Progress

Last night I set up my new painting table in what we call the closet room of our house. Learned I absolutely cannot tolerate the light I bought to use for painting. I have always hated flourescents and this one is no exception. It has a "full spectrum" bulb which I thought would be helpful, but it is so harsh and bright that I immediately felt carsick. Or bulbsick, if you will. My eyes felt as if they were being pressed on really hard. I have to replace it tonight with an incandescent.

I also made a list of which paints are staining, transparent etc and studied some color studies in a new book I bought. Learning just what I can do with alizeran crimson, ultramarine and indian yellow. Fascinating! Some of my paints aren't in yet so I can't do the studies myself. I learned that transparent colors don't make "mud" the way some others do.

I sketched the couch with a really dark soft pencil that is all pencil, no wood. It's buttery! I tried hard not to worry about getting it right but just kept making marks until the shape and perspective were right. I drew it right over a pencil test I did...no idea I was going to like it at all. I love it when I surprise myself.

I see now I will have to get a scanner. Or digital camera. I feel guilty about bringing my sketches to work and having a coworker scan them for me.

A Sense of Responsibility

Now that I've started this....I'm feeling a certain obligation to it. That is exactly what I had hoped would happen! I did do 2 drawings this weekend. One very bad one of a perfectly decent piece of pizza on a perfectly boring gas range-top and another of a bottle of one of my favorite condiments: Red Pepper Flakes! That one turned out well and I think I'll paint it tonight. I am also working on setting up a little studio space in my house so I'll have a place to work that I don't have to clean up. I can just leave the tools out so they're always there waiting and calling. I'm pretty excited about this. I'm tricking myself into doing art....and it's working!

Zinnias and one cosmo

This turned out much better than I thought it would! The paper is really thin out of a sketchbook similar to a Moleskine but a different brand. I did this as a total challenge to myself that I could do something without having just the right paper and paint, etc.

My first mouse drawing

View from my computer drawn with the mouse....I won't be doing too much of THAT in the future.

Poppy the dog

This is my dog Poppy. He has no idea how small he is!