And the most overused acronym on the web is...

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

ok LOL might be the most used acronym... whatever.

I think I discovered what I'm doing with the ginormous 3 x 4 ft panel I have here...

And by 'discovered' I mean I know what I'm doing and also that the idea came out of nowhere during a nap.

It's going to be super cute.

And this is the part where I revert back to my super secretive self and don't fill you in on it.

Sorry.

But soon, though. Real soon.

It's so adorable that you will cry. Just cry your freakin' eyes out. And also wish you could live inside the painting.  At least that is what I feel at the moment (if that gives you any idea what this painting could possibly be about)

Happy New Year
<3

A new addition to the family

This fabulous book 
is the newest addition to my library.  My fabulous boyfriend got it for me for Christmas!

I should be starting a new painting soon and will try to post updates :)
Happy Holidays

:)

Oh, boy!

Somebody was impatient after the box arrived today, and decided that today was Christmas.  This worked out well since I happened to buy his present today... just in time I suppose.
One of my books was this, which I had wanted. Hooray!
In other news, my blank panels are singing their siren song to me, that and my amazing ability to procrastinate into all hours of the night is making it hard to prepare for finals... a paper, two presentations and two exams... eek.  This isn't made any easier by the fact that one of my presentations is over an extremely gifted artist whom I'm absolutely in love with. So, once I start working on my presentation I find myself side tracked by looking through his gallery and then certain works remind me of other artists and thus the cycle continues...
I did make some progress today. I FINALLY SHIPPED THE PAINTING! It has many 'fragile' stamps on it and hopefully survives... unfortunately pickens were slim so I had to resort to an envelope. cross your fingers, everybody.
No pretty pictures, no progress on paintings, nothing. Sorry. Soon, my pretties, soon. Once Wednesday is over with... We can only hope...

Waiting is no fun

Both of those are gessoed now, the big one is 36x48 inches. I really, really want to start working on them. Problem: what do I do? Perhaps I'll experiment with a self portrait of sorts on the smaller one, something my professor suggested. And I'll be following in Rembrandt's footsteps that way. Who doesn't like Rembrandt? (If you have no idea who I am talking about, here is a link to some things of his. Not having any idea about one of my most favorite artists may result in me disowning you... Rembrandt! )

I have a feeling that the GINORMOUS panel will be my senior final project. My friend Mallory had a canvas that size for her final last year. Having something so grand as that seems to be appropriate for a project such as that.

Other updates:
Winnings will be sent out Friday. (Because that is when I will be shipping Christmas presents!)

er... I guess that was all.

Excited people make mistakes

OK, I have no new things to post right now... break is over and I'm trying to rapidly finish this homework my lovely professors thought I should have to keep me company during my time off...

During my break I prepared a nice piece of masonite fore a painting, and I decided to get the stripping to make the edges nice and pretty as well... somebody got a little too excited and forgot to account for the extra width created by the stripping and well, I ended up with four little empty spaces at the corners... i need to to back. I hate driving out there, the drive is so boring.

It's 2 am, and yet here I am....

 

Here is the studio corner of my bedroom. You can see Oscar the Therapist Plant dressed as a Christmas tree behind the easel. Suits him well, I think.

 The 'hey, look! I'm a painter and I'm painting my own self portrait' self portrait that I am working on currently. Actually just stopped working on it (hey, it's 2 am already... should probably stop now...) Originally the left arm was on my lap and my hand was concealed by the palette, then I thought, 'well, it looks stiff and dead and seems like I'm afraid to paint hands. We MUST not have that...'

so it's an 8x9 inch canvas. used to be a landscape of trees. ok, so landscapes aren't my thing, so it turned into a self portrait of just my face and shoulders, i decided that was scary and looked really stupid and I looked like i was 50 years older than I really am so then it turned into this. And it will stay this way (basically, anyway. I still have to finish it....)

another fun fact, the canvas in the painting is entirely made up. hooray for imagination!

And this is my super creative use for a pizza box.  My room dries out my paint so fast and tin foil seems to rip too easily to be a suitable palette cover, hopefully this works out. As you can see, it is lined with more tin foil. Maybe it will infuse the paints with parfum de pizza and people will buy my paintings? Or perhaps I should just go to bed now... 

peace love and turkey legs my friends.

New Painting!

OK, I'm not posting pictures of it yet... but there is one. I'm working on it now while typing with my feet! OK, I'm not doing that either, but it is in progress and once it's just a little bit further along I will post pics. I have a few I'm working on actually... stay tuned!

Note to self: send off landscape print for Marilyn! (<--- sooo sorry about that, it's just sitting in my studio feeling very much unloved right now.  Landscapes are not very representative of what I can do... perhaps if I feel this burning hatred for it still I will send you a print of a more exciting, lovable painting!)

Have a wonderful Turkey Day everyone!

<3

Logo!!!

This is my logo. I could have tried to make a more graphic logo, but here is what I came up with instead. I like it better. I am also happy that my mom gave me a 7 lettered name, it balances with my last name quite nicely. :)

a horrible picture of a soon to be awesome painting

a bit more to go... pumpkins peppers squash and rosemary. :) didn't like it at first. it's growing on me :)

Sketchbook Project

So, I entered into this Sketchbook Project a while back and realized that I haven't been working on it at all lately.  I have about a month and a half to fill it up before the deadline.  Unfortunately, I haven't been putting my best foot forward in it since I will not be getting it back and I really don't want people stealing my good ideas... Maybe I'll remember to scan some entries before I send it off... if not, I did pay the extra fee to have a digital copy made or if anybody is in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Library, it will go retire there after tour. :)

embarrassment

I have lots of wonderful tiny sketches in my tiny red sketchbook, which I've told you all and yet I haven't made time to scan them into my computer... :/ Perhaps while procrastinating tomorrow when I should be working on two different papers I shall do it. Perhaps... d:) And that is a wonderful example of how a typo can become a baseball cap. Right now yours truly is extremely tired and will try her best to update this horrible excuse for a 'blog'. Hopefully next week I will have exciting news of selling my first painting... cross your fingers people!

So, I have a blog.

Sorry, I've been a big ol' Miss Death Face lately, so I haven't done much that I can post. Also, that whole 'school' thing started back up, and I pretty much dislike 90% of it. Painting shouldn't be happening much lately just because I know if I start working again and get invested in it that I will totally blow off any and all schoolwork, and we all know that's a horrible thing to do. Especially when I'm paying so much to do said schoolwork. I have, however, done some super tiny sketches in the sketchbook I posted waaaay earlier this summer, so perhaps I'll scan them into my itty bitty computer. We shall see world... we shall see. That is assuming I do not die (being way over-dramatic over a sore throat) of the plague.

I'm still alive... for now.

More updates to come soon. After I survive this loooooong 8 day work week... It's good practice, however. Because I'll probably be working full time after graduation so it's good to get back into the swing of things. Haven't worked a full 8 hour shift since my days at SAL...

*Oh, Forsyth! Sweet, good ol' Forsyth, back in the days before I knew what it was to be buried to my ears in student loan debt....*

My plan is to finish the Noli Me Tangere so my bosses have a nice Christmas present and then I shall start working on some more pieces to put on my wall space at the soon to be Bubblecup. (Yes, I have my own little gallery space at work because my bosses are amazing, on top of that I get to keep 100% of my sales should I make any.) Can't get much better than that.

Now, since my brain feels like it's on smack, I will go before I go on a tangent about why John Stamos should be trampled by a herd of taun-tauns because everything ever is his fault...

<3

Jesus! No, really, it's Jesus.

I was lazy and so I just took the picture with my computer camera, hence the blur. Unfortunately the flash decided to pick out the wet black paint on the Magdalene... but it is coming along very well. I'm so happy with it. Eventually it shall go to my bosses for Christmas. :)

i'm a little teapot...

Here's the painting I've been working on since Monday. I needed a break from the others that I'm trying to finish up.  It's a little teapot that Zaiba gave me, sitting on my makeshift table on a cloth I dyed in Robert's class.  I really need to find better ways to take pictures...

A re-visit, but better photo quality...

You've already seen this one, but this time I scanned it in.  Coming soon (hopefully), the mister. Then the 'kids'.

One goal accomplished, several hundred thousand to go...

OK, so this Friday was Artrageous Friday, and being the devoted intern that I am I spent it at Orr Street.  It was so nice seeing soo many people there since it's so quiet while I'm normally on duty.  First of all, I got to take a super sexy picture for Snaprageous. I'm going to share that later once Staci e-mails me. One of the most exciting things about Artrageous was modeling. I modeled for Jane Mudd! I absolutely LOVE her paintings and now I am one. On top of that I received so many compliments. It was a fantastic evening. I can't wait until it's done so hopefully I can see it!
You should go here and see her stuff :)
http://janemudd.com/ 

Painting Session with Samy H!

So, I sold my bike to my friend for a package of taro buns, taro mochi and a few modeling sessions. Best decision of 2010. Honestly. And not only was my friend a good model, she offered me one of her friends to model for me later as well! And he's really excited to do it! You can't beat free models who are super happy to sit/stand in the same position for an hour at a time!

And she came in the bandanna, but I made her wear the sombrero.

Obviously it's not done, but I didn't have the heart to keep her sitting there for 3 hours. And I had been painting all day before she arrived. I'm so excited to see how this turns out! :)

Marilyn, This One's for You!

I believe this is the finished piece. 
Ta Da! It's more fun in person, because I sneaked in lots of cadmium in there.

A

And here is the near finished piece for Larry.  I think I am happy with it.   I just need to get the flesh tone on the arm worked out a little bit more. 

New and Exciting Update! (Sorry, No Pictures)

Let's see... I finished my last day of modeling in Joel's class. So because of that I'm approx. 140 dollars closer to being out from under my student loan debt! Shouldn't be too big of a deal, only $30,000 to pay off! :)

Afterward, I decided to go do some sketching, I chose the William Jewell family cemetery.  It was small and pretty, also very, very quiet.  I found a nice spot to sit in the shade and started sketching this grave marker when all of these ants started attacking me.  Here I am, minding my own business, being quiet and sketching and they send ants after me. What hospitality!  Or, instead of blaming that on the dead, I suppose it could have been because I was sitting almost on top of the colony... either way it was very unpleasant and my sketch didn't get finished.  Right now I'm too lazy to fetch everything I need to upload pictures of it, but they will be up eventually.

And, instead of starting a new painting, I have decided to revisit Larry.  The one with the four-color pallet.  I am so much more pleased with it now than i was before. I'd keep looking at it and looking at it and just felt this unhappiness in my stomach. But now that's gone and it's almost fixed.  Also coming up, updates of the studio self portrait and possibly a finished landscape! Someday I'll also get back to the portrait of David. Someday.

So, that was the update for you three faithful readers.
Hope you enjoyed it.

Sketches from New Red Sketchbook!

So, I decided to just add all of the new sketches all at once.  I could just draw it out and do one every day, but I'm so busy being  an awesome assistant manager, super intern, model, nearly full time house wife and soon to be again full time student that I doubt I'd actually get around to it. Okay, I would find time to get around to it now that they're all on my computer, but remembering to upload new sketches on to my computer is what gets me... ah I'm starting to get off course... here you go...

From the 27 of June, the lovely thing about Columbia is that there is never a lack of bicycles on the street to draw.  

Here is a view of the Wabash Train Station from Orr Street Studios. I cut out the cars, buses and people.  I thought it was sweet just like this.

Another view from Lollicup.  The 9th Street Tattoo place with a friendly little tree.  These small trees downtown fascinate me for some reason.

I was trying to discreetly draw this lady on the bench and every time I though she was on to me I would stare past her at Panera.  Then I decided to actually draw a scene by Panera, you know, to keep things honest. I really love those little trees!

This is from the other day at work, I call it 'The Merry Bunch'.  

I was desperate to draw something... anything... today at work and I found this screw in a box.  I like the multiple shadows cast by it.

And for the last sketch of the evening, a tape dispenser, also at work.  

And there you have it.  I haven't been all that lazy lately, just haven't been making impressive progress on my paintings.  But, as long as I keep drawing in my sketchbooks every day I won't feel too bad.

Enjoy and love!

An Appetizer

This is just the mini post before the main post that will BLOW. YOUR. MINDS! OK, maybe not blow your minds, but still, I haven't posted in a while and I'm sure some of you would like a small break from the real world, so I will take the time to upload some sketches from my sketch book. :)
mmmk? mmmk.
:D
Until then, here is a link to a blog... I've been modeling for the past week and the instructor posted one of his sketches on his blog.  I'm fond of his work and it's so cool to have a professional artist draw my portrait. :) Here you go!

Boba People and a Rainy Window

O

Okay, here are the updated boba people.  I added in a baby boba because one of our regular's daughters whom I'm fond of was in so I made one for her. She was so excited.  Her mother tells me that she went around at a party telling everybody about "Lola boba".   Adorable. So there's that.

And here is a cool picture I took at Orr Street when the ocean fell out of the sky.  Mind you these pictures are like a week or more old. Oops.

Self Portrait in Studio... in progress

Okay dear family, and uh... Melon..., here is my progress so far. I'm very pleased. That bookshelf is going to be such a pain though. I feel that I will make a tremendous amount of progress during and after the next two weeks because I will spend my mornings modeling for a drawing class. (Clothed of course).  I can't wait! It's so fun to see how people draw you. And also the money I earn is going towards my loan!
Wish me luck!

An Abstract! Or you know.. my retired painting rag

So my trusty painting rag has officially retired as of 10:58 am this fine day in July.  I always thought it'd be interesting to stretch and frame my used painting rag. I think I might. I really like it and there is absolutely no way that I can keep using it.  I need to repair that rip first though.

Not fat, the painting adds 10 pounds

eh, mild progress tonight.  Still rockin the limited color pallet.  More to come later! (And yes I look 10 pounds heavier. It's true what they say, one stroke can ruin the painting... we just have to keep in mind that a) i am not 10 pounds heavier and b) still a work in progress. hooray!)

Cannibals and trees

Here is what the landscape looks like right now. I'm not completely satisfied with it at the moment, But whenever I get there, Ms Marilyn will get a copy of it because she's the winner!

And this is for everybody to enjoy:

Mmm delicious cannibalism.

This Just In...

I know I just posted literally seconds ago, but I got distracted mid way through typing it up and started talking with David.  He was sitting in our recliner and his face looked absolutely amazing.  I didn't have my sketchbook nearby and I didn't want to make him aware of what I was doing at first, so I started using MS Paint since my laptop was right here. This is the result. I'm pretty damn proud of myself. It's impressive for anybody using that program. Not only was it on Paint, but also created using nothing but the touch pad portion of my mouse on a laptop. I'm so proud!

Okay, okay. So his facial hair isn't that dense at the moment, but the spray paint tool is difficult to use, give a girl a break. I shall now distract you from that with the CURSIVE writing to the right. Also pretty snazzy, yes?
:)

Back to Painting

Well, here is the ghostly image of my face on the panel, AFTER I had scraped it off and covered it with a layer of yellow ocher. 
I decided after that, that I didn't want to do another big self portrait and decided that I'd try something different.  Inspired by the painting in our last Visiting Artist gallery at Orr Street, I made a painting of my studio and put a self portrait in it.

Here's the beginning so far.  I started out drawing it on with my oil pastels, what you see here is the step after, where I colored it in with my limited pallet.  It's so nice to want to paint again. It was a really rough week folks.

More to come soon!

:[

I went to the painting session on Thursday, but the model, along with everyone else excluding my professor, didn't show up... so I had to resort to a self portrait. This self portrait was painted in really bad lighting so it's not any where near being done. To be honest, I looked like a constipated man... so I scraped it and now a ghostly image of my face is still lingering on panel with a coat of yellow ocher barely concealing it.  So there isn't really anything to show for this week's work, or the lack thereof... so I drew yet another picture on MS Paint. My fabulous friend Samy is going to sit for me so I can paint her... and she offered me a few of her friends, who will not have to be paid *awesome*, to sit for me as well...

My apologies

I'm sorry, I don't feel well lately. But that's so not an excuse to take a four day break from painting. Tomorrow morning is a painting session on campus, so hopefully I'll come back with some nice things to show. Bleh.

New Sketchbooks!

My collection of cute mini sketchbooks! The red one and the green one I just bought today! $2.99 and $2.50! AND they both come with those super cool expandable pockets.. as I have demonstrated by stuffing a folded up post-it note in there.
I now have a sketchbook for every occasion!

I also discovered Shelter Gardens today.  I had no idea it even existed in Columbia, but I'm so glad I found out about it. Here are some photos of the areas that I decided to paint today.  I am not going to post the painting just yet... because it's a landscape and that's unfamiliar territory folks. But I will post it eventually... and perhaps one of you will get a print of it... IF you comment on this post and let me know you're interested... :D

Another Thursday Session with Larry

Ok, I was going to wait and save this until tomorrow... but I can't. I want to share it now! I still need to lighten up the dark on his knee, and perhaps even his temple (although the flash bleached it a little here so you can't tell)... other than that I am done!

I did this one on a strict limited pallet, white ,black, yellow ochre, and venetian red...  Oil on Panel
I'm so proud that I finally got his beard right.  Even in The Only Thing I Will Never Give Up, or from here on out "Homeless" since it's faster to type, I still feel that I could have done a better job on the beard. Sure it works for that painting but it still bothers me occasionally.

It was a good session I think.  There were only four of us so it was one of the more expensive sessions but looking at this painting I feel that it was worth $10 to go. 

I think that after playing around with the really dark spot on his knee and temple that he'll be ready for a frame. He's certain to sell quickly in the gallery.

*David's right, it doesn't look like a knee... I may just remove it later...*

 Okay, I changed it.  I decided that without the pillow that he looked strange.  See where the bottom of his breast falls? totally not the right place if he were standing up straight.  This makes sense since he was reclining... so I had to add the bar back in. This time it's green and in a different location. The original bar lined up with the middle of his head and was red. I like it better this way. I also like that the fabric is kind of see through. Oh, and I fixed the dark areas on his skin. Much better!

Being Indecisive

Ok, here is the 'good' photo of the piece. That I took in the gallery. :D *excitement*


I also brought 'sad lady' in, her title is now Money Can't Buy You Everything You Need and she's hanging up above Larry.  Once I saw her in there I realized that I really favor the painting of Larry above that one.  It was almost embarrassing to have it in there with him but they go together and Diana said that she did like the mood of the newest addition... I still don't think that she's going to sell for $ 700. Although if she does that would be fine by me.

Compose

They're in a REAL gallery, folks. Isn't that exciting! Sure it's not like they had to review my work before accepting it or anything but they still could have been like "Your work sucks and we will burn it if you don't remove it in three seconds", so that's always nice. 

Looking at them again, I'm having second thoughts about being ready to part with the Larry piece. It's so nice, I really wish that somebody will buy the lady and leave him so I can still own it. Still, $910 would be nice too...And, having her above him makes him look so much nicer too, so he's certain to go, and she's probably still going to be there and I really don't want to bring her home. Is that bad?

Goldfish and Marigolds

This isn't finished yet, but it's a really good start... of a series that is.
It was storming really bad last night so I brought in all of my potted plants, then I did what anybody would do during a thunderstorm... I painted my fish. To be honest, the marigolds were on the right side but that wouldn't have looked nearly as good... And that black blob on the left is a snail. I'm still trying to figure out how to make that apparent.  Needless to say, the blue felt, table and wall all need serious help, but that is why this is a work in progress and not a finished piece.
I'm very excited to be making a series of fish! Lollicup will love them on the walls!

***And yes, that is a green doily on top.  Bottom line: it looked pretty so I kept it there.***

Boooooooooks

Oh gosh aren't they beautiful? I made a visit to the Get Lost Bookshop on 9th and found some beautiful additions to my little library.  The tiny ones of Monet, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec were $2 a piece, I think the most expensive one was $8.
That store is going to get me into a lot of trouble some day.... Totally worth it right now though.
Just look at them!
*joy*

Brad Pushers and Butterflies

These are things that make my life easier.  See that screwdriver looking thing in the middle? A brad pusher. Best. Tool. Ever.  I was introduced to one when my friend Mallory brought it to class. After that I had to have one. Found it for six bucks.  It's really cool because the shaft is hollow AND magnetic so you can drop the brads down in it, then you push it into the surface and the brad goes straight in! No hammering! (unless you have the upper body strength of a ten year old like I do... then sometimes hammers are necessary).

It's so nice to have it though because adding the pine strips to the side finishes the look nicely AND it's not nearly as expensive as buying a frame.  I'm not so sure how this is going to work once I switch completely over to masonite... but I shall find a use for it anyway!

Today I went over the LaCrosse again.  The first time I brought the wood with me so they could miter the edges for me... now when you draw a diagram of how it SHOULD look... it also looks the same as how it SHOULDN'T look...

Okay, this is how it shouldn't look... it's nice if I were just standing the wood up on it's thinnest edge around the canvas.... but that doesn't make any sense at all, now does it? It took quite a while to do this and I was so happy to go home and start my project that I didn't even notice it was wrong...

So I had to go back. Which was embarrassing...

Luckily the young guy who was there last time was there when I went back in for the second time today and he did it right.  He also wrapped the pieces together with plastic wrap.  Very nice.

If you will kindly look at this lovely corner of my canvas that is sitting on top of Audrey Hepburn you can see how lovely it looks once it's stained and cut CORRECTLY and put together.  I'm so happy.

Also, another exciting part of my trip to the lumber store..

BUTTERFLY!

I saw this beautiful but dead butterfly sitting on the sidewalk but I didn't pick it up the first time I went there.  Since I love the lumber store and had to make a second trip I decided to pick him up.  This might seem weird to other people, but I'm so super excited for it! Near perfect condition and so prettily colored. Also the German lady at the Studios (Chris Frederick) was very excited for me as well. :)

I can't believe nobody else picked him up! Of course perhaps gruff lumber using house building men aren't interested in dead butterflies like strange artists are?

Long post. Lots of Pictures. Hope you're happy!

A companion for my lovely self

Working on the portrait of the Mister. Currently they are hanging side by side on my studio wall.
Mine for the most part is finished while David's is still just a little line drawing (so I can feel him out on the board first).  I can't wait until it's done so that I can move on to the "children".
I think it took me about three tries to draw him on because I continued to draw him smaller than myself.  Once I finally got that corrected I had to make sure that his head was the right size... I'm still not sure because it's late and I'm tired and his head is huge in real life...
There aren't any fun pictures because my camera is over there and I'm over here... and I'm tired and hungry.
Tune in next time for exciting pictures, stories, and groundhogs!

Thought of the Day

It's not good art if you are willing to part with it easily. 

Lollicup Mural

Hope with her respective boba (cowgirl hat boba), Annie drew her a boyfriend, his name is Fred Astaire. 

Jocelyn with her boba, and her 'boyfriend'. We just named him "handsome".

My boba, with her pretty princess purse. 

We painted on the wall for three and a half hours this evening.  There are still some things we would like to add, as well as some employees in 'boba form', but once it hit 9:45 we called it quits.

The pictures aren't as good as they could be because the lights were already out when I remembered to snap some pics.

This is it for now.  I'm off to listen to some Spanish guitar for the evening, folks.