From Tragic to Nothing

Last week Cousin was given six months to live. Yesterday they gave him weeks, as in he most likely will not make it to February. His brother is here from California, his sister is here from Colorado, and today they want to move all of his stuff out of our place. Brother in Lehi doesn't want Cousin to pass away in the house he is currently house sitting, and since a medical bed would not be able to make it up the three flights to our door, not to mention the narrow nature of said stairs, forget about whether or not Cousin could make it up the stairs.... and well it looks like Cousin is going to a hospice center. I really don't want that, I want him home, but everything is so completely out of our hands now that we have little room to demand.

Cousin seems to like the idea of a hospice place, somewhere he can get 24/7 care from professionals. (sigh) Obviously on paper a hospice center seems right, but in my brain, I don't like it.

From Horrible to Tragic

On Monday Cousin looked like he was doing really well. We were hoping that he was going to be able to come home on Friday. He was getting up and eating solid foods and he wants to fight.. all good things. Husband and I decided that we needed some more sleep and didn't go up Tuesday or Wednesday. Husband went up today, my brother came into town last night, and things are not good.

He is regressing. They are not sure if he is having seizures or had a stroke. They are doing an EEG test now and then he will have an MRI. His speech is slurred and he can't think right. He thought he heard me talking outside his room yesterday, so he got up to go find me. The doctor that found him wondering around told Cousin that we were not there and Cousin thought the doctor was joking with him.

Painting things doesn't seem so important right now, you know? I would still like to try to get something into the Hogle Zoo thing. We shall see. His cancer has been officially diagnosed as stage 4. I feel lost a little bit. Everything seems so unsure.

From Worse to Horrible

Saturday before last we found Cousin unconscious. Called 911. His liver was super failing because he hadn't been taking his medication for at least two weeks. (I wanted to jump down his throat when he told us that.) He was unconscious until Tuesday. He woke up Tuesday afternoon, on Thursday doctors removed his colon, they found metastasized colon cancer, and now he can no longer get a liver transplant. He is now terminal.

The past week and a half has been a lot of driving up to the transplant center an hour away. He was originally taken to the hospital five blocks from my house, but then quickly transferred there to be with his doctors. He spent most of the time in the ICU. 

Living close a hospital means that we hear a lot of rushing by ambulances and fire trucks. Before they were just there, then after last week it was a relief that they weren't coming to my house, but now I feel a sense of dread for the future 911 calls that will be made. 

Meaning, that yet again I have not been painting. We have been spending nights up at the hospital and most of the day. Yesterday I finally had some time to sit down and finish the gray kitten. I will post that soon. My stress level has reached all types of new levels. Lack of sleep mixed with crazy life means that I crash hard at random times during the day. 

He is still in the hospital, and may be getting out this weekend? We shall see. 

THE FINGERS: Part 2

Toned the board with a nice mint green, and then I transferred the drawing and established the shadows in burnt sienna:

The image is a little dark, I must not have had the light on... but again, just a start.

Gray Kitten: Part 3

Yesterday I got this far with kitten (not much further from the last time, but still):

Over the past two days I have stared at it more than painted it, oops, but I couldn't shake that I needed to add another color. There needed to be more!! By the end of the day yesterday I had decided that strawberries were the answer. I even had a good image picked out, but then I did this today:

I really like how the green finished off the color scheme, I may have also gone a little green leaf happy but I think I like it. Things to still do: finish the leaves, add the yellow stamen to the flowers, and finish off the background. If in the end a darker background does not make the kitten pop like I am hoping it will, I will also do a light glaze of zinc white, hopefully that will solve the problem.

Mr. T: Part 3

Finally actually started doing something with Mr. T yesterday. Established some darks and now it is time to go at it!

Also, puppy has creepy eyes! 

Artist of the Week: Ester Curini

I happened upon an animal artist today and thought that I would write about her, mostly because I have only done one artist of the week post. (shrug)

The artist is Ester Curini. She is Italian, paints in acrylic, and she is self-taught. As you can see, she is hyper realistic, however not in a “might as well put up a photograph” type of way. She has a slight stylization that I like. 

In an interview for the International Artist.com magazine, Ester describes her inspiration, design, and working processes. She says that for each work she tries to capture the energy, essence, and spirit of each animal. Ester starts her process by spending hours with her subject. She says that sometimes hours are spent out in fields waiting for that one magical connection. She then uses photoshop to crop and edit her photograph. In the interview Ester explained that although she uses photography as a guide in her paintings, that her paintings are just that, pure paintings.

Once the subjected is photographed, and the desired composition created, Ester will then draw a basic outline of the animal on a fine grain canvas. She usually starts by painting the eyes first. The eyes she paints are by far my favorite. She likes to isolate the animal by using a white, blank background but then will paint within the eyes the actual background of the original photograph. For example, in her painting Jane Doe, Ester painted the woods that the doe was grazing in and even her own figure.  After the eyes are finished, Ester will continue finishing the figure of the animal using script liner brushes. You can truly see the amount of time, dedication, and effort on her part. Jane Doe alone took her three months to complete.

This is one thing that I need to learn, time is okay. School tends put high "finishing" demands on a student, which has its pros and cons, but due to those demands I tend towards a habitual need to complete complete complete, now now now. Sometimes I need to remember that it takes time and that is okay.

If you would like, you can see more of Ester’s works here.

Daily Painting 3 and 4: Red Eyed Tree Frog

This week I painted an orchid for a couple of hours, however it was after I worked on the flower that I decided that I needed make a couple of changes to this daily painting idea: 1. Not worry if I finish something in a day, 2. Push myself and really experiment with these small paintings.

I ended up not liking the orchid and wiped it off. I then started to paint a red-eyed tree frog on top of it: 

Experiment: a flat image and background next to a (hopefully) highly detailed image. In this case I want to push myself with the detail of the frog. When painting, it is usually easier to paint your shadows darker than needed and then pull them back. I am going to try to do this with the highlights as well, something I have never done before. My thought is to let the paint dry a little and then lightly glaze back over the strong white. We shall see. 

Daily Painting 2: Erasmia Pulchera Day Flying Moth

Daily Painting 2:

Not finished, it was a little too ambitious for a couple of hours. I think now that I have decided to not finish these in just a day, I may finish this one later...or maybe not.

Maybe I shouldn't have taken this photo without the light on...(shrug)

Daily Painting 1: Argema Mittrei-Resting

Daily Painting 1, completed in a little over two hours:

Daily Painting and a lot of me thinking out loud

I happened upon a book the other day, called Daily Painting. I am considering purchasing it. I even gave it a test drive over at good ol' Barnes and Noble. I liked some of the things that were inside of it, in fact, it was probably one of the best books on oil painting I have looked at. However, even that being said, art books are generally just frustrating. Sure sometimes they will have images of the steps along the way, and some times they will even have more than three images illustrating the steps (that is rare, usually it is only three), but as helpful as showing the steps are... I have never happened upon a book which clearly explains the mechanics of what the artist is doing. I am not sure if this is because in the end, and this is most likely too harsh of a blanket judgement, it seems that a lot of artists actually lack a clear working knowledge of different terminology and techniques used throughout history, not to mention a lack of general art historical knowledge, or if it is something else. Perhaps this is why an oil painting textbook does not exist? Nope, never mind I know why one does not exist.

People publish these books hoping that a general hobbyist will pick them up, not a hardcore, I make a lot of money painter. Hardcore, I make a lot of money painters keep their secrets to themselves, and if you want those secrets you have to pay a handsome price. Workshops, videos, etc, but not just one workshop or video, you have to purchase several and even then you will not get it all.

I know that I am not an amazing painter who should be lecturing on painting techniques, but I do know some things. Things that I have spent hours searching out and if I could have just found one website to read about it all, that would have been awesome. I think that I really will do this: Art Tips and Techniques. Yep.

Maybe one day I will write my ideal art textbook (shaking head no). But back to the book Daily Painting. One thing that the book does talk about quite a bit, as you can guess from the title, is daily painting. Not daily painting in the sense of making sure that you are painting everyday, albeit important, but finishing a painting a day.

The idea is too keep the paintings small, the subject manageable, and the paintings to be finished in a one to two hours time period. Keeping them small means that you should be able to finish the works in a day, and the idea is that they will help you take more risks. It is much easier to give up on an idea when you have only spent a small amount of time on it, on a very small work, verses when you have dedicated a huger painting to trying out an idea and it fails.

The daily painting idea, as she uses it, would have been perfect for me if I was still painting in a looser fashion. Such as here:

But even in this painting I was starting to move away from a more quickly painted style. At first I thought this daily painting thing would be a super good idea. I jumped right in, and Day 1 went great. Day 2 not so great, Day 3 I picked too complex of a subject, and by Day 4 I thought, "I don't think this is what I want to do this these daily paintings." Right now, I want to be able to go super detailed when I want to and then to back away and be loose when I feel it is needed. 

So I am going to take the author's idea of a daily painting, and change it a little bit for my own purposes: going small (6x6 is the largest), making sure I am experimenting in each, and painting them for two hours a day and then putting them away. This means some will take longer than others, but I think that I am okay with this. I think that I like where I will be going with them. 

Hopefully good things will come of it. 

Gray Kitten: Part 2

Making a little bit more progress:

Mr. T: Part 2

Drawing transfered and board just about ready to get the painting a started:

The FINGERS!

My grandmother is Italian, and about seven years ago my whole family went to Italy. One thing that my grandma desperately wanted to see was "the fingers." She wanted to see the fingers of God and Adam in The Creation on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I am not sure what she thought she was going to see, as in I am not sure if she knew it was on a ceiling... Anyways, I pushed her up in her wheel chair and put her directly under the fingers. I told her where they were and then walked off to see what I wanted to see. I came back, got her and we left. Just as we exited, and could not reenter the chapel, she asked me when she would get to see the fingers. I almost died.

Anyways, now it has turned into a running gag. THE FINGERS!

She asked me to paint said fingers for her. I told her that I would, but that she would have to pay for it. I have a new rule: if someone asks me to paint something for them, I charge; but if I choose to paint something for someone, obviously that is free. I have painted far too many "free paintings." "Free Paintings" because it is not free for me. You know?

Back to the fingers, I had to order a special board for them, which arrived today and I finished the drawing for them today as well:

Kaa: Part 4

Decided that I don't like the Lisa Frank color stripes. Took them out:

Apparently I took this while the sun was coming through the blinds... oops. 

Gray Kitten: Formally known as the Blue Kitten, Part 1

I have been painting off and on the past week. The funny thing is that I have been using painting as an escape mechanism, ha! Maybe cousin being here is a super good thing (shaking head no).

Here is the restart of the Blue Kitten and then what it looks like as of today:

Obviously far from being done. I think that I am going to keep the kitten the mid-tone gray and then put a darker gray as the background to help make it pop. I am hoping that as the flowers become more and more detailed that this will also help the kitten pop. I really want to get this done by the 24th, let it dry, and then ship it out by the first week of Dec. I hope it turns out okay. 

Going from bad to worse

Cousin moving it has been hard, and it turns out that I get angry when I can't figure out my way. Cleaning poop off the toilet seat and the shower curtain and the floor and the bathroom mat, not to mention trying to reorganize everything else has not been fun. I am not a good person and I get upset easily when poop of a grown man is involved.

One thing that I had a hard time figuring out was where to paint. I looked around for a studio space. I did find one available, but it is $250 a month. Nope. The one my momma told me about is about $140 a month (if the room has a window or sink, if not about $125), and there is no room at the inn. I am the second on a waiting list and hopefully will get in sometime after but close to January? Sigh.

This made a few problems as far as my painting is concerned: 1. Where to make room in the living room for my painting stuffs (our apartment is very small), 2. How to make it safe for my painting stuffs to be exposed to food and us.

Oil paints give off a carcinogen, VOC benzene, among other things, when drying. Having my paintings and paints exposed to the entire living space as well as the kitchen made me nervous. My dad called me, gave me some tough love and told me that there is a solution and that I need to find one.

Solution was to move our dining table out, right now it is off to the side, probably will be going into storage, and to find something that would take care of VOC benzene. Turns out I found something that does just that, Peace Lilies. Spider plants and Snake plants also help with benzenes, other chemicals, and the snake plant produces large amounts of oxygen. I got all three as well as a Thanksgiving cactus...because I wanted to (nod).

So here we go:

Book shelf protected, floor protected (kind of), and nice mature peace lilies standing as sentinels. We shall see if I can get myself more under control. At least I am a good actor and cousin doesn't seem to notice. Except today when he asked me to leave and go in my room so that a friend and him, who was going to show up in two minutes, could have some space. I was in the middle of painting. I foresee a rule: 1-7 is my painting time...don't care. When friend left I was less than thrilled. It also doesn't help that cousin got me sick. Like super sick. Yay! I love life.   

SUPER MOM!

You know those times when your mom suggests something and you are like, "Blah mom," as you roll your eyes. Well recently my momma has had no blah in her. She has been on a roll. She told me how to fix my smelly washer (vacuum it out, that's right vacuum it out), she helped my sister figure out how to finish her daughter's Halloween costumes, and just now she solved my paint problem.

BOORAH!!

Here is how she did it: 

1. She asked me to organize/clean her storage unit full of her costume stuffs for plays/movies/and commercials. She is even paying me. I told her no need, several times, but she insists that it is that important to her. Score mom! And a little cash in my pocket. 

2. I told her about having to move my red captain's bed out of the second bedroom, she was like all, "Well when my unit is finally organized, I am 100% confident there will be plenty of room for the bed."  TA DA!!  (also not a direct quote, don't wanna get sued)

3. Then I commiserated with her over the potential loss of my painting space. She was like all sad with me about it (because she is a good mom), and then was like all, "Oh, I have a friend who rents a studio space in a building that is has been designed for artists somewhere in the downtown Provo area. If I remember right it was for super cheap, like $50.00 a month. I will call her tomorrow and find out more details." WHAT!? That's right. My mom was like all, "You had a problem, and yo, I solved it." 

Thank you my mommy!  

I am a bad person

A little bit of an update. Last week I was finally getting back in the swing of things, when, starting with my niece, and then my mom, sister, brother-in-law, other niece, other niece, husband, and I all decided (at varying times during the week, which eliminated the chance of us all having gotten food poisoning) to toss our cookies/have intense stomach crampage. Said crampage lasted all week, and over the weekend, and I was starting to get a little depressed.

Thoughts of, "Do I really want to be an artist, no obviously not because I am sitting on the couch watching another episode of Project Runway, and not painting, I am a bad person," ran through my head. Happily though, on Monday of this week I woke up and I was like ready to go. I felt so good and painted for like ten hours and it was marvelous. Turns out when one has been sick for weeks at a time it starts to feel like one isn't really all that sick and just a big pile of lard.

I have been painting this week and I have pictures to share (I have even been working on Blue Kitten) and I have an idea that I want to talk about and then husband's cousin texted husband today. 

Cousin is very sick. Super sick. He was born with a bad liver/liver situation and he once told me that he will only get a liver transplant when he is about to die, because his new liver may develop the same problems as his old liver, etc etc. He has been in and out of the hospital several times over the five years I have known him, and he just told us that he is getting said liver transplant, and that at the same time they are going to be removing large amounts of his colon. 

To compound the problem, he has been living, for free, with one of his best friends and family. I don't believe he is working right now, because he is so sick, but he can't move back home to Colorado right now because of insurance things and he needs these surgeries. The problem is that friend and friend's wife are getting a divorce and he needs a place to stay. That place is here with us. 

Our apartment is super nice, but super small. Like really small. I paint in our second bedroom, which is were cousin would be. I have painted out in the living room when I had an assignment due and husband's mom was visiting. But I was also in school at the time, so I spent most of my time painting at school so I didn't have to paint at home. I don't have the school option anymore, and I only have like a 2'x2' space between the couch and our table. I guess we could put the table in storage and just eat on the couch? 

When husband's brother and wife and kid showed up on our doorstep for about a month, I painted at my mom's house, but my sister and her family are currently living with my mom. So that isn't an option. Maybe my mom will let me build a shed in her backyard and I could paint there...throughout the Utah winter cold. 

So just in case either you or I don't understand why I am a bad person, lets list the reasons:

I am sad that I won't have my painting space, but I am happy to help cousin, because I love him so. I am scared of taking care of a sick person, both before and after surgery. These things scare me. Like old people, sometimes old people make me feel very uncomfortable. Another reason I am a bad person. I wonder how long cousin will stay with us (this isn't a one month type of gig), because I am a bad person. I am worried about money, and how having a new person will affect that. I am sad that this may mean my sister can't stay with me when she comes out for Christmas, and also wondering where she will stay, or if they will even come if my place is not an option. They can't afford a hotel for that long. I can't afford to put them up in a hotel for that long. And then there is my dad coming out, but he can most definitely afford a hotel.  

And what about working out? I hate working out in front of people (this is me whining now). And I have been so good about painting all week. And now I am going to have to figure out a storage unit situation to put all of my painting stuff and the bed we have in there and the desk so that cousin can come. Maybe I can paint in the storage unit? ha :( 

Oh well, such is life. This all just happened, and now I am feeling down about it and nervous about it and unsure about it. I am sure I will feel a lot better tomorrow when things are more figured out, and I get over my first world problems.

Artist of the Week: Tiffany Bozic

I have known of Tiffany Bozic for maybe a year and a half now, and I find her to be a primary inspiration, here is a little bit about why: 

Tiffany Bozic is one of those artists that somehow is able to both eat her cake and have it too. She is California’s Academy of Science first Artist in Residence, she shows all over the world, she is often compared to the likes of John Audubon and Ernst Haeckel, and well, she lives in California. Tiffany’s story, however, is different than what one might expect. She is self-taught. A degree in art is usually not only seen as a qualification of you as an artist, but, sometimes more importantly, as a way for you as an artist to form connections within the art world.

In the magazine Hi-Fructose, where she was recently interviewed, she credits her success to hard work. In the interview Tiffany is quoted as saying, “I believe that people aren’t born with talent. They earn it form a lifetime of hard work. Most of my ideas come to me during the process of creation, while the gritty gears were turning and my hands were busy. Also, if you wait for someone else to come around and give you permission or validate your motives you could be waiting a long time and no one knows how much time you really have.”

Here you can particularly see her method. She paints on boards of maple that have been bleached until they are almost white. The bleaching gives her the tone she uses in order to unify each work's color scheme, and the choice of maple is due to it's tight grain. This tight grain means that the paint does not bleed throughout the grain. She also paints in acrylic which is watered down to an almost watercolor consistency. Painting in acrylic means that she does not have to prime the board, and can paint directly onto the wood. This allows her to use the natural beauty of the wood as part of her composition. 

 

A job for me? Yes Please! Thank you My Modern Met

One of the many art blogs that I follow, actually it is probably one of my top five blogs/sites, is hiring writers.

Hmmm, yes please I would like to be hired. It will be an extremely low work load, about 1-3 hours a day for five days a week, and I will get to write about art. Like awesome, current, everything is wonderful art.

I found out about this yesterday, because for some reason when I was sick I did not peruse the internet. Which is exactly what one does when one is sick, right? I must have been super out of it. Anyway, they posted this job opening on the 22nd, and it will be open for a week. Granted I am not too far behind by getting my application in today, but surely they have gotten a billion applications by now. I will be super lucky if they even look at my email. Oh, I hope that they do. How ideal would this be? Mega ideal.

Sadly also one of the things that they want you to do is send them links to websites/blogs that you write/do/make...etc? I don't super blog, except for this and my new perler pattern blog (which is mega secret and I love). But perler blog doesn't have anything but perler patterns on it, and my website is still under construction. (sigh)

Well, yesterday I did write that I had the idea of writing posts about some of my favorite animal artists. Looks like I will be doing that. Gotta beef this puppy up!

Fingers crossed they will look at my email.

Where have I been?

Sick, that is where I have been and it is kind of my doctor's fault for switching my prescription. Awesome. On the bright side I have been in bed watching more than a healthy amount of "The Good Wife." (note: It is not a good TV show, like at all...but I just can't stop. No more, I am not allowed to watch it any more.) I was joking about that being a bright side.

I have been thinking a lot for the past week and a half about the blog and about things that I would like to start posting. I think that I am going to start posting about animal artists that I like. Maybe once a week? I am also going to start posting about oil painting, like tips and techniques. Obviously more for myself than anyone else. Maybe I will also do this once a week?

Anyways, being out for as long as I was means that I am SUPER behind on my goals. Time to really push it. Husband and I have made a pact. Husband, who is still working on his last class for graduation, and yes it is an online, independent study class, and yes he has been "working" on it since January, and yes this is a run on sentence, is not allowed to watch Korra until he has finished a chapter in his book and submitted the work.

Now I also have something similar. I am not allowed to watch Korra, new episodes for the final season are aired on Fridays, unless I have clocked a minimum of 25 hours painting. Hopefully this will push me. And yes, "The Legend of Korra" is that good, and yes it is a cartoon, what? :)

Kaa: part 3

Here he is after about another six or seven, maybe more, hours:

I made a couple of mistakes. If you look, the top "head" section of the snake has different colored spots than the rest of the body that is "naturally" painted. This is because I am stupid. Here is what happened: I painted the board a light blue as a base (this helps colors be a little brighter). When I painted the head section, I painted around the spots, leaving them the light blue, first with burnt sienna and then over that with vandyke brown. I then painted the spots with naples yellow. The blue and the yellow gave the base of the spots a lovely greenish-yellow color. I was in love with myself when that happened. It is a perfect starting point for the spots. 

But then came the stupid part: It took forever to paint around the spots twice. Sooooo I thought to myself, "I know! I will just paint the burnt sienna over the entire section and then paint around the spots with the vandyke. Brilliant, I shall save myself time!" Well it did save me time, but it also covered up the blue to the point that the yellow couldn't interact with it and ta-da yellow-brown spots. :( 

However, I am looking on the bright side, the browner spots look like they are more apart of the snake's body, which is good.... that is all I got. Yay for color theory and me ignoring it. 

I also ended up shrinking the first color stripe. It looked like it was cutting the snake off a little bit too much up top. I think it was a good decision.  

Kaa: part 2, Lisa Frank

Remember Lisa Frank folders from the 80s and 90s?

Accidentally went Lisa Frank on Kaa today: 

I super love the red to yellow gradation, but then I thought I was being so clever by having the base color for the spots be blue and then mixing each color's compliment. Looks a little sickly sweet.

Husband thinks that when the rest of the snake is finished it will look cool, I am not so sure. However, even if it doesn't it shouldn't be a problem. I will just make the spots all the same color. I am thinking either a really light, light blue or an almost blue black.

Mr. T: part 1

Mr. T is the family dog of my bestest friend since third grade, Nana. That makes 24 years...super long time.

Anyways, Nana's family is going through a rough spot, and Nana thought it would be nice to paint Mr. T for her mom. Originally the painting was going to be on an oval canvas, which I did find, however, the quality of said canvas was of a dubious nature. Aka, it was questionably cheap. I bought it anyway, but it isn't going to work out. I wasn't sure what to do, until I discovered an artist, Jen Lobo, the other day. See what I mean:

I love these works. I am not in love with all of her works, which is totally to be expected, but these are exceptional. I super want to see if I can paint something similar. I can't get over how much I love these, if I had the money I would buy one, hands down.  

I paint on board, which does not come round, and thought that following Jen's lead would be a nice solution. Here is Mr. T after about two hours of drawing: 

This is a composite of pieces of Mr. T and another dog that was sitting in the position I wanted. I think I got Mr. T in there pretty well. There is, however, something wrong with the right side of his face. I need to figure out which angle is off. I think I will hold off on painting him until I can figure it out. Mr. T, as you can see, will also have a bow tie. It will be painted in Nana's scottish family crest plaid thing. This morning, I even found a photo of a dog wearing a plaid bow tie, which will be a nice reference. 

Here are a couple prep sketches I did a while ago of Scotties: 

As you can see Mr. T is kind of right between these two, except there is one thing that Mr. T has that these two dogs do not, a very distinct tuft of hair between his eyes, right before his muzzle hair begins to separate. I super love this about him, and think if I get that tuft right, Mr. T will shine through.  

Kaa: part 1

My sister in law, TT, has a pet ball snake python (snake python? a little redundant, the naming committee was out the day the snake's name was picked). When I told TT that I wanted to start a pet portrait company, she laughed at me and said something about how people who want paintings of their pets are idiots, or stupid, or weird, or something along those lines.... (sigh) awesome. So what I am going to do? Make a kick ass painting of her snake, that she can't have. :) Yep, I am both petty and vindictive.

Also a little note on animal care. TT's snake lives out its life in a little fish tank. Super small. I know a girl from school who has three snakes, I believe, and one day she was telling me about the care of snakes. Just about everything TT does for her snake is wrong. Oops. Girl from school has a huge, more like an inclosure than a cage for her snakes that sounds awesome. If I had the money/wasn't nervous around snakes I would totally get a huger six foot tall gig for a snake. It would be snake paradise with real plants and maybe frogs and climate controlled and it would look so cool in the living room. I understand that TT may not want to send that money on her snake or prominently feature her snake, but I feel that if you are going to be a responsible pet owner, you have to.

Take my mom for example, she hates spending money on the family cat(s) (we are down to one, but when we had three she was the same). When something is wrong with the cat, who is the one to take care of it? Me. Almost always.

Another example, my step sister. She has a dog who, when step sister was struggling with getting pregnant, was step sister's baby. The dog was fully featured in many Christmas photo cards. Now that kids are around? Puppy lives out it's life in the garage.

Here is the thing, TT, mom, step sister, they just don't really get it. Animals aren't there when it is convenient, they are there to be a part of your life. Not a fixture. Their food is important, their environment is important, etc etc blah blah. Like how really everyone should just be feeding their cats raw meat.

Sorry...on to the snake!

Snake, I am naming Kaa, after about three hours (including drawing time):

The background will be dark, like the lilly painting, and not stripped. The snake, on the other hand, will be. I put the lines in the background for the time being to help me see the divisions. Hopefully this will turn out.

Blue Kitten: Part...? Starting over

Yep, totally starting over on the kitten. I fixed somethings that were really bothering me about the composition, and tomorrow I should have something.

Blue Kitten: Part 3

A very blue kitten 3 hours in:

I know what you are thinking, "Sure hope it doesn't stay like this." Don't worry, I am also hoping the same thing. :) 

Dear John: Stargazer Lilly final

Lilly painting finished:

A little bit of glare again, and the color is also just slightly off, however, it is probably the truest photo I have taken of the lilly yet. I will have to consult my photography doing sister on how to improve. 

Here is a detail: 

As you can see I added the dots, but ever so slightly. I feel like they look slightly noncommittal, but I figured I would rather go for subtle than bold and hate it. I think I like noncommittal. 

Here is the complete progression of the lilly, about 17 hours in total: 

Now I just have to wait for it to dry and then ship it out. I hope she likes it. 

Dear John: Stargazer Lilly part 5

Here it is after another 45 mins or so:

I need to figure out some place to photograph my paintings in order to eliminate glare, however until that happens... yay glare! I probably should also stop being so lazy and stop taking these photos with my phone, but it is just so damn convenient. 

Here is the lilly with the background finished, the bud toned down, the leaves finished (I was originally going to put more detail into the leaves, but in the end decided against it, wanting the flower to focus one's attention), which means that the painting is almost finished, but there is just one problem...I am a coward. 

It is time, finally to add the little spikes of color, but I am nervous to do it. Being nervous like this is a problem I have had since I was about seven or eight years old. I would draw something in pencil and then be terrified that I would ruin it when I added color. Not that it would be ruined by color, but that I would ruin it by being an awful colorer. 

I remember one summer being particularly frustrated by this because of my older sister's art works. I was probably around ten or eleven and I was visiting my dad for the summer, as per usual; but this particular summer my second oldest sister (who is six years older than me) had started to live with my dad several months before we (the twins and I) arrived. 

In her bedroom she had arranged along a wall drawings she had made, mostly of disney characters, and they were all finished in colored pencil. I had been staring in awe at these things for weeks. I remember one day being up in her room drawing, a couple of kittens, on the floor. When the pencil drawing was done I was so nervous to color the kittens in, because, of course, the drawing was super great. I asked my sister if she was ever nervous to color in her drawings. CG looked down from her bed at me confused and responded with a, "No, of course not." 

Sigh...if only. Maybe I will wait the two weeks I had originally thought I would need to wait for it to dry.

      

My goals for the rest of 2014

This morning I spent a good amount of time thinking about applying to galleries and getting into shows, etc. All good things, but after doing a lot of web searching and getting very overwhelmed, I decided to slow down and figure out what steps I need to take in order to get to the point of showing in a gallery. I created a type of self-contract through the rest of the year. I hope to accomplish the following with my contract: one, get a solid body of work produced that I can truly call me, and two get my pet portrait website up and running. The contract is as follows:    

Oct - Nov: Complete 10 paintings to get my pet portrait thing up and off the ground a little bit. Here are my ideas:

1. Zirker painting - Cat 
2. Griffin painting - Fish 
3. Siebach painting - Dog 
4. Smith painting - Dog
5. Autumn - Cat  
6. Gershwin - Cat 
7. Sebastian or Tink - Cat 
8. Tungate painting - Dog 
9. Raynes painting - Hedgehog 
10. Thacker painting - Snake

That will make 3 dog, 4 cat, and 3 others. 

Dec- Jan: Complete a painting for the Hogle Zoo Art competition, due Jan. 19th. Work on two additional paintings of dogs. 

Side Project for Oct - Dec: 2 t-shirt designs

1. Twin Geeks
2. Other

I feel that this is a solid plan for the rest of the year. Let's see how much of it I actually get done. I really want to start pushing myself. 

Blue Kitten: Part 2

Kitten drawing update:

I like the flowers more, however, now it looks like he is sitting in a bunch of weeds. I may erase something. The goal is to start painting this one tomorrow. 

Blue Kitten and Twin Geeks

The past two days I have not done any painting. For a couple of reasons: one, in order to add the final touches to the stargazer lilly, I want it to dry for about two weeks; two, I have been gathering materials for my next two projects.

Project 1: a painting for one of my best friend's, ixoj, mom. Last year ixoj's mom's cancer ended up coming back. Mom had been in remission for about ten years I believe, and to top it off, mom's favorite cat died.

Ixoj's mom is once again cancer free, after a lot of not so fun cancer related stuff, and I was supposed to get this painting to her...oh about a year ago? Which makes me a poopy, terrible person. However, in my defense I have painted this cat three times now. Two oils, and one watercolor and none of them have been, well, good.

However, I hope that the fourth times a charm? Here is the drawing that I have so far for it:

I have learned a couple of things from trying to paint this cat so many times. One is that I am horrible at drawing cats, horrible. This is sad for me, considering how much I super love cats. Another is that, well no that is it, I suck balls at drawing/painting cats, particularly white cats. 

Example of poopiness: there is something wrong with the cat's mouth. An angle is off somewhere else in the face that is making the dots not quiet connect in my brian, but I have redrawn this thing too many times, so I guess the mouth stays. (frown)

My friend asked for the painting to have a lot of blue in it, because her mom super loves blue. The flowers I added around the cat are blue columbines. These flowers are actually very small, but I think they look nice enlarged, except for the flowers in front. They are larger than the others, which gives the image a little bit of perspective, I hope...? But I think that they may be too big. I am going to erase them and figure something else out. 

Project 2: a T-shirt design I have titled Twin Geeks. Only one twin posed for this photo op, but I mean, really, do I need both? I think not. The top girl is going to be Zelda and the bottom girl is going to be Leah. I hope this works, because if it does, it is going to be awesome.