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.