friendless foodless environments foster focus

honestly, the alliterations just kinda come out.
no idea why.

i skipped an activity the other day* where friends and food would be involved in hopes of finding focus. it worked!

stuff has been slow but a little better.
loooooooook.

//

picture 1: looking at a piece through a mirror often helps pinpoint errors a lot faster than just looking at it straight-on. same concept of turning it upside down, etc.

picture 2: super excited about this one. it's based off of one of my favorite places and my hand literally cramped up after i finished drawing it. 

picture 2: start of a painting. after taking this picture, i worked on it some more and really messed it up. i couldn't stand to look at it for about a week, but when i worked on it again i was pretty pleased with the result, which you'll see in the show.

[*confession: by "the other day", i mean the day of september 17, which is when i wrote this but forgot to publish it. so i changed the content and posted now. good alliterations shan't be wasted in this space of the interwebs.]

evidence of construction

i know i'm super bad at updating. but it's because i've been working hard! my show is in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. 

(!)

more info on that soon.

this whole process has taken longer than expected. it might be because with the help of some dear friends, i made my own boards to paint on. 

so...my fingerprints will be all over this project. 

//

pictures 1 + 2: raw materials (masonite and poplar), cut to the near-perfect sizes
picture 3: after we measured/mitered/nail gunned/glued/clamped/routered the cradles to the boards 
picture 4: gessoing all those pretty wood surfaces
picture 5: waiting for the gesso to dry....

sleepyhead

i have updates for you.
i promise i do.
but today i'm just a sleepyhead.


so i started drawing my to-do list in my hair (to justify the drawing time)
though it ended up getting mixed up in a stream of consciousness.

also, i drew this while listening to this song.
you're welcome.

six small studies still simmering

i don't even know what that alliteration was about.

anyway, i talked to chris thornock last week and he suggested i make 6 small paintings (5x7 inches) within the week to just explore and experiment before I really get into the big pieces for my project. i made them diptychs and it's been really fun! i've used different processes on each one and have done lots of stuff i've never tried before. the subjects relate to my actual paintings.

//

picture 1: halfway through the process of diptych 1

picture 2: early stages of diptych 2

picture 3: what diptych 2 currently looks like

picture 4: early stages of diptych 3

picture 5: what diptych 3 currently looks like

by tomorrow, these will all be done. so be excited? or not. or whatever.

but i'm not gonna lie...i'm pretty excited about that last one especially.

small portion

so it's still slow. BUT. i had a good inspiring weekend so hopefully i'll whip stuff out like nobody's business.

monday/tuesday/wednesday of last week, i just wanted to get my hands drawing so i could actually see what i'm doing. i was a drawing fiend. here are two of the studies.

most of 'em were meh-looking. but, the book art and fear notes that an artist’s failed pieces are just as relevant as their good ones. it also claims that a lot of art must be created to make a small portion of it good. so i'mma go with that.

i tell you what, after not drawing for 7 months, it's hard to hit your stride again. but when you do, it feels great.

real-life pinboard

as i mentioned in the last post, it's been a little slow starting my project. the other day i was having a hard time visualizing what i wanted some of my pieces to look or feel like. so i perused my art pinboard, and decided to make a physical one, which really helped. i also took screen shots of music videos, paintings i've already done, and other random stuff that helped my ideas grow into something substantial, and printed those off too. there's something about stuff coming off the screen and being tangible that is somehow empowering.

i put some of them next to thumbs for pieces that i'm creating, as some inspiration. inspiration is great, not just for subject matter but for techniques, color schemes, and compositional ideas. as long as we remember the difference between inspiration and imitation.

most of these images are from my online pinboard, plus the hundley and mucha books.

now i just have to find my paintbrushes and acrylic paints, both crucial elements which i seem to have legitimately lost. nope, i'm not freaking out about it....... #lies

it's time to begin

it is high time that i tell you i'm working on my illustration bfa final show.

i'm partially terrified because i've taken a sort of art-hiatus since...january...because i needed to put more emphasis on other important parts of my life that i'd been neglecting. i learned lots of valuable things that aren't necessarily art-related, but life-related, so i think it counts. and so the bfa project has been going super slow.

but --

i made swanky little calendars today to strike [motivational] fear into my heart.

i fake-graduated college two weeks ago (as in, i walked).
i quit my graphic design job that i've had for 4.5 years.
i'm putting my photography jobs on hold.

i'm going to treat this project like a full-time job.
it's going up november 1, so be excited....

a study i did on monday. i'm rusty, but that feeling of creating is coming back, which provides great fuel.