Day 30 - Unicorn Watercolor Illustration - #doodlewashApril2018 - Doodlewash
By Charlie

And The Unicorn Rides Away

Written by Charlie O'Shields

We’ve reached the end of this month’s magical adventure. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip down memory lane while painting and sketching like a kid again! I hope those of you who joined me this month have had a blast and will be joining the May Art Challenge as well, as we celebrate all the things that make people smile! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve always wanted a unicorn, so I was thrilled to get one of my very own just as this month’s story comes to a close. Well, at least in a quick little doodlewash version anyway. They’re fabulous creatures, albeit considered mythical by most adults. As a kid, I truly believed in them as I did many mysterious and impossible things. Like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and even the Tooth Fairy. When you believe in something wonderful, life just seems a little more wonderful as well. It was a blast going back in time to revisit those moments from decades ago. I hope that Little Charlie would have been proud that his adult self wouldn’t totally let go of all those imaginative dreams. It’s tougher as an adult, but together with that child inside, I still dream big, never letting go of that whimsical wonder, sprinkled with a healthy dose of infinite hope.

I’ll still continue to write about childhood moments, of course. I always want to remind myself of the me I was as I become the me that I’m still trying to figure out each and every day. Somewhere in the middle is the perfect portrait of a person. The bits that never really change, even when we might wish they would, are core to our personality. As a kid, I was so eager to be a grown up. I thrilled to dreams of all the things I would be able to do when that day finally arrived. I’ve done many of them, but there are still many more that were on that little boy’s list. What I can promise to Little Charlie is that we will always share the same dreams. I’ll do my best to make each of them come true, in whatever way that I can. They may not appear in the same fashion as that hopeful little boy imagined, but they’ll always be a tribute to that time when dreams had no boundaries. It’s an empowering feeling to paint and sketch like a kid again.

And each day, as I sit down to sketch, paint and write a little something here, I will always do so with a dream in mind. A grand idea of what I wish my painting might look like, that can often devolve into a lesser depiction. And then that day when the stars align and the dream actually appears on paper. Those days are the reason I keep coming back for more. Or a post I write that feels like it truly captures a feeling or emotion that I had in mind. Along this journey, there are posts I’ve written through joyous tears and others that just made me giggle the entire time. These words together with an illustration, create the “art” that I have chosen to share with the world. It’s a package deal, just like my constant connection to my inner child. No matter what happens in my life, I can’t imagine one where this connection is ever severed. I’ve grown up to learn that I don’t really want to be a grown up. I would miss all the wisdom I had as a child. Creativity isn’t something you learn, it’s simply something you live. So, I never want to become so grown up that I truly experience that profoundly sad moment when dreams might ever, even for an instant, seem impossible, and the unicorn rides away.

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About the Doodlewash

Da Vinci Paint Co.: Nickel Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Red, Terra Cotta, and Cobalt Blue.  Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with sepia ink in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. Want to purchase a print of this doodlewash? Send me a note with a link to this post, and I’ll add it to my shop!
  Day 30 - Unicorn Watercolor Illustration - #doodlewashApril2018 - Doodlewash

 

Charlie O'Shields

Creator of Doodlewash, founder of World Watercolor Month (July), World Watercolor Group, and host of the Sketching Stuff Podcast. Sharing watercolor illustrations and stories while proudly featuring talented artists from all over the world!

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24 thoughts on “And The Unicorn Rides Away”

  5. That is a gorgeous unicorn. You’ve captured the motion, the magic, and the gentle quality that makes them such beloved creatures.

    “What I can promise to Little Charlie is that we will always share the same dreams. I’ll do my best to make each of them come true,”

    If you keep writing such awesomely wise and lovely sentiments, you will need to promise me a constant supply of tissues. You have a wonderful way of touching the soul. So very special.

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  6. Your unicorn is absolutely wonderful, Charlie, galloping into dreams. I’m going to show this to my granddaughter, the family expert on unicorns. And as usual I’m enchanted by your story – “I’ve written through joyous tears” – and sometimes I’ve read your posts through joyous tears as well.

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  8. A lovely unicorn! It has been fun following you this month. I probably have about 10 years on you, but your memories triggered plenty of my own. Cheers!!😁

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    1. Thanks, Lisa! 😃💕 Hope you follow along next month as well… I tend to mostly focus on childhood memories. And I had an older brother and sister so I think I’m often a decade or so older in my memories.

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