Painting Challenge, Part 4: Conclusion

(Hah! I'd saved this draft months ago; apparently no new insights have come to me, so here it is. Happy spring!)

Any sort of art challenge ends up with...challenges. Lessons you learn. Some of those aren't surprising, like the resistance you have to push through to keep going, wanting/not wanting to do it, or wanting to do anything else but that.

One of the things I learned in art school was that if you make a lot of things, you end up with a few really good ones--this time, however, that kind of didn't happen. I'm disappointed, but in retrospect, not really surprised. This was all going on at the most stressful time of year work-wise, and many of these were painted at the, "I am so ready to go to sleep--but wait, I didn't paint yet" time of night.

Which leads to Hurdle Number Two (Number One being the resistance): technical issues!

I have dabbled with watercolor and gleaned some bits of insight, but...oh, the technical frustrations of trying to do a somewhat satisfactory watercolor painting in one sitting. That basically is impossible. I sort of pulled it off with a few of the more "sketchy" ones, but trying to do something that looked complete and had dark shadows--it doesn't happen. In order to add more paint, more darkness, the first layer has to be dry. I can't say how many times I was impatient, and ended up lifting ALL the color off! Or adding paint and having it run all through another area I was done with, and then having to try to fix it.

One completely different issue that hadn't occurred to me was scale--my normal drawings of faces probably average around one inch high, so increasing to close to six inches was drastic! Another time I would also collect reference photos ahead of time; I only used about three for this challenge, which is why the faces look so similar.

Days 23, 24, & 25

Days 26, 27, & 28

Days 29 & 30

Painting Challenge, Part 3

Next installment!

Days 14, 15, & 16

Days 17, 18, & 19

Days 20, 21, & 22

Painting Challenge, Part 2

I completed my 30 Faces in 30 Days challenge!

I got the idea from Galia Alena--here are her posts:
New Challenge
Part Two
Part Three

I didn't state the parameters last time:
* same size--they are all 4x6 inches, Strathmore 140 lb cold press watercolor paper
* must involve brush or paint [I didn't end up varying--except for using ink one time, they are all watercolor]
* share them even if they are really bad
* added this one part way through: share even if I don't like them.

Apparently it was enough to manage to get the paintings done, so now I am left to catch up with posting. Here is the next batch.

Days 5, 6, & 7

Days 8, 9, & 10

Days 11, 12, & 13

Reappearing [and Painting Challenge, Part 1]

Hmm, so much for posting regularly! I have been sharing some on the insidious Facebook, but that is really not ideal. There are plans in the works, some of which were unplanned--I did not plan to start hunting for a house again, for example. I'm starting to get my feet back under me, and hope to get better at balancing things.

In the meantime, here are some photos of bits & pieces of things that I've made this year. One of advantage of blogging regularly (I tell myself) is that it gives me a record of accomplishment better than digital photos tucked away in virtual folders.

My most recent project is a challenge to paint 30 faces in 30 days, an idea I got from Galia Alena. Days 1-4 are below.

A taste of what has been going on--more appealing than packing boxes, yes? I'm not as close to having a regular creative practice as I'd like, but despite everything, I do feel like I'm starting to make progress. If I can nurture it through the next six months or so, I hope to be able to root it firmly once the housing situation is under control.

Happy New Year!

Here is a selection of images to close out the year:



I'm taking VisualQuest with Pixie Lighthorse--well, technically it's over already, and I am meandering along with the class material. It's really cathartic to paint large and messy. This is the biggest canvas I've ever painted, 30 x 30 inches.

Best wishes and happy creating in the New Year! One of my intentions is to post more regularly, as a practice for another intention of getting a "real artist" website set up. Any encouragement along the way is welcome!

Things have been happening

I'm nearly done with this year's painting for the Portland Audubon Society Fundraiser.

Then as a relief from careful painting, I started painting this.

And there was still a bit of black paint left, so I finished this off. It is #8 from the 100 Paintings Project (I'm up to 12, but a few need a bit more, and I will wait to post them in order).

More Painting

First, an idealized picture of my workspace, adorned with my beautiful orchid.

Several in-process shots; this one is also watercolor.

And the final version--I actually rather like it overall, and several non-contiguous square inches are pretty good. The decorative things were to keep the brush busy while I figured out what to do in the center, and they ended up being undesirable. Note to self: keep a doodle paper at hand in the future, just in case. The snake wasn't going to get any better; it's pretty cute anyway, and I just stopped before something bad happened.

Finally, here is a bonus snake from my sketchbook in late May. For well over a year I've wanted to do a large, fancy snake painting, but I haven't managed to start--apparently starting with small snakes and working my way up is how it will happen! This painting was inspired by the little garter snake I saw while out walking. No, that snake did not look at all like my painting.

(The dark blue black is watercolor, the texture dots and eyes are gouache, and the shiny stars are acrylic.)

On the (Figurative) Easel

Since this is the first day of the rest of the year, it's really about time I add something new.

I decided a while back that I need to do 100 paintings. I keep wanting to paint, but I'm not actually very good at it, and I feel like these days I don't even know just what my "thing" is--motif, subject, story, symbolism. One good way to improve as an artist and to figure such things out, is to do a lot of things. Practice. It was proven to me a bunch of times at art school--make 15, 25, 30 things, and you WILL, guaranteed, end up with almost 30% good or extremely good things.

Anyway, I've been painting a lot of backgrounds. A couple are still only black gesso, and the rest are painted with acrylics.

And today, I finally got myself to paint one. I had to make it as simple as possible, and apparently that meant watercolor, because acrylic for whatever reason seemed intimidating. So here is painting number one!

99 to go!

Acrylic Interlude

Last Sunday, Kim and I attended the Open Painting session at The Loaded Brush. We had a really good time, and I have a new, completely-finished painting on my wall--and it's BIG by my normal standards, 16x20. I really need to paint more. It's so fast!

Curious how the last owl I made was also pink! Pink is not my favorite color, or even my second or my fifth favorite color. But it is cheery. Hot pink is pretty good, especially with orange. (This may be a side effect from having lived in New Mexico.) I think that's how this owl ended up pink--hmmm, the background is red and orange and yellow. Pink will match. Plus, I'm not very good with mixing colors, so staying reasonably analogous helps.

Here they are together for scale:

Before the painting class, I had thought, "Owl." Then, warm or cool? At the class, I got paint and went back to my easel...and I had red and yellow and white, so obviously warm was the choice. It will end up hanging in my studio, but for now it is on the much more accessible wall by my dining table.