The Little Yellow House

 I have finally started working on my little yellow house painting, but the going is slow. This is a pretty large canvas, and painting the poppies is going to take forever! I know, it looks like crap right now, but it will get better. The green will be lightened up a bit once I start putting in the detail. I just wanted some color there so that I could start mapping in my flowers. Since red just turns to brown when it's put over green, I have to map out my flowers in white first. I started mapping out my poppies before I put the green down, and decided that wasn't going to work. Like I've said in previous posts, most of the time I just wing it, and I haven't painted in acrylic (my preferred medium is oils) in such a long time that it's usually trial and error in the beginning. And lord knows I make lots of errors! The whole painting still needs a lot of work. The clouds, the sky, the house, but I'll get there eventually. I am pretty pleased with how it is going so far. Especially considering how frustrating the last few weeks have been.

For awhile there I was kind of in a slump, and growing increasingly frustrated at my inability to create anything. It's not that I haven't had any good ideas, I just couldn't make myself focus enough to take my time. I have a tendency to rush things, and it was making it difficult to do anything halfway right. I decided that I really needed to practice without the pressure of  creating something to sell. So, I decided to start on this waterlily drawing. It needs a lot of work too, but I am just doing it for practice. If it turns out pretty good, then maybe I can do something with it. If not then, oh well. (I didn't really take my time in taking the pictures either. I think they look a whole lot better in person.) I am doing this on cardstock. I absolutely hate, hate, hate expensive art materials! I have tried all the fancy papers and pencils, and I just don't like them. I can't get the look that I want and I am not about to spend astronomical amounts of money on name brand hot press watercolor paper. This cardstock is smooth, bright white, and archival. To me, it's just as good as anything else. 

I will attempt to take much better pictures when they are finished. I know I can do it if I just take my time and stop trying to rush so much. I took this picture of a graphite drawing that I did of my husband, so I know it can be done. Or, maybe it was just a much better drawing. Actually, I don't think it looks all that great on the computer either, but it look fantabulous when I printed it out on photo paper. Anyway, let's see where we can go from here!

The Day The Goldfish Died

At the moment, I am attempting to use a little patience. Under normal circumstances, I would get an idea in my head, and just wing it when putting it onto canvas. For some odd reason I feel that (in order to be a real artist) I need to take the time to do a preliminary drawing of my ideas first. Part of me feels that way. The other part thinks that it's a load of hogwash.

I don't really understand why this belief has come about inside my brain, but it has. "The Day The Goldfish Died" is another one of my "Works in Progress". The drawing is coming along nicely, but honestly, knowing me, I will probably abandon it, and just go back to winging it. Sure, the drawing will come in handy for reference, but it is not even close to being finished, and I would rather just paint already. Not to mention the fact that I already know that I could have done better with a paintbrush.

I have to say that I am much better at painting mirrors than drawing them, so please excuse my rudimentary attempt at doing so. In case you were wondering, yes, it is a shelf with a goldfish skewered on a pencil, and a mirror with water pouring out of it. Don't worry...NO goldfish were harmed in the making of this drawing. Except the ones that died when I was cleaning the fish tank, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this, because in no way whatsoever did I use any of them as models. Flush, down the toilet they went.

As you can probably tell from the drawing, I'm not all that great at drawing water either. This drawing will come in handy though, because I can tell that my goldfish needs to move a little more to the left for the composition that I want, but other than that, I pretty much already knew what I wanted in the first place.

I am hoping that I will be able to buy some more paint soon, so that I can work on this and "The Little Yellow House".

 I am anxious to get some paintings done. I have decided to go with acrylic this time, because I do not have a studio space, and painting with oils just doesn't work in a townhouse with a family and pets.

I will post photos of the work as it progresses. I hope.
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Taking a Break!

I know that I have been away for awhile. I haven't really posted much for the past few weeks, because  lately, I haven't really been feeling all that great. For some reason, I just don't feel like doing much of anything. I try to get things done anyway, but my motivation, and energy levels are at an all time low. I have been trying to work on some new design ideas for the holidays. I have also been working on the preliminary drawing for a painting that I want to do, but I don't really feel like I have accomplished as much as I could have. Please excuse the photo quality. This image was too big to put on my scanner, so I had to take a photo, and it didn't turn out all that great. Yes, the drawing still needs a lot of work.It might take a while to finish the poppies, because I get bored pretty easy, and drawing poppies will get old pretty fast.

This is my grandmother's house. Pretty picture, huh? It will be when it's done. I plan on using a bright blue for the sky, bright red and green for the field, and bright yellow for the house. Grandma's house is currently a light yellow. I'm employing a little artistic license here. It sure will be a pretty picture. Aside from the symbolism that is.

There is a whole, big, long story behind the idea for this painting, but I really don't feel like getting into it right now. Maybe someday I will dive headlong into that area of my life, but for now, lets just chalk it up to excercising my demons. If I seem to be babbling, it's because, along with the fatigue comes a serious lack of focus. I really hope I snap out of it soon.

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Week 2

Okay, it's week two in my "Keeping a Deadline" plan. What have I gotten accomplished? Actually, not much in the art department. I did get a skull done. Yes, just one. I decided to change what I was working on. Maybe I will finish the three skulls after I have come up with an idea of what I want to do with them, but my plans had to completely change to the kitchen this past week.

For the past ten years, my husband and I have really let ourselves go. I have gotten into adding more vegetables into our meals for the past couple of years, but the biggest problem was with the snacking. Convenience foods have been taking their toll on our health, especially now that we are older. We just can't get away with eating junk anymore, and our bodies were staging a revolt. Last weekend I decided that it was time to start taking better care of ourselves. I have spent the past week in the kitchen trying to prepare healthier snacks, and meals for us and our daughter.

The past week has been nothing but healthier fare without the added sugars, salt, and fat. Since I am preparing all of the snacks myself, I know what's in them, and so far it has been mostly fruits and vegetables. Of course, the fruit has gone the fastest.

 I still need my chocolate fix once in awhile. Chocolate covered strawberries have become my staple for this purpose. I guess eating a chocolate covered strawberry is better than having an oreo...or two, or three, and so on. I get my chocolate fix, and I'm eating something healthy in the process. Chocolate covered strawberries are actually quite filling, so I'm not in any danger of over indulging. I like that.

So...I would say that week two has been pretty successful. I just hope that we can keep this up, because I have to say that I am pretty exhausted. Who would have thought that eating healthy would be so much work!! Now I know why people get so hung up on convenience foods.

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Week 1

Well, It's been a week. I'm sure the whole world is just dying to know how the whole "deadline" thing worked out! I think it went pretty well considering that the whole point was to get some work done. I did do that. I did get plenty of work done. I just didn't get the work finished that I had planned on doing.

Would I call it a success? Yes, I would. I think that maybe the deadline should focus on finishing a certain number of projects, and not any particular one. I think that will work better for me since, I can't seem to stay focused on one thing at a time. Here is what I have done so far.

I decided that I needed to expand the product selection for some of my designs, so I created a couple of new variations on the Blue Morpho, and Princess Kitty designs.

 

This one is new. I took an old drawing of a Seahorse that I did when I was much, much younger, and tweaked it a little. I thought it turned out pretty nice.

So, I guess the moral of the story is to be adaptable. Deadlines are great as long as you maintain a little flexibility. Without that, I might have become dissapointed, and abandoned the whole idea altogether.

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Working On A Deadline

It’s no secret that sometimes I have a little difficulty when it comes to getting motivated to complete some of the projects that I have been working on. The intention is always there, but somehow I always find myself getting sidetracked, and doing something else instead. I usually end up cleaning. Of course, with a husband, a teenager, and two cats, it usually needs it. However; I think that cleaning is a way of avoiding failure. I start on a project, and hesitate to finish because it might not turn out the way I see it in my head. I guess you could say that my biggest battles are with seeing things through to the end, and accepting the fact that there is no such thing as perfect.

To combat this problem, I have decided that it might be a good idea to set some deadlines for myself (my husband says that deadlines don’t always work). There are two projects in particular that I am going to finish within the next week. I am bound and determined to do so. Then, my plan (for the following week) is to touch up a painting that is sitting here waiting for a good facelift, sell it, finish the other (in progress) painting, and then sell it too. Week three is dedicated to actually planning out my next painting. I never really take the time to draw anything out before I put it on canvas, but this particular idea really needs a preliminary sketch for composition sake. So, I will spend an entire week drawing that out, and then I will spend another week drawing out another idea. Once that is done, then I can begin work on two very large paintings. I really hope this helps. My deadlines may require a little adjustment for the bigger projects, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

By reading this, you may think that maybe I’m just lazy. Sometimes, I ask myself if that is the case, but I am always busy doing something. I will spend countless hours setting up my workspace, or cleaning. Being at home, it is really easy to get sidetracked on something else. I think that I have spent my life working crappy jobs in order to avoid doing what I love, because I don’t want to be a failure at it. Maybe that comes from the lack of support that I got as a child.

I became interested in art when I was ten years old, but my family (some of you might know how this goes) was always telling me that I would never be able to make a living as an artist, and that I would never amount to much. I have got to conquer these fears, and prove that I am talented, I am smart, and I can succeed. Not for them, but for me. I have got to prove to myself that I can do it, and that it doesn’t have to be perfect. I have got to produce, even if it is total crap. I have got to do it, because it is what I love to do. Well, we’ll see how this goes. Wish me luck!!

Week 1 projects

I do believe that you have already seen the first one. No, I haven't finished the leaves yet. Part of that is because of problems with Adobe, and the other part is because I have been avoiding it because of the problems with Adobe. I had to completely reinstall the program, but I still can't save anything as an EPS, so I have to make adjustments.

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Analogous Studies

Here is the latest piece that I am working on. It is a vector piece done entirely in Illustrator. There is still a lot of work to do on it. I have to finish doing the veins, work on the egg, and of course, do a little tweaking to the leaves. Right now, they are all exactly the same (except for the colors).

The work is going a bit slow right now. The image is pretty large, and Illustrator is moving at a snail's pace. I had to change the compatibility settings to work with XP cause the program kept crashing in Windows 7. If anyone knows how to solve the speed problem when working with large files. Please let me know. It is really, really, really frustrating. Sometimes I feel like throwing my computer across the room, because I have to wait twenty minutes for anything to happen. Adobe... I curse you.

I know, it's a bit odd, but what can I say? My brain is full of crap. I am pretty sure that I was thinking about the analogous studies that I did in my color theory class when I came up with this idea, but don't quote me on that. 

What does it mean? Damned if I know. I just produce whatever my mind happens to spit out. I could say that it was representative of life versus death, but (as is with most art) then you would have to dig out your shovel (Get it? Dig out your shovel. Sometimes, I only succeed at amusing myself). There is no rhyme or reason, it just happens. Sometimes, I find myself hoping that I didn't see it somewhere else, because I really don't want to copy someone else's work. 

People often ask me where I get my ideas from. I get them from the same place that everyone else does. The only difference is that I recreate them. Not all of them. I'm not ready (creatively) to recreate some of my ideas. There has to be a moment. A moment when the planets align, and Venus is in the house of the seventh sun. Actually, the whole planets thing, that is just a bunch of nonsense. I just thought I'd stick it in. It's not really something that can be explained, it just has to feel right.

By the way, if my writing doesn't make any sense...don't tell me. I don't need to know. Thank you and good night.

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