In Black and White

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm struggling with being sick. My son came down with a cold/flu thing and I thought it would miss me. I was wrong. I can't decide if the worst part is the coughing or the horrible headaches it gives me. Or a low-grade fever that just makes me want to lay on the ground and stare at the ceiling.

So, I haven't been all that productive. I did finish my black and white piece, however, so here are some progress to finish pictures:

Just starting in on the figures after filing in the back

Sky filled, working on the wolf

All the black and white is done, now it's ready for tiny hints of color. I didn't expect to add a key, I actually thought the dress would be in her hand, but it worked out very differently.

"Forward" 8x10 inches acrylic on canvas panel. Iridescent paint on the moon, key, pendant, and wolf's eyes.

I learned an awful lot doing this painting. I learned that I haven't painted in a monochromatic way since college and doing value studies, and that it's a lot harder than I remember. I think that's probably because you can create so many values with different colors easier than if you are forced to use just one. It was good for me to do this.

I also learned to "lighten up" on fur. Normally, I think I overwork fur and add lots of precise fur-type details. It makes an animal look sharp, sharper than they probably need to. I forced (and I mean that it took some real struggle for me to let go) myself to back the heck off and go "soft" with it. The wolf looks SO much better. He looks like you would want to pet him. You can see on his tail where things are still a bit sharp and see the difference. Letting go was seriously hard for me, but I realize that in order to improve my technique, I need to do this.

So, I'm working on applying the softer fur technique to my holiday cats. This is a painting I sketched out and fully intended to finish LAST year, and here we are a year later. When it comes to art, I feel like the year is just so short! When it comes to other things (like waiting to move or lose weight) it's a thousand years long.

The original sketch on canvas 2013

progress made 2013, fireplace

more progress, 2013, finishing fireplace

And then I under-painted the stockings a little and went through a bit of art ADD, and didn't go back until now. *sigh* I know, I know. But here is this year's progress:

Working on the stockings

mostly done with the stockings, although looking at it now, I'm trying to decide whether to add sticking to the patches on them. I probably will...

And here is where it literally sits this morning. I just snapped the photo. I've decided that both cats are going to be black and white. I think it works best for the painting.

So, while I'm working on the cats, I'm trying very hard to make them soft. That's my mantra. Soft. Make them soft!

In other news, I woke up to a very light snow! I'm feeling very much in the holiday mood! My goal is to only paint fun holiday paintings for a while! Smaller ones than this, that take less time hopefully, so I'll have some to put in my shop! I just want to feel like I'm accomplishing something, I guess. I should have started the holiday paintings much earlier than I did!

I hope you are all doing well!

Queen's Rule

I think we're at a stopping point for taking pictures of the back view... everything is just sort of dead and ugly right now. Once we get a pretty snow, I'll snap a picture of that! Autumn was fun while it lasted!

I finished my queen earlier this week, finally!

"Queen of Hearts" 16x20 inches, acrylic on stretched canvas.

She came out well, even though there were times I worried. It's funny, because I feel like this painting really fought me. I'm not sure why. It certainly took forever, if we look at actual time from the drawing to the completion... but that's mostly because I walked away frequently, frustrated with her.

I'm going to paint a companion piece to her, The White Queen, and I'm actually looking forward to that one! She lives backwards, so I'm working on coming up with things that express that!

I also finished two little pieces:

I named this one Bunk-bed, can you see why? I'm in love with this one because of the tiny mouse. I have this urge to paint all sorts of tiny mice and kittens on tiny canvases!
4x4 inches, acrylic on stretched canvas
This one is now available in my shop

I painted that little mouse, and he's smaller than an earring:

it's a bad picture, late at night off my phone, but you can see how tiny he is.

I realize I need to fins tinier brushes for a lot of the things I want to do. The ones I have, they're simply not small enough!

And then I finished this kitty too:

The moon and leaves are iridescent. I've started adding in jade to the edges of my moons and I just love it! 
3x6 inches, acrylic on stretched canvas
This painting is now up for sale in my shop

And then I didn't get any work done because everything got a bit crazy here between house showings and other things. I'm back to work now, and working on a piece for the Black and White November auction on facebook:

it's messy, I know. My idea is do paint everything in black and white, except for the moon, her, and the wolf/dog's eyes (which will match the moon somehow.) I've forgotten how tricky it is to paint in just black and white. This is funny really, because I used to be afraid of color! Black and white (and all the grays) were so easy! Color was tricky. Now, it's the other way around!

So, I'm a bit uncertain if the piece will turn out. I'm hopeful, though! And Christmas paintings are on the way too. I must get my holiday painting in! And with that, I'm also putting up one of my Christmas trees today. I know it's early, but normally I decorate on November 1st, so technically I'm late. Since we're showing the house, I wasn't going to put anything up until Thanksgiving, but the truth is that I need my twinkle lights!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! Anyone else have holiday decor up yet?

Welcome Autumn!

It's the first day of Autumn here, and I have to tell you it's just perfect outside! I typed that sentence, then ran outside to snap a picture from the back deck:

Now, it's harder to see in the photo, but trees are just starting to turn. Some orange and red ones are scattered about! I'm told that's one thing I won't lose in North Carolina, the brilliant autumns! That's good, because it really is my favorite time of the year. The air turns crisp and the world lights up with color! It's something I never experienced in Colorado. We drove up into the mountains to see the aspens change sometimes (all yellow), but in general autumn in Colorado was all about trees starting to change, a sudden major snowstorm, and then all the leaves were gone. This subtle meandering through color and raining leaves, it's something I've grown to adore! I don't think I'd do well living without it.

I am a bit nervous to be living without snow, however. We'll see how I handle that transition.

Speaking of, we finally got our house on the market. There has been some interest from a couple different parties, but it's one of those things that simply may not work out (I'm an optimistic pessimist; I don't think things are going to go well but I really, really hope they will!) We hope it does, but I am also preparing myself for being here until next summer when the real estate season comes back around (it's very seasonal here with most people buying in the Spring and Summer.) We could sell our house for far less than it is worth and leave now, of course, but that would hurt my family financially and there is no bonus for doing that on any level. So, perhaps I won't miss out on snow this year. Maybe I'll get one more season in my pretty house in the Vermont mountains after all? 

It actually doesn't bother me all that much, if we sell fast or not. I see positives in going now if we can, but also for staying. I suppose that's a good place to be in! The panic has faded, the urgency. The only fly in my wine (wine sounds better than ointment, really) is keeping the house clean for showings! Seriously, people who live in spotless houses naturally, how does that even work?

In other news, I FINALLY got back to painting. Really painting. I missed two auction deadlines for the Rabbit Hole Artist Collective. *head*desk*

BUT! This month's prompt is The Lovely Bones. Now, I don't know if the group meant the prompt to be from the book or movie, but I remember it clearly (a girl who was murdered, watching over the people in her life.) It was hard, and sad, and... well, anyway. Many of the collective went a very different way with the prompt, and I decided to fall somewhere halfway between the two.

I decided on an 8x10 fine tooth canvas panel:

All sketched out

Adding in the background...

Night sky and moon in, body in, working on dress

Now, her dress morphs into a bone-boat. I debated the color of the dress being red, because it creates a blood and bone image that might be too much. Yet, I don't think it could have been any other color. Not only would another color blend too much, but frankly? The blood and bone boat makes a significant metaphorical point if you know the story. This is about journey, personal sorrow, and transition.

I'm already in love with this painting. I've been meaning to paint a series where the hair or dress of my figure is causing a shift (from day to night, spring to fall, etc) for about two years now. This prompt and where I went with it gave me my excuse. 

This is definitely more surreal than fairytale, so this is coming from my Abstract and Surreal art page, rather than my Fairy Tale one. I have a yearning to paint more and more of these as I've been working on them in my mind for a very long time, but I also have a strong desire (and a client) to finish off my Queen of Hearts and her companion piece (the white queen) along with the secondary characters I had meant to paint as well (i.e. humpty dumpty, etc.) And then there is the urge to get on the holiday stuff too! I never finished my kittens with the stockings last year either!

Basically, while I didn't intend to take this long off from painting (it's been months now if I add up my parents living here and getting the house ready until now), but I'm charged up to make things happen! PAINT! PAINT! PAINT!

I expect this current painting to be finished today, and up for auction this week at the collective, so pop by if you are interested! I also expect I'll have a lot more painting progress to share next week!

Monday Pieces

Monday came fast this time around! I actually dropped the daily illustrations (I know, I'm the most wishy-washy person ever right now, it's really frustrating. But, I've figured some things out and I'll post about that in a mid-week post. Hey a bonus post!) Instead, I had two pieces I was late in getting submitted to The Rabbit Hole Artist Collective monthly auction. The theme was "classics" and I ended up trashing two pieces, because they just didn't work for me. Classics just seemed like such a vague thing to do. Classic how? Then someone said movies, literature, art... and I came up with Ophelia, from Hamlet. I also decided to do one inspired by Klimt's The Kiss.
So, here is Ophelia:

Klimt, ophelia - backgrounds in

"Ophelia" 8x10, acrylic on fine canvas panel. She actually looks better in person. I tried scanning the painting instead of taking a picture, and I think it lit things up a bit wonky. There are silver iridescent highlights in her hair, but they aren't quite that in-your-face. Hmm. 

"The Embrace" 8x6 inches acrylic on canvas panel

Now, the Ophelia piece is fine but... I LOVE the way the Embrace piece came out. LOVE it. I don't know why. Maybe it's the emotion the pose evokes. I just really like it. 

I thought it wasn't going to turn out. In fact, I even used a panel that has such a hard canvas tooth, I that I didn't figure on it being usable. Deep grooves like that in canvas really only work for thick-thick applications of paint (and attacks with palette knives.) But in some ways? I feel that the rough texture adds a little to it, sort of when people add grain to a photograph?

I'm considering a whole romantic series, for my Abstract side of the business. 

Anyway, that's the extent of my productivity last week. On Friday, another itty-bitty step forward was made in the whole job-maybe-move situation. All in the right direction, all glacially slow. Now, nothing will happen for two weeks, but then hopefully things will start going again. The downside is that if everything does go the way we hope, there is going to be quite a lot of pressure and panic to make everything happen. Maybe I will start producing art that involves attacking canvas with the palette knives?

Ahh well... On Sunday, I took the day off to hang out in my hammock and read trashy novels. I needed it. 

I hope you all had a great week!

Doodles

Just this past week, I suffered a two-day migraine. It's very frustrating when you can't do any of the things you normally would. I've had migraines since I was very young, and I have always just sort of accepted them, but this time I actually had plans and I saw how I had to back out and let others down because of it. I felt very guilty.

On the business side, I was all set to paint in the white rabbit on my Queen of Hearts painting:

I even took my picture with the canvas, just as pain was sneaking in behind my right eye, but I didn't know it was going to be a migraine:

About 20 minutes after that picture, I realized it was a migraine and took something. An hour later I was in my bedroom, miserable, and nothing I took helped. It was a weird one, lasting two days and nothing really knocking it. I lost time, progress on work, and let people down.

It finally let up yesterday morning, but I had a sort of migraine hangover. I couldn't focus right, even though my brain was clamoring for me to get working on my Queen as soon as possible. I didn't want to mess her up, though.

So, since it was the weekend anyway and I'm not supposed to be working-working, I decided to do some sketching-doodling fun instead! I used to doodle monsters, all sorts of monsters. I called them guardians, and I once had the idea that I'd make them out of clay (about 20 years ago.) They'd be the little gargoyle friend that you put next to or under your bed and they would chase all the other monsters away because they were special. I had all sorts of sketches, but they are long lost now. I probably threw them away!

Well, I started doodling again and thinking about them while I did. Drawing little monsters is easy and fun for me, and I decided I'll do a painting of some of the best ones (not all of them turn out to be red carpet worthy *ahem*) in oil or acrylic. Here is one from last night:

I am having people suggest CUTE animal body parts and I'm combining them into monsters. This one is Bird, Sloth, Cat, Rabbit, and Duck. My son didn't like her, and said she was creepy.  Me? I like her.

I'm going to do more today, and see what happens. Maybe I'll revisit my clay idea if I can figure out which clay to use, and more as a figurine than something to give a little kid (I had envisioned something about six inches tall and substantial, but now I'm imagining something smaller and shelf-worthy instead!) Hopefully, no more migraines will hit and I can work on my queen this coming week.

I have no news about whether we're moving. It all got messed up by human error, and now we're waiting on pins and needles to see if all is lost or not. We really want to move, so cross your fingers for us! We should know over the next two weeks (but then, they've been saying that for the past seven weeks and I've been going nuts!)

Tightening Up

The business of art is a tricky proposition. Art is seriously undervalued in our society, and as an artist we not only have to work very hard at creating, we also have to market and sell and ship and manage all on our own. Are we chasing our dreams or working for our clientele? Isn't there some middle ground?

What's become more and more evident as I work my way through things, is that the phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none" has become a very real thing. I can do a lot. A LOT. I work in watercolor, acrylic, oil. I can use pastels, sculpt, and throw on a wheel. I'm good at all of those things, I've sold from all of those mediums. Then you have genres further widening what you can do (abstract, portrait, fantasy, fairy tale, still life, realistic, etc) and suddenly you realize you could completely populate a gallery with every medium and style all on your own. Which is really cool, except... Except it simply doesn't work as a business model.

I've had to come to grips with the reality that it doesn't matter that I can paint in the abstract and throw a set of dishes and sculpt a dancing lady for the front lawn while painting a dragon. It might matter to me, but when it comes to business... well, business is business. In business, your clientele NEEDS to know what you offer. They need you to be a master at what you do and know exactly what they're getting when they come to look at your work. They need some idea of expectations.

More, when you are branching out with all those other mediums and styles, you can find that you have stopped growing. Sure, you may get better at one aspect or another, but "good at" is not "mastering" anything. I have come to realize and accept that as a business I need to focus on a few mediums that all have something in common with one another (and this is easy for me: oil, acrylic and watercolor is my answer), and one style with a focused subject.

I thought that doing my Fairy Tale art would allow for me to just throw a random dragon or fairy down (aren't they all part of the fantasy realm after all?), but that turns out to not be the case. It's too broad a category. I realize that now, and I'm accepting it. I realize that my art business needs to be tightened up. I need to be the master in it, and you cannot be a master in anything if you keep moving on to new things.

This all sounds depressing, but I'm actually very excited! I realize that I derive a deep satisfaction from certain paintings, and next to nothing from others. I realize that when I work on my actual Fairy Tale paintings, I feel fulfilled. 

This painting took me months, but I'm beyond proud of it!

When I do a random dragon or Christmas tree or mouse, I realize... I'm playing. That's not business, but it's nice to understand that I AM still able to play. It's something I thought I had forgotten how to do, and now realize that I was actually doing too much of it. Yes, I've been selling my playful results, but I realize that may actually be a mistake business-wise. 

I did this painting for a special friend, but it only took one afternoon. I like it, but it's not something I'm going to look back on in 30 years and feel like my life's work was well spent. This, I realize, is me playing. Play is important, but it's not work.

I had a dream the other night, and in it I saw my business as it needed to be set up. I woke up feeling like "I've got it. I've really got it now. I understand!" I saw my art booth set up exactly as I plan to do it. I realized that my major originals (like the White Rabbit) are undervalued, and under and misrepresented in my offerings. But I know how to fix it. I've finally GOT IT.

So, my new focus is similar to what I've been saying, but... it isn't. My love is of Fairy Tales. I will continue to paint my Fairy Tales, but all my professional work will be directly related to that topic, with a deeper meaning and more going on within the paintings. My paintings need to be a story. The ones that have a story, a deeper process, those are the ones that make me feel like I am doing what I am here for. Maybe painting fairy tales isn't curing cancer, but it makes me feel like I have a place in this world, as silly as that may sound.

Part of this is also accepting that I am not a fast painter. The reason my bigger fairy tale paintings take longer is because I spend a lot of time thinking them through.

This video is of Tea Time, but it took me months and months to paint it. The physical act? Probably 120 hours, maybe more... but the thinking through it? More. Even though it was all mapped out, it took more. Plus, I was also doing what I have been doing - extra little side art that doesn't mean as much to me, but I thought was all a part of my larger business. 

I feel good. My business has a focus. More, I know that if I want to play, I need to NOT do it during business hours. Those hours need to be focused on my bigger paintings, and I feel that with that focus will actually come more productivity even though my process is a slow one. I still plan on writing my own fairy tale and painting a series to go with it, because that's all still part of the correct path.

The little art, the playing, the "daily art" will stop and find it's correct place - my play time. I'll still sell it, but it won't be the backbone of my business anymore and it won't be the bulk of my offerings. I had inadvertently set the balance there, and I'm realizing my mistake and fixing it. 

So, I'm excited. A bit frustrated that it took this long for me to get what I pretty much already knew, but excited nonetheless.

My Queen of Hearts is on my easel, and I'm working my way through her. I don't know if I'll be done with Alice after her, or start working on a new Fairy Tale. I haven't decided yet, but I think I want to move on to something new. I can always come back and add to the series if something gets stuck in my head that simply must be painted!

Working out the garden area, inching closer to the rabbit behind her.

And a tree with wisteria! I love purple! I hope we move somewhere that I can grow these in my yard in reality!

So that's where I am at. Tightening up my focus and buckling down. It actually feels really good to not be casting about and wondering what to do! 

Upstream

It's blustery and snowy outside right now. I'm amazed that in March, we're still experiencing winter!

I finished up some more ACEOs for the open auction tomorrow on the artist collective on Facebook:

While fine, I'm finding they're a diversion. I'm not deriving the kind of satisfaction from them that I need. As I said in my previous post, I need to get back to what makes me fulfilled in the studio, and those are the big pieces with stories in them. Things going on that make you want to stop and stay awhile to figure it out.

I know this more than ever now, because when I look at my paintings and what I'm proud of, I feel a lot more from some than others. I know that's natural, but it's deeper than that. So, back to the big paintings! And allowing myself peace that I simply work slow. It is what it is.

My queen of hearts is on my easel once again:

I wanted to share this. It's not a before and after. This is a picture in normal light on the left, and a spotlight on the right. This is what adding iridescent paint to my work does. I wanted a sort of undercurrent of fierce power coming from the queen, and these highlights accomplish that. Light isn't usually spotlighted onto a painting like this, so instead it's much more subtle throughout the day as lighting conditions change. It gives a sort of living quality to my pieces, and it certainly does what I want it to for the queen. I probably need to do small videos so people can really see what my paintings do, it's so hard to capture it in a simple photo.

These are some of the iridescent paints I use (I have a whole slew of them). They are not opaque, for the most part. They seem, like they would be, but then they sort of spread out more like a glaze.

I have no updates to share about my potential move. This ups my stress level considerably, because I feel like I'm losing time. If it's really a yes, then the amount of work I have to do simply to get this house ready for the market is overwhelming. The less time I have to do it in, the more panic that is likely to ensue, and it's making me nervous! If they really would like him to start this new position in late June... well, it's late March now! Eeek!

I think the hardest part isn't even all of that though. No, the hardest part is that I'm a pessimist. You see, now that I actually want to move, I think the odds go higher that something will happen and we won't. If it had been something I was dead set against, it would happen without question. It's still a move where I am jumping off into the unknown, not having been to the place at all... but I'm so unhappy here, that I figure it's got to be an improvement!

So, we're still here without a 100% solid answer. My husband feels it's a done deal, but as more time passes my gut instincts think something is up. Now, to be fair... whatever life throws at you (minus tragedy) tends to be what should happen. What I mean by that is that nothing has ever been taken away or happened that wasn't for the better, as if it was sort of meant to be. Do I believe in fate? No, not really. It's just the way things have worked out. Perhaps, it's us making the best of whatever situation we are thrown, but sometimes it just feels like something more.

It happened when we purchased our first house. It was a booming market in 1998, and houses were being snapped up within hours of being on the market. The prices were rising daily. Every time we had enough saved up, the prices would jump and we wouldn't have enough of a down payment. Every house we tried to bid on went under contract before we could send our bid in (sometimes just by minutes!) We were so depressed.

I was pregnant, and ill most of the time so I was unable to work, and I finally decided I had to get out of the house. I took a pottery class, because I've always enjoyed throwing. There, at the class, the woman next to me mentioned she was going to be selling her house. We weren't very well off, so I said I'd like to hear about it - sure that it was out of my reach. Instead, the house was perfect, right in our reach, and located exactly where we wanted. Through that chance meeting, we put her house under contract before it went to market and thus purchased our very first house. It was a better house than the others we had been bidding on, in a better neighborhood, and closer to my mother. All things we couldn't find in one place that sort of fell into our lap. It was easy!

My mother is a big fan of saying "Whatever is meant to be, will be" and "If you find yourself fighting so much, that you know you're trying to swim upstream? You need to ask yourself if you're doing the right thing. Yes, the things you want, you have to fight for. However, some times you find you're fighting TOO HARD, and there is a reason; it's not the right thing for you."

Yes, my mother is Yoda.

Anyhow, she's usually right. Those thoughts bear out over and over. Whatever is meant to be will happen, and it'll be what's best for us as long as I am paying attention and making good choices. We may not get what we always want, but maybe we weren't supposed to have it anyway. Maybe it was the wrong thing for us, and letting it go was best.

So, this is me trying to be Zen. Not fighting, but hoping for the change we need.

I happen to suck at being Zen, though. I should probably go for another run.

Time-Out

I've been working steadily on my Secret Garden painting, and I'm down to just painting in the unicorn and some fireflies:

One would think this would be simple to finish off, but it's actually not. I'm having issues with the unicorn's mane, and I think it's probably my attitude, and not the painting itself. I had to put myself into time-out today. I had to make myself walk away instead of making myself finish the piece.

I've been having trouble focusing for a while now, because things are kind of getting wild here at home. In addition to not having a single week without a child home sick in over a month, I'm facing a potential move to North Carolina. But nothing is set. So, it's a maybe. A HUGE maybe, but a maybe nonetheless. I have no control over the outcome (a job position was offered, we said yes, but as it's a position within the current company there are a lot of hoops and other things that have to be settled, and so many things could happen to make this NOT happen.) Having no control over my own path makes me a bit grumpy.

I've played with the realtor-thing, looking at houses online, but deep down I know this is a colossal waste of my time if this doesn't pan out. Plus, if this does happen, I'll have a short period of time to figure out our situation here with our current house, a VERY large to-do list, of which I can do none of because I don't know if it's happening. I have this urgency to get things rolling one way or another, and I'm completely hog-tied instead.

It's very frustrating having no control or influence, and simply being at the whim of others. I thought throwing myself into my work would help, but it hasn't, and instead I'm finding myself increasingly distracted and frustrated (even angry) and that does not yield positive results. So, for my time, I really only have a few more ACEOs and the in progress piece above to show. A disappointing yield, to be sure.

There was another, but I completely ruined it. *head*desk*

I also haven't been hammering at my Queen of Hearts, for fear I'll ruin her in my current state. Unfortunately, this coming week looks to be just as stressful, so I'm not sure where things will end up.

I need a vacation. Or maybe just a direction. That would sure be lovely!

Little Progress

I'm ready for Spring, is anyone else?

I had a few hiccups in getting my Daily Art exercise up and running. It seemed like the moment I announced it, it became almost impossible to do. It was just life interfering, but it was annoying nonetheless!

Still, I have a few pieces completed for it:

"Moongazer" ACEO (2.5x3.5 inches) acrylic on illustration board. Started out with a cat meeting the dragon, but the cat and I had a disagreement, and he was turned into a moon.

"Little Light" ACEO (2.5 x 3.5 inches) watercolor and acrylic on cold pressed paper.

"Old Man Tree" ACEO acrylic on cardstock

One of the things I realize I need to do is to let go of the idea that every daily art piece has to be a perfect and complete piece. Some of them can be sketches! They don't have to be so heavy handed with every "i" dotted, so to speak! In other words, I seriously need to loosen up. That's why I'm not giving up on my daily art idea. I need it. I need it to get things moving with the work and to loosen up my grip on my art. I need to play! I've said it before, and it's still true!

I've also found now that ACEOs are funny when it comes to posting online, because people think they're a little sloppier than normal when the picture is blown up - not realizing that the actual painting is much smaller than the picture they're looking at. It's hard to paint that tiny!

Of course, this is also why you shouldn't make prints available that are bigger than the original work, but a lot of people don't realize that. On that tangent, it's one of those things that makes me consider working in the digital world as well. With those images, you can increase the size of the print, so long as you have done the work on a very detailed level. It allows for a lot more latitude in prints as well as merchandise. Something I've been thinking a lot about! For my birthday, I received a waccom pen for my iPad that is supposed to have around 240 different pressure measurements and so on, to make drawing on the digital art programs better. I've only played with it a little, but I have to say I miss actual paint... so I've wandered back to my easel instead (and now I have guilt for not using the gift, so I have to go back and try again every evening, just to put in my time on it. Maybe something will click and it'll all be worth it!)

In other news, a group I am participating with on facebook has the theme "Secret Garden" running, and it's made me dig out the painting from last year that I lost interest in:

I don't know why I lost interest in it to start with, because I actually like it and always have. So, I'm working on completing that right now, along with my morning daily art exercises, and I have my queen of hearts right next to it as well (I figure if I'm going to be painting a lot of "dress" on this fairy in the garden, I'll be in a good clothing groove to work on the queen's gown at the same time!)

And... as you might notice from the picture, I'm still at my kitchen table. I didn't get my studio organized. The more I considered options for the room, the more I realized I'd be causing myself even more grief. If I brought in shelves, I would lose drying space, etc.

I need a new house. That's all there is to it! *wink*

Distracted

I have been very distracted lately. Children have been ill, my mother has moved in for a couple weeks... I've been slacking and I really have no excuse... *ahem*

I'm slowly working on my queen. You can see that I have blocked in a few areas:

In progress!

I have blocked in certain color combinations (like her dress) just to see what I think of it (I'm going with it, a red/black/white and gold.) Her hair was going to be black, but painting black hair is a bit tricky with a warmer skin tone, so I'm switching to a deep brunette with copper highlights. I got frustrated with it the other day and had to walk away before I ruined something. 

Oh, and the canvas has loosened. Now, I don't know if everyone knows this trick, but if that happens, spray some clean water on the back and blow it dry with a blow dryer on warm. Not too hot, and if there is paint on the other side, be VERY careful (if it's all painted, I don't do that anymore.) Tightens that canvas right back up like a drum!

I also finally,  finally took updated head shots for my business photos. I've been putting it off for years.  I'm just not a fan of being in front of a camera. But, for some reason I decided to do it. I hadn't planned on it, I had actually planned on making a little video showing how to tighten up the canvas instead, but I realized all my photo lights were set up, and so I went that way instead. I figure I won't have to take pictures for another five years, right?

The static in the air was a bit high today... but I figured now or never!

This is the one I went with for my business shot. I don't know WHY I have a perpetual smirk when I half-smile like that. No wonder I got grounded so much!

I think I prefer the black and white on this one.

Actually, I just love black and white better in almost every portrait I've ever taken (of myself or others when I had a photography business.)

Well, now that I got that done, I hope I'll actually get some real painting in!