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.

Self Portrait in Awesome $8 Dress

 

It's so hard making this look good in a photograph. Oil on wood panel, approx. 9" by 12" maybe? I'm in the process of making one of David to go with it, and then I have two smaller panels for each of the "children". 

AND for further awesomeness, I painted gold leaf around the edges. Looks pretty snazzy in person.

This was the first painting that I brought to Orr Street to work on, in the midst of *gasp* professional artists. But after the first time it got easier.  It's such an inspirational environment to work in, and everyone there is so nice and helpful.

6/10/10 VERY quick sketch

I didn't stay too long at this Thursday session.  I couldn't remember if it was one long three hour pose or several short ones, so I only brought my sketchbook, then I forgot to eat breakfast because I was so excited for it!
He is currently being made into a painting of The Emperor's New Clothes. Once I have made good enough progress I will post some on it.

Lollicup Happiness

Sketches from Lollicup.  My camera was being mean to me when I took the picture of the canisters.... all blurry. :/
Customers really like it when I sketch and they can see them.  Who knew so many people liked art? It's more fun to show work to strangers because they get so excited. I *so* can't wait until we start our in shop employee gallery. :D

Quickie from 6/17/10

A quick 3 hour painting of Alyse from the Thursday session on campus.  approx 12" by 12", Oil on masonite. I'm quite proud of it, but I think I may do something about the intense cadmium yellow on the left... Not sure exactly what yet, but it will come to me.

I love that the panels cost around 66 cents a piece, soo much cheaper than the canvas (even if I were to stretch the canvas myself). And the guys at LaCrosse didn't charge me per cut like the guys at Lowes would have. *thinking about it now, it still may have been cheaper (about 41 cents a panel) if i did it at Lowes... but charging 25 cents per cut after the first two cuts is mean. Bleh*

Mini Paintings!!!

And here are the two smaller pieces that go with the Alyse painting.
Both are 8" by 9", oil on canvas.  And see those neat pine strips as a border? Stained them myself! (I also tacked them on, nifty!)
Eventually I will stain and attach pine strips to Alyse, the nice boys at LaCrosse will miter them for me! :)

These are also the first pieces that I signed using only my first name. If it's good enough for Rembrandt it is good enough for me.

See how nice? I scanned them!

Plants.

Plants that live in the Hugh Stephens library.

Anther old excerpt from my sketchbook!

Hooray for Followers!

Yay! My first follower! Now that I am starting to get followers I really must update this old blog more often. I have so much to post. Is it possible for me to have an intern I wonder? Anybody want to be my intern? 

(This is because I feel bad for not updating more often. Now nobody can be angry with me.)

<3