Little Sketch

I haven't posted artwork on here for awhile. I either haven't been in the mood or I haven't had the time to do anything other than clocks. I had the itch to do something tonight so I did this quick little sketch. I'm hoping in the new year to get back into painting and maybe play around with some sculpture.

You can click on the picture to make it bigger. I think it looks better that way (and if you click on it a second time it gets crazy big and you can see all my little pencil strokes.) You know, if you want to or whatever.

Hope everyone is getting excited for Christmas! I know we are. I can't wait to see my kids faces light up when they open their presents. Giving really is better than receiving. Especially when it's your kids.

Once Frugal, Always Frugal

Last night Nick and I got a rare night out. We stuffed ourselves full of fabulous Indian food and then played some pool. You can see from the picture how stealthy I can be at a pool hall. Who is that behind me, you ask? I don't know and I don't know what he's doing. Air guitar, a little personal adjustment, don't know. I was too busy being stealthy to notice.

Moving on. I'm sitting here sipping on a lovely cup o tea. Yep, tea. Don't get me wrong, I like tea, but I'm drinking it this particular frigid evening because I am sick. Again. What the hell? It's like I'm being stalked by evil little germs. This time around isn't so debilitating. I just have a sore throat and body aches. I am usually quite healthy, but I'm blaming this on the recent chronic lack of sleep and constant stress. Things will smooth out at the end of the month.

My hubby is upstairs asleep on the couch. I am downstairs in clockland busily toiling away. I wish I was asleep, but alas, there is work to be done!

But before I go I must update you on what you are dying to know about. The status of my shoes. I cancelled my Fluevog order and instead went with some black and white Dr. Martens. I ordered them at a shoe store then found them on Ebay that night for half price. So I bought those too. I will return the pair I ordered from the shoe store once both pairs arrive. You're lost and who gives a &@&%$ you ask? Me, the whole ordeal has been quite taxing.

Now away I go to make more tea!

Lucky 8000

I just noticed that I have 8,000 emails in my in box. That should be illegal. I need to learn to let go, clean out the email from time to time. Number 8,000 was an order, so that's something I guess.

Shame on you Regretsy!! The last time I looked at Regretsy they had way too many pictures of weird knitted body suit things. So I stayed away. I checked it out again tonight, though, and it's just too good. I recommend checking out the Real Poop painting and the Primitive Dashund Doxie Santa Dog. I admit, however, that the wiener dog Santa is not the star of the photograph. Uh oh, did I give it away? No, no links, this is a family friendly blog!!

Okay, I'm off to dance like no one is watching (because no one is) and glue up some more wood and put it in the mold. It's okay to be jealous of my Friday night. I am a little. What? I don't know.

Watson and the Shark

Meet Watson. He's having a bad day. A really bad day. Luckily Watson was saved. The orphan boy went on the become a wealthy merchant and even Lord Mayor of London. That's right, this painting is a depiction of true events and was owned by Watson himself.

I first saw Watson and the Shark when I was about eight or nine years old. It had a profound effect on me. I absolutely love this type of painting. Never had I seen subject matter this intriguing, this was a shark attack! My young mind was entranced, not only was the subject matter so amazing, would he live or die? But technically the painting is truly amazing. I'm no art genius, but even back then I obsessed over technical details in paintings, in particular shading. (Check out the horse's butt on Napoleon Crossing the Alps).

So what does this have to do with anything? It's a little window into how my mind works. This painting appeals to me on so many levels. The amazing execution, the griping emotion, the story of triumph over death, and sharks! It appeals to my irrational fear and strange fascination of sharks. Which I blame on watching Jaws at an early age. So gaze upon Watson and realize that no matter what life throws at you, you can move on and do great things, shark bite or not!

Holy Sh*t

Welcome to my dirty cold basement where I am drowning in a sea of clocks! It's a melting clock factory down here right now. This is by far my best Christmas season so far. Hooray! To celebrate and as a little shopping therapy I bought myself the pair of Fluevogs I have been stalking for the last three years. Black and burgundy wingtips are coming my way! I can't wait to meet them......and I'm already eying my next pair of vogs, boots. (Don't you dare buy either pair of these shoes!! Go find your own shoes!)

This past week has been interesting and slightly terrible. Right after Thanksgiving an evil little stomach virus decided it would be fun to make me throw up every 15 minutes for an entire night. Needless to say I couldn't keep anything down and felt worse and worse. By morning I was very dehydrated and my lower back was killing me. I experienced a thirst I have never felt before. Knowing I was getting more and more dehydrated Nick took me to the hospital. An I.V. and some anti nausea medicine later I was feeling better, at least like I wasn't going to die. I spent the next two days basically asleep. And then.....................Karina started throwing up. My poor little two year old puked through the night just like I had. Thankfully she didn't seem to get dehydrated like I did and by morning she seemed better. To top it of Eli puked as soon as I picked him up from school that following Monday. He puked right into a plastic bag in my car. A plastic bag with a hole in the bottom. Great. I could go on, but you get the idea. Any who, none of us are quite right yet. Oh, and by the way, Nick is just fine. How he escaped I have no idea.

Okay, I'm off to go work on clocks. Again. I have seven orders waiting for me. It's overwhelming for sure. Especially because Nick has been working 12-14 hour days six days a week (UPS). I feel like a single parent with a full time job. But I am not complaining! Please, buy a clock!!!!

Don't Drink and.....

Work! Come on now, drive is so obvious. Really, though, I don't drink and work. Not often anyways. Hey, I work at home!

The beer made me do it. That's why it's so prominently positioned in the photo. That was really an accident and I didn't want to take any more photos. I noticed when looking at them that my oh so stylish (don't be jealous now!) outfit looks a little too Dexter like. Maybe it's just me.

No really, it is late, which means I am super smart. What? You didn't hear about the study that showed that people that consider themselves night owls are smarter than morning people? Huh. I didn't either, but Rick told me about it. Of course, Rick also told me that baby back ribs come from baby pigs. I thought Montgomery Inn was lost to me forever. Thank you Google for clearing that up! Now if I could only afford to eat at Montgomery Inn............

I am drowning in a sea of clock work. I feel like my focus is worse than a, well I was going to put something really clever here, but couldn't think of anything. I can't focus.

Where do I turn, what do I work on? Computer clock stuff, custom order clock stuff, inventory clock stuff, new clock ideas that will flop? I just don't know.

Christmas sales have been good, I want them to get better. My November is looking like it won't match my October. I'm not complaining, I'm quite happy with how things are going. I updated my excel spreadsheet last night that tracks sales and expenses. Okay, I didn't update, I did it for 2010. That's how organized and on top of things I am. I thought I hadn't updated it since April 2010. It was August of 2009 when I updated it last. Oopsy.

Okay, my last ramble, I earned major mom brownie points today. Our gerbil finally died. Wait! I mean it passed away. Sniff. Hey, that little gerbil lived a long three year life. That is long for a gerbil. So anyways, that's not what I earned mom points for. Eli wanted another gerbil. Um, no. So I cleaned out the 10 gallon tank and we set it up as an aquarium in the kids room today. Eli was quite excited. We bought two female beta fish to start things out. They started fighting. Great.

Holy shit, this is a long post. It looks like an email I would send to Lisa. Wake up it's over! Now go to www.meltingclocks.org and buy five clocks. Thanks.

Hooray for Christmas

Christmas shopping season is officially here! I have been busy busy. I had good sales last season and I'm hoping to have better sales this year. I've been more aggressive with listing on Etsy regularly and keeping stuff on Ebay, even though Ebay barely produces any sales anymore. It's advertising I suppose.

Art on the Levee has been good. I have sold at least on clock each week. This past weekend my orange Dali face clock sold. That's encouraging since it was the first in a new product design. I took several of my paintings down today. I would absolutely love to sell my artwork. We'll see how that goes. Below is a picture of my wall at the Levee. I will be down there for a few hours on Saturday along with other fellow artists hawking my wares in the lobby. Come on down and buy something! (From me preferably.)


Update: I sold nothing at the Levee this past weekend. But that is okay. I met some really nice fellow artisans.

New Clocks

I recently made a few new clock designs. All four of them are in Art on the Levee right now. I figured that would be a good place to test them out.

I had been wanting to make a Dali face clock for quite some time now with the second hand being the mustache. I found these great twisted second hands and they worked perfectly. The orange face has a continuous sweep movement so the mustache turns in a smooth circle. The tan face has a traditional movement with a ticking second hand.

The frog and lizard are an experiment to see if animal clocks are something I should venture into. I think they turned out great!

Defeat!

Oh the bitter taste of failure. I ruined my beautiful sharp table. The epoxy retained many of the tiny bubbles formed during mixing and it looks bad. So Nick gets his wish, the table will be here in the house. Boo.

That's what I get for not experimenting first and trying a new technique out on something large. This time I'm doing a sharp clock. I think it looks nice enough to stand alone as a mirror. I haven't decided yet if it will be a clock for sure or not.

Anyways, I love working with the mirror mosaic too much to give up. Plus, having access to a place like Art on the Levee is great to try out new products. Especially products that have a wow factor in person that can be lost in photographs.
Some pictures of my sharp clock in progress:


(Don't mind the messy work area!)

Art Gallery

I finally have my work in an art gallery. I had to pay them to put it in there, but whatever. And it's clocks, not paintings. I've decided to focus all, okay 89%, of my creative attention on clocks and making that business grow to it's fullest potential. The other 11% of my creative juices will be working on other stuff. Like my sharp table. And that table is indeed sharp.

I was polishing the pieces of mirror (all 500+ of them) and the cloth I was using is now full of holes. I poured epoxy on it tonight, which was quite nerve raking, and got holes in both pairs of gloves I used. There are little bubbles in the resin I'm not loving, but Nick said it looked like the pieces of glass were floating. Plus it has a great prismatic glow to it when viewed from an angle that it didn't have before.

The sucker better sell! Nick is hoping it won't because he wants to keep it here, but I have literally put hours of sweat and blood, no tears, into that table and I want someone else to enjoy it! That will be my only non clock item at the gallery.

It is Art on the Levee by the way if you want to check it out. I signed up for a month to test the waters. If I make back my rental fee I will stay through Christmas.

The Sharp Table

Working on this.................




leads to this:



More to come as the table progresses...............

Completed Melting Clock Table

The melting clock table is finished! I think it turned out great. I have enough wood on hand to mold two more tabletops so I will be working on that this week. I have a custom order clock to put in the mold first, though.

Did I go a little Dali overboard with the four Dali books stacked on top? It was seven, but Nick advised me that many books looked ridiculous. Oh well. I also considered wearing a Dali t-shirt for the photo, but again, didn't want to go overboard. For future pictures I plan on tracking down a thing of mustache wax and a lobster.

I have it listed for sale on Etsy and Ebay and I'm taking custom orders on my website so it will be interesting to see the response I get. I think it's fantastic, but we'll see if it sells. I think everyone should own at least two. Melting Clock Table.

Table Sneak Peak and Tattoo Sketch

There you go, the first sneak peak of my forthcoming melting clock table. No, it's not the top of the table. I am super excited to get this table put together. I plan on having it built tomorrow and ready to paint.

I was looking around online today for art shows that I may want to apply to. I'm thinking I may just try for Summerfair next year and Hyde Park again. My first year out I think I should take it easy and not over do it. It is already a challenge getting everything done with two kids under six! That's assuming I even get into those shows. We'll see.

I also looked up Art On The Levee, by suggestion of a friend. Once I get a table or two completed I am going to see about getting some of my work in there. It is a gallery in Newport for local artist. Since it is shopping season now would be a great time to try something like that out. I would have to pay rent and split the profit 80/2o with the gallery. I think that is reasonable.

I had the itch to draw tonight. I haven't had that for awhile and it was nice to get an idea out of my head. I'm planning on getting a half sleeve one day and I've had ideas bouncing around in my mind for a long time. I finally got one of them out on paper. Keep in mind it is just a sketch! Not a final drawing. There is something funky about her right arm, but I can't quite figure out what. Something is wrong with the shading I think. Oh well, not bad for my first drawing in months.

Melting Clock Table In The Mold

I realize I just mentioned in a previous post that I wasn't going to mess with furniture for a bit, but I changed my mind. I've decided to build a few small accent tables. They will be molded melting clocks with a pedastool base that I will build myself. I may even consider putting a clock movement in them. A functional melting clock table. The wood I have in the mold right now measures 30 X 19 inches and I imagine I won't cut much off the length. I have a vision in my mind of what the finished product will look like and I'm dying to put it all together. I can't take the wood out of the mold until Thursday. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have my first completed melting clock table!

On a completely other topic I have a little spider pet. I don't get to keep it because after doing some research I think it is a baby black widow. The hourglass is orange so I first wondered if it really was a black widow. I found pictures of brown widows which are not as dangerous, but they are tropical spiders and I couldn't find any mention of brown widow spiders in Ohio. After looking at pictures of immature black widows I'm pretty sure that is what I have. It is actually quite worrisome because this little guy was hanging out on a metal garden decoration right next to our front porch. One of us could have easily brushed up against it. Two years ago while pulling ivy out of the same front flowerbed I spotted a mature black widow. I freaked out at the time because my son, then three, had been helping me pull the weeds right next to where the spider was! So no pulling weeds without gloves on for me, and no pulling weeds at all for the kids. I don't get to keep my little spider because, well, it just doesn't seem smart to have a poisonous spider in a jar when you have little kids in the house. Plus it is kind of creepy to want to keep a spider, right? Hopefully he doesn't bite me on his way out of the jar when I take him to the woods and let him go. Nick wants to squish him, but I've heard that squishing spiders is bad luck. I'm attaching a photo of my find (Well, really Nick found it and showed it to me. He then regretted it because he didn't expect me to want to keep it in a jar) to give you the creepie crawlies. Your welcome.

Oh, and by the way, I am not some odd bug person. I'm actually quite grossed out by spiders, but this little guy intrigued me. Okay, I do like to hunt crickets with the kids and throw them in the garden spider's webs so we can watch them hunt. But that is completely at the kid's request. Sweet dreams.

Hyde Park Art Show

I had a lot of fun at the Hyde Park Square Art Show! Everyone was so nice, from the other vendors to the patrons, it was great. I couldn't have asked for a better response. A lot of people stopped to look and reactions ranged from awe to out right laughter. Everyone knew they were melting clocks and most people knew it was Salvador Dali that inspired me. I also had a good number of sales. I can officially say that my first art show was a success! I will definitely be looking into doing more shows. I may wait until spring, though, so I can concentrate on Christmas orders for the remainder of this year.

I'm very thankful that my husband came along to help out. We make such a great team! I did notice that the few times I took a potty break or went to grab a warm drink he had sales while I was gone. Hmmm, maybe he is a better salesman than me? I'll have to bring him along every time!

Speaking of things to take every time, I had my grandfather's pocket watch with me at the show. I don't know why, but I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to take it with me. It doesn't even work, I need to get it repaired, but I had it in my pocket all day. So after the success of the show, that watch will be with me at every show.

It was a chilly day and the perfect way to wrap it up was dinner at Arthurs right there at the square. Their spinach artichoke dip is so tasty and the giant juicy cheeseburger I had really hit the spot. Especially since it was the only meal I had to eat that day after breakfast at 5:30am!

One interesting thing I noticed was that the bar stool wasn't as much of an interest as I thought it would be. People looked at it, but only one person asked me if it was for sale and what it's price was. I sold the same number of molded clocks as wall clocks. I thought that was interesting as well. I think I may not worry so much about furniture right now and concentrate on keeping my stock level high.

Oh No Mr. Skunk

Dear Mr. Skunk,

Please do not spray your skunky stink so close to my house.

Thank you,
Hilary



Three more days until the art show. Hooray! Well, hopefully hooray. If I don't sell anything then it will be Boo. And not like Halloween Boo. It will be like stinky skunk Boo.

I have almost all of my clocks done. I need to put the last four molded clocks in the mold tonight. That means I will be cutting, sanding, painting, and spraying them on Saturday. That's on top of packing everything up and a making a errand run around town to grab the last few things I need. Errand runs are several hour ventures since I live in boo foo and it takes half an hour just to get to decent shopping areas. But that's alright since everything else is done. I painted my display walls tonight. They are a lovely shade of ? It was discount oops paint. Hey, I'm a starving artist here, I can't afford to decorate my booth with Ralph Lauren paint with fancy names like Bistro Fluff.

I signed up for a Propay account tonight. That means I can take credit cards at the show. Hopefully someone wants to buy something. I also get the occasional phone customer that is all set to pay with their card and I always have to send an invoice through paypal, so now I can just take the credit card over the phone. Call me anytime. I'm never too tired or busy to take your order.

My only sad point is that I was really hoping to have more furniture at the show. As it stands I only have one bar stool to take. My August sales and most of September were dismal so there were no funds for furniture building. This last week has been great, though, so hopefully this keeps up till Christmas time. I'd love to have a variety of furniture. Rick gave me a couple of molds so I can have several different shapes and sizes of melting clock chairs. Need some melting clock dining chairs, no problem. Need bar stools with or with out back rests, I got you covered. Want a table shaped like an ice cream cone? No way. Well, okay, whatever you want. The Paypal address is: hrwiez@yahoo.com. I was just thinking maybe I'll crank out a couple of melting clock coffee tables in the next two days. Okay, probably not. But I'll keep you posted.

I'm off to mold clocks. How do I do it? Well little magic wood fairies show up with a giant bottle of glue and

Going Primal

I'm doing the 30 primal challenge from Mark's Daily Apple. I've been flirting with the primal way of life for a couple of months now. No grains, lots of meat, veggies, healthy fats, and some fruit and nuts. I have to say I definitely feel better. More energy and better muscle tone. But I've decided to go all out and join the challenge. Which means less fruit and no processed sugar. I'll report back on my progress. I expect to look something like this:

**Update** If it tells you anything about my experience on the Primal Diet, I have been vegetarian (and loving it) since April. Sometimes it takes trying all kinds of things to find what works for you.

Sixty One

I got my booth assignment for the art show a couple of days ago. I am very happy to report that I have a great spot. Right in the middle of the show! I'm getting rather antsy for this show to come and go because I'm eager to know the outcome.

I have been busting my butt stocking up on clocks. I have over forty wall clocks painted, a quarter of those are finished and the rest are sealed waiting for their resin coating. I have eight molded clocks painted and sealed. I also found a great deal on wood shelving units at Michaels so I have my displays for the molded clocks already. I just need to make displays for the wall clocks, make more molded clocks, and pour the resin on the clocks. I still have five weeks to go! I'd like to make another bar stool and a matching molded bar height table as well. Stay tuned for pics!

Melting Clock Barstool

I just realized I had forgotten to post pictures of my brand new melting clock barstool. I have it on Ebay and don't really expect it to sell because shipping is expensive. It's bulky and heavy. I plan on having it at the entrance to my booth to attract attention at the art show. I want to make another and have a pair, but we'll see. I'm starting to stress about the show. There is still more stuff to do, supplies to buy, and no money to do it. I have very nice clocks available in my melting clock store!! wink, wink.

Everybody Needs A Chuckle From Time to Time

Which is why I'm sharing a link to this fabulous site: Regretsy. I've been selling on Etsy for a few years now and it never ceases to amaze me some of the things people try to sell. Well thankfully someone has taken the time to do the searching for us and share the best of the worst, uh, well the best of the WTF items that people sell on Etsy. Enjoy!

www.regretsy.com

Abbracadabra or Not

Great, I am definitely still blocked. I thought I had this great painting idea so I decided to do a little test sketch with pencil to try out colors. This was the result. It looks a little too fantasy Circe de sole for me. Maybe the star shaped light reflection put it over the top. I think I need to get down and gritty. Stay tuned.

Take a bite of brownie, take a bite of cashews, repeat.

I'm having some website drama right now. I tried out a new website a month ago and like it, but still got orders of my old website. Blah blah blah, I went back to my original website. Now I'm being informed that I have to switch because the program thingy (I am a bit computerly inept) that designed my original website will no longer be available. So new website it is. The catch? I have to pay extra for it. The bast$#@s. So, stay tuned, bigger better website is on the way. Hopefully.

I'm a bit put off by the unexpected website costs. Did I mention they gave me seven days notice to switch. Thanks. I was really hoping to have my first melting clock chair done by the beginning of next week along with my first steel pipe base coffee table. In other words I need money to buy galvanized steel pipe. Wanna buy something? I have lots of really neat clocks ready to ship! I'm also planning on experimenting with acrylic resin for my finish instead of pre-cat lacquer. It will be a bit more expensive, but I think it may be more hassle free and provide a better look. It costs money, though. Really, I have twelve really nice clocks right here on my wall waiting for their forever home........www.pragmaticeffects.com

Unispired

I've been uninspired drawing and painting wise lately. My head is completely in melting clock land. I have come up with what I think is a fabulous idea for several pieces of molded wood furniture that would be melting clocks and metal bases/chair legs. That is all I can think of right now. I'm just waiting for a few clock sales that will allow me to buy some supplies. I feel like I need something really eye catching sitting at the front of my booth for the Art Show in October and this furniture would be it.
I did muster up a sketch over the last few days. Not a good sign that I didn't finish in one sitting. Plus I'm only going to share part of the drawing. I think I'm going to take a break from drawing and painting until the urge hits me full force. And it will, eventually.

Champions and Finished Painting!!

Okay first of all the Cyclones won the Kelly Cup and I was there! Go Cyclones! It was a great game, very intense. I definitely need to get season tickets for next season.

Second, I finished my first pin up painting tonight. Well, honestly, I'll probably mess with it some more once it's dry, but it's pretty much done. I'm titling it Estelle at the Train Station. I'm not sure why Estelle. The main character in the book I'm writing is named Estelle and she has short blond hair. I like the name Estelle I guess. Estelle and Stella. Stella is my one and only hint to my super secret project hinted at in previous posts. Good luck figuring that one out.

Rewind

Okay, never mind. The steam looked poopy. I wiped it all off. That made the background look a bit faded so I'll need to touch it all up. What a pain in the arse. That reminds me, I just read I am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne. Great read, I highly suggest it.

Also, I realized I didn't post pictures of the second pin up with the sand painted, so that is below. Well, mostly painted. I was a little toasted when I did it and didn't feel like finishing it up. What a slacker I am. I've got to get these done and sell some more clocks because I'm dying to start on my next two pin up paintings.

Yee Haw and Uh Oh

So Yippee, I got into the Hyde Park Art Show. That means from now until October I'm going to be quite busy building inventory and getting everything all set for the show. Watch, I'll sell one $4.00 clock magnet during the whole show. That would suck.

In other art news...............I think I'm just about done with my first pin up. I dared to add steam and I'm back and forth whether I like it or not. I feel so neutral about it. I don't like it more or less with or without. I think once it dries I'll probably play with the steam a bit more, but, well, I don't know. I did a side by side so you can compare the two.

By the way, I have a confession..........................I flippin' love Lady Gaga. Yeah I admitted it. The woman who loves Tool, Deftones, Buckethead, Alice and Chains, and the occasional Motorhead album can't get enough of Lady Gaga. So what am I listening to when I work on my pin ups? Lady Gaga and that damn Down Under song by Men at Work. Why can't I stop listening to that song? Sure I sprinkle in some Portishead, Filter, and Chris Isaak, but I just can't stop listening to Gaga. There, the cat is out of the bag. *sigh*

Oh Sh%t

So I'm looking at my second pin up painting and I'm digging it but.....Oh Sh*t she looks like a German Leprechaun! Maybe it's just me. I'll have to get outside opinions. I think it's the green shorts. I'm going for early 19th century explorer with twist. I don't want to miss the mark too far. I have SOOOO much more to do, but I'm getting there. I was unfortunately distracted for a week plus by my super secret project which is producing jack *&^#$%@#$%^. That means you may never know about it. Ah ha ha ha . (insert slightly sad evil laugh)

Maybe in the morning when I'm sober this painting will look better to me. Tee hee hee. Till then your thoughts are more than welcome, and I have more work to do.

New Melting Clock Website

I just completely redid my website. I think it is a lot better. I have a store where customers can custom order clocks exactly to their specifications. I took all of my art off the website and have it concentrated solely on melting clocks. Check it out and let me know what you think. I still have work to do on it, updates will be frequent, but it is up and running.

www.pragmaticeffects.com

I'm Still Kickin

Don't worry, I haven't punked out on my oil paintings. I've just taken a week off to pursue a super top secret side project that only a handful of people know about. If it works I'll let the rest of you in on it. If it doesn't, well that will be unfortunate.
Happy Mother's Day everyone!

** No guns are involved in my super top secret side project.

My Favorite Indian Music Video

I've been watching Slumdog Millionare while working out the last couple of days and I remembered this video. It's entertaining for sure and the song is quite catchy.

Second Pin Up Painting

I worked on the second pin up tonight. The working title is I Believe The Scientific Term is Concupiscent. I have more paint on this canvas than the first I think, only it's all white acrylic covering pencil sketching. I've been fighting with this one for days. She is going to be kneeling in sand on a tropical beach with exotic frogs in her jar. Why? Why not. I finally came up with a pose I like and started on the flesh tones. After it dries a bit I will go back over it with some glazing. The right arm looks a little muscly, but hey, I had to use my own arm as reference. I can't help it if I'm ripped. Right.

Day four, five?

"I said do you speak my language? He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich." It is definitely late and I've had one too many perhaps because I am now listening to Down Under by Men at Work for the fifth time in a row. It's so catchy!

Tonight has been quite productive. I have most of the background done on my first pin up painting. Once it is completely dry I am going to add steam on top of what I have done. (It's a train by the way.) My friend expressed concern that the background would take away from the pin up but I think the cloud of steam will help that, and I like the idea of a non boring plan background. I still have a lot to do, but I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Eager Beavers Don't Get The Best Results

I'm waiting for my first pin up to dry for a few days before working on it some more. I have figured out what background I want to do and I'm excited to finish it. In the meantime I am overflowing with creative excitement for my new found ideas. Tonight, however, I ran into a couple roadblocks. I decided to start on a new painting. I put four layers of gesso on a canvas that had a portrait of Dali. When I started sketching the new painting out I found that the pencil will not erase off the gesso I used. That sucks. So I used white acrylic as an eraser of sorts. It didn't work too fabulous, but I did learn a new trick. By putting a thin layer of the white acrylic over the pencil I could still see the pencil but it was sealed so it wouldn't bleed and smear when I painted over it with oils. This is where art school probably would have come in handy. I feel like I don't have a clue what the hell I am doing I'm just blindly stumbling forward and figuring it all out as I go.
The second road block is that my ridiculous impatience snuck up and I couldn't help but start on the head. I like what I have, but keep in mind once it's dry it needs some tweaking. More shading, and the feathers on the hat need to be filled in. But after looking at the whole canvas I hate everything else about the sketch. The entire body that was purposely left out of the below picture.
I just realized that this post is stupid long and no one but me will probably ever take the time to read it so I'll stop. Hopefully new pics of paintings will be up tomorrow!

Pin Up Painting Day Four

Holy crap it's after one. This is the bad thing about painting. A two hour session very easily turns into a five hour session. She is coming right along. I cleaned up the shadows on her face and worked on her robot/metal whatever it may be accessories. I'm scraping the plan to do a lace or brocade pattern on the corset. I need to add lots of shadows but that will have to wait until it's all dry. The background is really going to make or break this one.

Pin up Sketch

I have sketched out my next pin up painting. I am currently gessoing over my Dali portrait so I can use that canvas. Since I'm trying something new with these pin up paintings, a little thing called patience, I have to wait a few days en between working for layers of paint to dry. That will enable me to work on several paintings at once. Or so that's the logic. We'll see how it pans out.