Willow, the Moon and Night

Size: 12x16
New brushes used up: 4.
Old brushes destroyed beyond repair: 1
Times I dipped my brush in kosher salt: 6
Times I dipped my brush in coffee, green tea, my glass of water, my milk or my gin & tonic: 11




*fallover*

Tags: art, brushes, process
Current Mood: finally!

So in the middle of my exhaustion, I figured I might as well paint, so... I did. Not just "Willow"; I hauled out a couple more to work on between her layers drying.


I made a crazy painting parlor out of the living room, with pillows, candles, music and incense. It wasn't intentional, I'm just so used to cleaning up that room for company that... well, I was on auto-pilot. But it was really pleasant, even if it did feel a trifle decadent, like painting in some kind of artist's seraglio.

I've also started keeping all my color tests/thumbnails in one clear folder, which you can see on the floor there.


This painting is almost done! I'm so close I can feel it! Another session? Two? It would be so good to be done...!

But as I said, I started a couple more to keep myself working:


In this case, it's "Just Because (I Love You)" and "Hadara and the Sun King," which I've always wanted to finish and at this point seems like serious low-hanging fruit, compared to the complexity of the things I do now!

New folks, feel free to click on the painting titles... that'll show you closer views of the pictures than these photos. :)

Tomorrow I have something special planned... plus I want to muse on reading and RPGs. But for now I flop.


Stardancer Home.

Tags: art, brushes, photos, progress
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Cowboy Bebop OST 3 - Blue

When I did my brush donation drive, I promised that everyone who donated toward the brushes (or bought me one from my Dick Blick Wish List) would get a postcard of the very first picture I painted with them. I started "Willow" once I received them and while I haven't had the chance to finish it, Willow is definitely the first thing I painted with those brushes, and I am doggedly determined it will be the promised postcard picture.

Which means every single painting I've done since then, I've used the old brushes. The Aphorisms cover. Geles. Thirukedi. Collapse. And now I'm about to start Sunny Days... with the old brushes.

I keep telling myself this is ridiculous because Willow was the first piece I touched those brushes to, so technically even if I use the brushes on other pieces that I finish first, it's still the first piece. But I can't... bring... myself to do it.

Can someone get back to me on whether breaking alignment long enough to do something slightly out-of-character would cause me to suffer an XP penalty?


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Tags: brushes, gaming, humor
Current Mood: o_O
Current Music: Massive Attack - Protection

Frustrating night, but I got some progress done before I had to stop. The frustrating part being that I spent two hours on things that I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who will notice. Darkening the background so that it will pop the leaves of the tree better, salting the background with more layers, darkening the tree roots, lightening her skin, darkening her hair... *sigh*



Anyway, while the salt was laying in, I worked on the cover for the Aphorisms, so I photographed them both before I called it. I didn't scan either of them because... well, like I said. I'm not sure who'll notice this kind of nitpicking.



In the past two days I've finished one commission and made progress on these two paintings and I still feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I probably won't feel okay until enough of these things are finished that I can start working on new things, and get that printer funded. I appreciate borrowing hyanan's, but I want the matter done with, you know? *rubbing eyes*

I'm not finishing many sketches at this point, but I'm almost grateful for that. The last thing I want is to draw something new I want to finish when I already have six or seven things in the queue...!

Bleh.

Edit: By the light of the daystar this morning, I see it's not quite so bad as I thought. I might actually finish this in another two or three sessions.




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Tags: art, brushes, photos, process
Current Mood: bleh
Current Music: Wham - All She Wants

Back to work by lamp-light while it thunders outside...


Look how clean my palette is for a change! Today I used most of my color range, though, from yellow to purple. The only thing I haven't used at all in this painting (surprisingly for me) is red.


I believe in wild yawps when you do something worthy of them. In this case, when I started painting I failed to give Willow believable hair on the crown of her head. Not only did I fix that, but by happy accident the result made it look like she has layers of hair on top of one another. So to celebrate this victory, I made myself a gin and tonic and...


...contemplated her partly-completed hair some more. Mmm, fwoosh.


Halfway through the celebratory gin and tonic, I discovered that I was getting loopy because (smart thing that I am) I forgot that carbonated alcohol hits me like a sack of bricks. Since I wanted to continue working instead of hanging out at the table grinning like an idiot, I dumped the remainder of it and hauled out the celebratory hot chocolate instead.


The baby slept through this enterprise (more or less). I had to get up a couple of times to give her back her pacifier. :)

Here's the progress for the night. Won't be long now before I finish it... thank goodness, because I have a pile-up of paintings waiting for me after this one.


Willow (Coming Together)

Stardancer Home.

Tags: art, brushes, photos
Current Mood: kind of sad