Diving In

The time has come to begin the final project for my Painting I studio class. This painting is free-subject, but must reflect everything we've learned. Since I'm sick of still life and don't want to do another portrait, I'm going the surrealist route with it.


The starting sketch is rather confusing, but the idea is that of a woman in white dress that is draped over buildings in such a way that they are quite pronounced. She looks to the heavens, arms outstretched, with the night sky behind her. I didn't realize when the idea first struck, but it does have a lot of undertones of my Christian faith. And that's just fine.

The surrealist nature, however, does not mean that I get to make it all up. This piece still needs believable elements, so a still life does, in fact have to be used, as seen below:

The fabric isn't the right color, but it is the right heaviness. One of our lessons was that color is arbitrary however, so painting it as while should work out just fine.

This is it as of today. The "blue" of the dress will be white eventually, but the trick with oils is to start dark and work up to the brighter and lighter tones. A fellow art major has been giving me a lot of feedback and several ideas, all of which I think can take this idea from "neat" to "amazing". Also, the buildings will be exaggerated so they have more definition.

Finishing and Re-Visiting

While the self-portrait is finished, the photo quality leaves something to be desired. The outcome of the actual painting, however, is satisfactory. Or, dare I even say, something to be proud of. The instructor and class were very fond of it during critique. It isn't perfect, but it's much better than before.

Also, since I had my paints out early this week, I went back to this painting and covered over the obnoxious lemon in the front that was disrupting the desired vocal point. It's much better now and still my favorite of the paintings done this semester.

The next painting is our choice as long as we demonstrate what we've learned over the semester. I have a concept, but it wouldn't translate to words very well. Hopefully a sketch will be ready to show soon.

The Evolution of a Painting

This was the first time in several years where I reached a point at which a piece of my art made me want to cry every time I looked at it. What you see above is where my confidence began to detirorate. More was done, further efforts were made, but I hated it even more. At last I covered what I'd done of my face in white and flipped it on its side to start anew.

The lighting in this photo is awful, but the paint was still wet so the flash just caused a glare. Also, since there were no pupils yet, the entire thing is a bit creepy to look at.


This photo was taken a couple of hours ago. Obviously it's not finished yet, though a lot of progress has been made since this shot. My glasses will be added, but not until last, as per my teacher's suggestion.

While working on this I noticed that my brother and I have very similar mouths. And while yes, the mouth is too small, it's an error I'm going to live with. I feel tat fixing it at this point would ruin the whole thing.

Stay tuned for the finished product, which should be up in the next few days.

Carrying On

It's true there were minimal updates with the progress of this painting, but at long last it's finished and ready to show to the world in completed glory. Accompanying it is a photo of the set-up, though keep in mind that it had to be taken down at the end of each class and re-assembled at the beginning of the next. That's why the backdrop fabric was more or less totally filled in on day one.

Also joining us again is the outcome of art-therapy. There was no counseling session last which, which was why none have been uploaded in a bit. This one's far less representational than the others, but still satisfying. It's called "Instrumental A Capella".


Next up is the first of a set of commission sketches that being done for a friend, as payback for her helping me out so much. They'll all be Hetalia related, but not all will be posted. This one is of "Denmark" and "Australia", whom she considers good drinking buddies. They were fun to draw and hey, Denmark gave Australia the Sydney Opera House.
Last up is something more for myself, and again, Hetalia-related. It's "Germany", but for an alternate setting Role Play with a friend where the character is female and the body guard for a Mafia Don's son. She normally tries to appear male, however, for a variety of reasons. One of those is that more people take her seriously on the job.

That's a Lot of Purple...

Believe it or not, this picture almost has me sick of mixingg my favorite color ever. Thankfully the drapery is almost done and I shouldn't need to mix much more save for adjusting shadows and highlights.

Everything has taken shape quite nicely, too. Unlike the last two painting assignments, I'm really enjoying this one. Our next assignment is a self-portrait, which I'm not exactly looking forward to.

That's all I have to say, really. Must be the lack of daily caffeine in my system so far.

Oh, Hi There Midterms

That's right, it's midterm week at my school, but compared to many students my load isn't that horrible. I only have two classes with the traditional sort of "exam", though I did have to have a frame for my last painting constructed by yesterday. I would gladly trade that process for a written test any day. I am not eager to do it three more times by the semester's end.

Now that the complaining is out of the way, here's the start of my next painting assignment. It's actually had a good deal done to it since this photo was taken, but I was side-tracked yesterday after class and forgot to take one.
This time the assignment was to bring items from home, which had to include some form of background fabric, one reflective object, some perishable good (fruit, vegetable, plant, etc.), and one small, one medium, and one large object. The still life has to be removed at the end of each class and then re-positioned at the start of the next. Yes, that's as big a pain as it sounds like, and also the reason I don't have a photo of the set-up; it's not allowed.

What I have is a purple cloak as the background, a glass red, shiny tub as my reflective, and though it's not in the picture yet, my perishable item is a lemon. Also in the painting are a stuffed Care Bear sheep that I've had since I was little, a candle, an upside-down flashlight, and a wall-hanging cameo of a girl (which I set in the tub).

Last Friday was also another art therapy session with another unplanned outcome. I like the previous one better, but this one definitely has its strengths. I am, however, making a mental note to put my canvas paper under a stack of books next time to get the crinkles out.

And lastly, a smattering of sketches that have been accumulating:

Colorful + Design Blog

I am pleased to present you all with an entry in which everything is finished and in color! Yes, as you can see above, this includes that obnoxious painting assignment. Overall, however, it could have turned out worse. I didn't really "get" it until the last couple days, which is why I think the teddy bear is the best part. The critique for it is on Tuesday.

This one had nothing to do with school, but was an art therapy painting I did while my counselor was over on Friday. It was relaxing (which was the idea), and I did absolutely no planning before I put the brush to the canvas. I just let it happen, and as a result I'm not really sure what's happening on the bottom half there.Lastly is the commission I finally finished for my friend. He actually didn't pay for it to be in color, I just chose to do that because it took me so long and I appreciated his patience.

Also, as mentioned in the title, I started another art blog of sorts on Tumblr. I started it in my Digital Tools class for my chosen project, and the idea behind it is character and costume design, and also a sort of portfolio for myself. A lot of the images are "re-blogged" from others, but some of my past assignments and recent projects are there as well:
http://echeinigisfashionablynerdy.tumblr.com/