2025 Annual Retrospective

Luckily, 2025 was a relatively stable year for me personally, with a lot less moving than 2024. This gave me more breathing room to think about art.

The end of the calendar year is the blog’s anniversary as well since I began it just before New Year’s Day 2022. As we round 2026, the blog turns four. (Which means I’ve been painting for just under 5 years.)

Year 4 was a big year for the blog:

• New writers! Hanna and Lynne joined me. Previously, the blog had only been written by me, so that’s a 300% expansion of the team! If you think you might have a post or two on your mind, check out my post tips!
• The blog changed names! Yes, we started the year as billyidyll.com but, with the addition of new writers and a desire to become less of a “person” blog and more of a “topic” blog, we switched to idyllsketching.com. (I also did a bit of updating/housekeeping on the design to support this change.)
• I began using affiliate links when I recommend art products, notably to Da Vinci Paints, Rosemary Brushes, and various products at Jackson’s US. I worried at first that this would change the way I recommend things, but after nearly a year I think it’s clear that I am very bad businessperson and still only recommend products that I truly stand behind and sparingly.

I also changed the way I interact with the art community online:

• I got off Instagram/most social media, which also made me more open to switching from my username to a more generic name. This here blog and discord are now the hubs of my artistic online life.
• Well, and one more place: I added ~500 reference photos to Paint My Photo, a charmingly old-school website with a lovely thriving community of artists painting each other’s photos.

But, what was this year like for my art?

In 2025…

I started the year with an ink workshop from Claire Giordano.

Claire Giordano’s Ink Class was an opportunity to practice drawing and form – something I probably wouldn’t have done without a structured workship, since I usually gravitate more toward color. It’s probably telling that I haven’t really done ink since!

I showcased my work in two public events.

Both were employee art shows.

I learned to use masking fluid in the Maskerade.

The Discord and I agreed to make a big deal of learning to use masking fluid in May and call the month “The Maskerade.”

I worked through the first half of Making Color Sing.

I waded through the dense prose of Jeanne Dobie’s book on color – sometimes dense with wisdom, and sometimes dense with confusion. (See chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.) Along the way, I painted various scenes to illustrate the lessons with exercises that were given – or that I made up.

And some other assorted books, too.

Some other books I explored included:

• Gordon MacKenzie’s Watercolorist’s Notebook (from which I explored lifting)
• The Watercolor Skies & Clouds Techniques of 23 International Artists
• Mastering Glazing Techniques by Don Rankin (part 1, part 2)
• Sublimez vos paysages à l’aquarelle by Maria Smirnova (which I used to explore working bigger)
• Hanna also read Wet-into-Wet Watercolor by Gail Speckmann (part 1, 2, 3)!

I attended several Urban Sketcher meetups.

I met two (2) blog buddies in person!

I painted the same subject over and over.

November’s Distant Hillside project taught me the value of returning again and again to the same subject.

And I finished out with random triads!

See Triadvent Wrap-up!

Checking in on my 2025 Predictions

I pointedly didn’t make “goals” or “resolutions” last year, but instead made some predictions. Here they were:

Signing my paintings: I definitely didn’t do this!

My track record for predicting or planning what I’m actually going to do in a given year remains… iffy. I wouldn’t say that either triads or Adventure Art Academy material were major themes of the year. Instead, as evidenced above, I delved more into learning from books, leaning into skies, and exploring random whims.

2026 Goals

I won’t let that deter me from predicting or planning what I may do this coming year! Here are my nebulous thoughts:

• More book-learning: I want to finish going through Making Color Sing, and maybe some other books. I like going through books slowly, giving me the space to really dig into the nuggets of wisdom (and figure out what the book is saying if it’s confusing). I also like to do homework to cement my learning, which usually involves coming up with the assignments since most books don’t have them (or don’t have good ones).
• More personal observations: Over the years, I’ve gradually moved tutorials to professional photography to more of my own references. I hope to continue that journey by focusing even more on my personal observations, including everyday moments. I’m not sure exactly how yet – it has to be low-key to be do-able. Maybe more windowscapes and small sketches.
• Less consumerism: I expect that I am likely to do fewer supplies reviews as I have pretty much Color Spotlight-ed every commonly available pigment, most from multiple brands, and I find myself less fascinated by trying new paints. At this point, I have a good stockpile of paper and paint, and I find that my art supplies orders are fewer and further between, which I hope will be good for my wallet! I am interested in focusing less on what supplies to buy, and more on unlocking what my supplies can do.

Paintings by Month

Here are links to my monthly retrospectives throughout the year.