Anusmita Roy

Why your still life drawings aren’t improving… even after hours?
I used to think more practice = more improvement.
But I was mostly copying photos, not actually observing.
Real setups are harder—light changes, shadows shift, things don’t look “perfect.”
But that’s exactly why it teaches more.
I still don’t have a perfect setup.
Shared room, limited space… so I just keep it simple and do what I can.
Still learning. Still figuring it out.
What’s actually stopping you from trying still life from life?
Follow before day 12 comes...

Day 10.
Two commission oil paintings. One oil pastel study. And a hundred quiet lessons happening all at once.
Ganesh ji is being built slowly — layer by layer, the way devotion works. I forgot one of his four hands during the block-in. No panic. No starting over. Layers exist for exactly that reason — they hold space for your mistakes and let you find your way back. That's not just a painting technique. That's a philosophy.
Hanuman ji is nearly 70% there, the face almost complete. This one — raw, direct, no room to hide behind drying time. It demands presence. It asks you to trust your hand before your mind catches up.
And then there's the female portrait in oil pastels — a medium I once dismissed as too simple, too childlike. I was wrong. Oil pastels don't forgive easily, but when you stop fighting them, they show you something honest.
What's shifting isn't just my technique.
It's my relationship with not-knowing.
The willingness to be mid-layer, mid-thought, mid-becoming — and stay anyway.
A lot is unfinished right now.
But unfinished doesn't mean broken.
It means alive.
If you're in that in-between place — where nothing feels complete but something is clearly shifting — save this post and come back to it on a hard day.
And tell me below: What are you in the middle of right now? 👇

Still counts, right?
Day 8–9.
These weren’t the kind of days you post to impress people.
Busy mornings, barely any time, low energy…
but I still picked up the brush at night.
Reworking old canvases, starting commissions, practicing in small pockets of time.
It’s not perfect. It’s not polished.
But it’s real — and I showed up anyway. 🎨

Some doors close forever. And you just have to learn to be okay with that. 🚪🎨
In 2023 I wished with everything in me to get into art college. I prepared. I dreamed. I hoped.
But I didn't get in.
The reason? I didn't have enough knowledge. I didn't have the skills. And instead of running from that truth — I had to sit with it. That kind of rejection teaches you something no college ever could.
So I made a decision. I enrolled in a BA Honours degree. A different path. A different plan.
And I'm happy. I truly am.
But I won't lie to you —
there's still a quiet, small ache inside me.
A "what if" I'll carry for a while.
Because once I complete this degree, I'll be over the age limit to even sit for that art college exam.
That door? It's closing permanently.
And I've chosen to make peace with it. Because I'm not someone who abandons what they start. I will finish this degree. I will see it through.
Right now I have no grand plan. No clear picture of what my future looks like. And for the first time — I'm okay with that uncertainty.
What I do have is today.
And today I'm studying from Anatomy and Drawing by Victor Perard — learning how the human body moves, how it breathes, how it lives on paper. Understanding the very thing I was missing back in 2023.
I'm filling the gaps.
One page. One sketch. One day at a time. 🖌️
This is my real, unfiltered, unplanned art journey. No aesthetic feed. No highlight reel. Just honest growth.
If you're also learning art on your own path — whether in college, outside college, with a plan or without one — this page is for you. 🤍
Follow for Day 8 👉

11:45 PM. Saturday night. Day 6. 🎨
The house is quiet. No distractions, no excuses. Just me, my watercolours, and a still life I actually set up in real life — not a photo, not a reference image. The real thing, sitting right in front of me.
There's something different about painting from life. It's uncomfortable in a way a photo never is. The shadows keep shifting. The objects look different every time you glance up. You can't pause it, zoom in, or adjust the brightness. You just have to look harder.
And tonight I did.
Was the painting good? Not really. But was it better than Day 5? Yes. Genuinely, visibly better. And at this stage of my journey, that's everything.
I haven't painted watercolour seriously in years. No classes, no coach — just me deciding to pick it up again and document every single day honestly. The late nights, the frustrating sessions, the small quiet wins that nobody else might notice but I do.
Tonight felt like one of those small wins.
11:45 PM is actually my favourite time to paint. The world slows down. There's no pressure to be productive or impressive. It's just you and the work — and something about that silence makes the brush feel lighter.
If you're on your own quiet creative journey right now — learning something slowly, imperfectly, stubbornly — I see you. Keep going. 🙌
Follow along for Day 7 — I'm not stopping, and I'm not pretending it's pretty. 💛

Day 5 of my watercolour journey 🎨
I set up a real still life today — no photo reference, just me and the actual objects in front of me. And honestly? It was hard.
The painting didn't turn out the way I imagined. The colours felt off, the proportions weren't perfect, and there were moments I wanted to just give up and start over.
But then I looked at my work from 2 years ago — and something shifted.
I've grown. Quietly. Without even noticing.
That's the thing nobody tells you about learning art on your own — progress doesn't always feel like progress while it's happening. Some days you just make a mess and call it practice. And that's completely okay.
I haven't taken a single class. No teacher, no structured course — just me, my brushes, and a whole lot of experimenting. Every mistake teaches me something a YouTube tutorial never could.
This is Day 5 of documenting my journey — the raw, unfiltered, imperfect version of learning watercolour seriously for the first time in years.
If you're also learning something the messy way, this page is for you. 🙌
Follow along — I'm posting every day, and I promise I'll never pretend it's easier than it is. 💛

I told myself I had enough watercolors. I had 18 tubes. That is MORE than enough for any artist — beginner or not. And yet… here we are with 5 new ones and zero regrets (okay maybe 10% regrets but the colors are beautiful so it balances out 🙃).
Today I finally swatched ALL 23 of my watercolors and honestly it was so satisfying to see everything laid out together. If you've never done a full swatch of your collection — do it. You will rediscover colors you forgot you had AND feel weirdly proud of yourself.
Are you a "collect all the colors" artist or a disciplined limited palette girlie? Be honest 👇
🎨 Save this if you're also building your watercolor collection one impulse purchase at a time lol....