Sometimes my mind puts all these mental rules on itself. Maybe it is because of my background in technical education. Such barriers come into play in the choice of painting subjects. For me, the joy of watercolor painting lies in painting brilliant landscapes. Portrait painting in watercolor is great, but somehow, my mind feels that the contours of the human body restrict the freedom of imagination. There is only a certain level of abstraction I can add to portraits without making them too abstract to be appreciated by the critic within me. With landscapes I feel no such restriction.