Roughly a year ago, I started doing bodyweight workouts in my living room. 20-min circuits took me 40 minutes to finish. I couldn’t do half the exercises because I was too weak. It was embarrassing. But it happened in the privacy of my living room and nobody saw me but me.

Later, I started a bodyweight-to-failure routine. Eventually I felt comfortable enough to exercise in public, so I joined a gym and started a weightlifting program. Now physique has changed enough that friends and family notice the difference. I’m slimmer, more muscular, and generally happier with how my body looks, feels, and performs.

When I started Batfort, there wasn’t an internet living room that I could practice in. Sure, I could have done a lot of practice offline…but that’s a journal, not a blog. The only way to practice blogging is to do it, otherwise known as “practicing in public” or “publishing the learning curve.” Or, being okay with making a fool out of yourself in public.

The thing about internet traffic is, though, that nobody cares at first. You don’t get any traffic—and why should you?—which is discouraging even though you know it’s going to happen. Now, the traffic for the first 5 days of January has already surpassed all the traffic for January 2018, a few people have left comments, and posts have been linked to by other bloggers. There are still many things to improve (especially, and always, the quality my writing) but this is now an honest-to-goodness blog.

Sounds like it’s time for a new challenge!

One of my goals for the year is to build up a portfolio of art—specifically, watercolor and/or pen-n-ink—that I could submit to an art gallery or coffee shop for review. Ultimately I’d like to be accepted for a show of some sort, but I recognize that is out of my control to some extent. At the very least, I’d like to get to the Tolkien-like ability to illustrate my own writing if I want.

While this is a skill that I could work on entirely in the privacy of my living room, I’ve learned that “practicing in public” is helpful in many ways. I like documenting the process, which allows me to see how far I’ve come. Taking the time to step back and reflect on the process might help me learn faster. And, I find that doing things in public creates more accountability in my own mind.

So here’s the plan: Roughly each week, I’ll post a round-up of watercolor projects that are interesting. I don’t want to spam every day, and neither do I want to post the boring stuff like color swatches (with the above exception) and studies.

I’ll write a little about what I learned, but I will refrain from criticizing each piece. We all know I’m just starting out.* Ain’t nobody critiqued me doing push-ups on my yoga mat, so I’ll give myself that space to get better at watercolor, too.

Without further ado, exhibit A:

I’m quite pleased that it looks pretty much like the forced-bulb Amaryllis that served as my still-life model tonight, and with how well the wax-covered bulb turned out.

Things I learned:

• If it’s still even a little bit teeny wet, the watercolor will bleed
• Don’t color over watercolor with markers if you want a “natural” look
• Black makes dull shadows—try a different method next time

*Full disclosure: Just as I did, in fact, know how to do a push-up prior to working out regularly, I’ve taken a few art and drawing classes in the past and am not starting from total scratch with watercolors.