Just one in progress. This one has been exhausting so far. But as soon as I sit down to paint it is enthralling. I tried to be as accurate to my reference as possible without becoming a slave to it. Oftentimes I find it hard to maintain the truth of my work; being too busy exaggerating anatomical rhythms to be accurate.


Unfortunately it's in one of those pensive moods. I know it isn't finished but it doesn't seem to want me to work on it at the moment. All I would be doing at the moment would be refining unfinished areas (like the hands, face and feet) rather than adding anything to the overall image. It needs something... I know it. But I simply don't know what that something is. Maybe I can sleep on it.

This was certainly something of an interesting one to paint.






edit: and sorry to beat a dead horse... but I touched the other painting up a bit as well.

Let's call it a good six hours of work.

It was honestly a ton of fun, and once I jumped the only problem I had was the fact that I really was mixing "colors" without a system. Once I learn how to mix the color I want efficiently I think things will be a million times easier and ten million times more efficient and a quadjillion times more fun.


Oh. And I really should have worked the drawing out further. The easiest part was the face because it was the most worked out... the rest was a lot harder due to the fact that I hadn't worked out all of the problems I needed to.

Oh yeah. I also did a painting of that adorable girl I met in the summer. I think I still need to mess with it a bit... but I took a break from it to do other stuff and completely forgot about it.

added the edited painting.

Three hours in on a painting I started on a whim.
I don't know how big it is... probably 24x20 or so.
Painting bigger is a lot easier and faster than painting small.

I've finally managed to get a fairly accurate representation of my paintings online. Both my scanner and my camera seem to color my images away from red and yellow and towards a bright blue, my camera very much so but I also have to compensate for the lights that I use.


But here it is; A painting I did of a drawing I did earlier yesterday. It was a lot of fun to just "treat the paint like paint" and explore that venue while still maintaining a sort of visual vocabulary in order to create a structure within the colors. After a certain point I got all confuddled by the new language I was creating and started, by virtue of a confuddled brain, ruining things, but that's okay because although the final isn't as structurally sound visually as it should have been, I learned a lot and it was a fantastic experience.

Thanks Andrea, I'll try to keep letting paint be paint.

I'm trying to paint better, as I have two paintings that I'd like to finish as gifts for people before the end of time. So as the paintings simply were not working out, I went ahead and started two others to learn how to think more like a painter might. Two different approaches. But some of the way I like to paint is starting to make sense. The first was far superior halfway through. It had a lot less bullshit going on and was by far a stronger painting... I reached that point of "Oh. It looks good. I'll just make one more dab at it..." really rather quickly with it... and after that final dab all I was doing was trying to bring it back. I really need to learn how to move forward rather than simply trying to save what I've already done. The second one was created, mostly, out of color leftover on my palette.

I will soon photograph and upload a large part of the sketchbook that I recently completed.
I think I'll upload it in chunks to keep it from being a humongous post and so that I can update the blog more regularly... I'd like to update regularly with up to date drawings but it is hard to find the time to photograph, edit and post images after I get home close to midnight most nights.


Wow. I don't mean to pat myself on the back or anything. But I feel as if I've learned a lot from these paintings. Firstly about the way I think, and secondly but certainly no less I've learned about the craft of creativity. I mean walking in I had no idea what I was doing I just knew that this was something that I wanted to do. And here I am, still knowing nothing about how colors work, or the proper way of doing things and I'm learning how to make choices. It may not be the fastest way to learn how to do things, but it is so very rewarding. I mean, in my free time... that is generally between the hours of 11pm and 3am. And between the hours of 6am and 11am I get home; I'm tired and cranky and... I want to be creative.

So because my workspace doesn't change I can leave my painting area (clean-ish) but intact and just hop in the chair, flip on my hyperaggressive overhead light... look in the mirror. And start doing something that less than a month ago I didn't even know what doing it was supposed to feel like; and here it is now one of the more rewarding aspects of my life.

Don't get me wrong. Some nights, oh man.... last night was a doozy... I get home. I've been working all day and... my back is sore, my hand is cramped, I'm exhausted... I just spent an hour next to a smelly homeless guy on the ttc... and I really don't want to paint.

But sometimes, most times, the simple act of sitting down at my desk where my paints are is enough to make me want to be creative. And the worst and best part about this for me is that hours can go by like water for me as soon as I start working creatively.

This painting was the most challenging one yet. It fought me tooth and nail every inch of the way. Painting is hard, but I think I love it.

Yeah. I'm having fun painting. For some reason my camera pulled the hue of the blue waaaay up.

My first painting since I was in High School. I see so many problems with this but the entire time I was working on it I was learning. It was incredible. I really enjoyed working on it, it was tons of fun and I think I will work on another later tonight. This may just become a daily ritual because... it is the equivalent of an endlessly frustrating puzzle.

I should probably spend a little bit more time figuring out how colors interact... but for now I'm just having fun and that is amazingly liberating.


Oh yeah. I Adjusted afterwards in photoshop for two reasons; the light I was using added both Blue and an Orange-ish yellow and washed the image out slightly. So I adjusted past the original. I wish I could paint with such an energetic palette.

The funny part is I was happiest with the image probably 15 minutes in. 45 minutes after that I was just trying to bring the initial life, shapes and strokes back.

Tell me what you think?
The palette is muddy. The structure is not quite correct. I like the painterlyness; however the brush felt very... sticky. I would much prefer it had I more control over the paint, applying it et al.