Second Visit to V.M. Box (Brighter Days ♥)

Today I psyched myself up and went for a second day at the V.M. box. A large part of me dreaded returning to the cold lonely street, scared I'd find a drippy box of smudged paint and have to start all over again.

However I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived!! There was very minimal smudges, and only a few patches of yellow background needed touching up.

I also felt a lot more prepared painting this time. I had a lot more layers on, as well as some gloves and a flask of peppermint tea (mostly for warmth rather than drinking haha).

I spent the majority of the day honing in and getting some of the details down. I also improvised a 'vine' like pattern to go behind the bear and leaves to make the composition feel more whole and less 'random dotted leaves'.

I was even visited by Chay on my painting day, and I made sure to have a break halfway through to pop to costa and get some warm food. I also took my bottle of water into the toilets with me and filled it with fresh water (from the tap obviously not the toilet hahah) for cleaning my brushes with once I got back.

There was a girl also painting a little down the road from me this week who had a few bright ideas I'm going to take into consideration next time. She'd laid the plastic wrap cover onto the floor to give herself a dry area to sit on and work, as well as tucking the plastic cover around the back of the box when she was done rather than hiding it in an unsuspecting recycling bin for Ruth to find like I had previously.

All in all this day was a huge improvement from my last visit, there was even a lovely sunset towards the end of the evening. Getting to grips with the practical aspects of this brief (the elements, drying time, using the paint to get the line I want etc) has been the biggest learning curve so far. It also feels pretty nice leaving the box each day I work on it knowing I've done a little more of something that's really not that easy. I feel like if I can leave this box, being happy with the result and having painting in the depths of Leeds winter, any other live painting briefs will be a breeze!