Painting - Cutie on Tea Towel

Had some paint that hasn't dried on my pallet and instead of scraping it off, I did this small painting. Had to be kind of creative with my color choices because I didn't have all the colors I was used to. Anyway, it's a tiny cutie on a tea towel and the painting is like 4x5 or 3x4, I will find out when I get back home. Plus, I'll send out the newsletter <3

All the Children of the World

Hmm. I was guilted into doing a large mural for a church nursery and the theme decided on was "All the Children of the World".

So now I'm doing a ton of research on cultural or tradition clothing for 43 different countries.

Then I have to decide on clothes and children to paint. And then I have to arrange and paint everything to look nice on a 20+foot long wall.

The hardest part of this so far has been the research. I can't stay on one thing, I get so distracted by the history and the fabrication and the meaning and how everything is decorated and where each symbol comes from and then how the clothing has evolved and...

... I am such a nerd and it's making this near impossible.

Art Studio Clean Out

Oh my God, I knew I had a lot of work, but honestly! I think it's multiplying. And I don't remember making so much crap. Okay, I lie. I remember making it. I just didn't remember how much of it was crap. I hope that means I'm getting tons better.

A lot of it is getting chunked, but some of it I'll post. And some of it I'll chunk or repaint after I post. I just have way too much... junk.

And look:  Landscapes

Painting - Dried Pomegranate

Pomegranate
Oil on Mat Board
7.25" x 5.625"

Started this one last night, but it was looking bad so I didn't finish. This isn't actually the "done" one, but I ran out of light to take a good picture. (It's pretty cloudy and late here) Tomorrow I will have a good photo as well.

I've started to put all my paintings up here: https://www.wepay.com/stores/portraits-and-pieces

Been trying to get out of working with PayPal. I've been having problems. Anyway, I think I'm going to write tonight. I've got painting going, and piano practice, and other things, but I've put off writing and other work. I'm going to do that now! Woot.

Painting - Blue Jar

Blue Jar
Smallish
Oil on Mat Board

Just decided to do some painting and I had this little jar around and so I painted it. Also, I painted an artichoke. And a Styrofoam head. And a dried pomegranate. This is the only one that turned out semi decent. Yay. Anyway, plan to do more paintings. I finished up a ton of book binding too.

I'm going to be putting some of these on my website to sell. Soon I suppose. If you want first dibbs, just comment or send me a message.

Laters!

Sketch - River

River
Sketches
Pencil and Paper

I am going to be doing a painting of River and his mom Jessie, and here is a sketch of some practice River expressions. Omg, adorable *hugs*

Not the best drawings I've ever done, but they are drawings. Can't wait to start the painting.

Painting - Sari Lady

Lady in Sari
Giant
Acrylic on Paper

Okay, so it's really not giant, but it's much bigger than I'm used to working. Around 22 x 28, though I haven't actually measured it. I did it with left over walmart craft paint and some paper I had left over from some other craft project.

I've been suffering from insomnia pretty bad, and I've been doing this when my mind can't take any more coding. Apparently it can't take any more photographs either, but, eh, I'll work on that tomorrow! No matter how I hold my iPhone or prop my picture up, her head looks darker. Bah. Even a bit of creative post production didn't help it, not that I was trying that hard.

I keep looking at this going, "I wish I had a real model... " Photographs don't usually work for me, and that's all I had. Of course, even if I did have a model I don't have a sari for them to model. Although I do have a ton of fabric. I'm sure I could have rigged something up.

Anyway, I am pretty proud of the fact that I did a larger painting, even as just a reaction to not sleeping. When I'm done with my project, I'm going to do more I think!

Watercolor - Lara

Lara has to be one of my favorite models. She has excellent features, a great look, and she naturally stays still.

I did this watercolor from a sketch in my book. It doesn't really look like Laray, but I think the painting turned out as a good painting sketch. Might do something similar next, because I like this style. Sorry for the bad photos. I've been out of town and it's all iPhone, when I have anything!

Sketchbook - Italian Sketch

This is a sketch in my sketchbook from Italy. I sat on the beach and painted the hills and houses, and I turned around and painted the mountains on the other side of me. I wish I could remember where we were, but we went everywhere and I pretty much just could not keep up.

Anyway, I'm doing a lot of coding for a project, so I won't have a ton of new paintings, but I'll try to post some things. Probably sketches from my Italy trip, or small things I'm doing around here.

Sketch - iHop Sam

Sam at iHop
iHop menu size
iHop menu and iHop crayons

I had mentioned this in my "What I Do at Restaurants" post a couple of posts ago and I happened to have this on my iPhone. It's such a bad photo, and the drawing is off, but it's what I get for working from life using very hyper people as models. I miss Lara as a model, as she was so still, and had such great features!

This I did with the pen I always have with me on the back of the ihop menu. The color is from their crayons. You can do a lot of neat stuff with the crayons you get at restaurants. I use them whenever possible.

I keep reading, "If I only had good pens/inks/markers/crayons/colored pencils/computer software..." and I just have to say, if you can't do it with bad materials, good materials aren't going to magically make you better. They will make things easier, but not better! Having better materials wouldn't have made my drawings any better.