject would you explore?

3- Would two hours a week, for only a month, interest you at all?

My answers: I love watercolor, I love writing, and I want to get better at both.

Watercolor Lessons

Since I raved about Andrew Broussard’s painting last week, I decided to give it a go myself. I began by working from memory, then decided to rewatch his tutorial lesson for this very painting, pausing often, crafting my own version of a paint-along. “Don’t just watch and listen: DO IT!”

Creating this little 4.5 inch x 7 inch study right in my watercolor sketchbook, instead of on a separate sheet of paper, reinforced my student mindset. My goal was to learn something new, not try to create a perfect copy (which is impossible, of course!)

I’m back to studying writing too.

A year ago, I attended a class offered by Grant Faulkner on Domestika. Now I’m happy to be exploring his 2023 book, “The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story.” Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

“…a well-crafted short-short demands not to be read quickly but to be read multiple times, with the attention one brings to a poem… Our lives are as much about the unspoken as the spoken. We live in the gaps, the white spaces… Most craft books say the primary elements of fiction are character, setting, and plot, but I think it’s worth questioning whether that’s true. Rhythm, spatiality, and texture seem as important to me. Mood. Tone. That ineffable sense of voice (or perhaps it’s more appropriately called “being”). The aesthetic of brevity invites questions about the conventions of storytelling: What are the elements of a story that matter?”

It’s no wonder this book captured my attention. The difference between a novel and a short story is like the difference between an oil painting and a watercolor. Get in, get out, and know what you’re doing in between. Keep your colors and your syntax clean. Leave your audience both satisfied and hungry for more.

Nope, no oils or novels for me. I’m all about watercolor and brevity.

This post is pushing 400 words already, hardly brief! I love having a hungry mind. What about you?

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I hope you enjoyed this essay. Click on the “Word Cloud” at the right if you’d like to read more about a specific topic. Feel free to forward any of them to friends and family members who might enjoy them.

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The newest book, Look at That! – Second Edition, is also available as a beautiful hardcover.

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As always, thanks for spending some time with me “aloft.” Happy gazing and sketching!