So many things have to happen to make it in the arts (and by ‘arts,’ I mean all of them): You have to have the aptitude and talent for your art; you have to be disciplined enough to develop your skills; you have to get your ass in the chair and produce work; then you have to get your work seen; then you need to be able to follow through on deadlines and not shoot yourself in the foot by being a pain in the ass to work with; then you need to get paid well enough, and in a timely fashion; then you need either business sense, or enough common sense to hire someone you can trust to manage your business; you have to be able to keep on doing this for decades; and then you need to stay current, change, and grow artistically, in order to have a career, instead of being a fad. ... ™ And this idea that Real Artists™ are able to completely support themselves financially in every way, and have no worries, because they’re Just That Good and can turn jobs down… …well, that idea makes me stabby.
Read MoreKai's egg
The egg is absolutely gorgeous; I'd asked for it to be in the colors of Kai's fur, and she did an incredible job of making the egg glisten just like the sun did on Kai's fur.... I don't know what I'm more touched by -- that she took it upon herself to do this to help me, or the kind words in her post.
Read MoreWhat I'm working on, 2: shadows
Which sounds like I'm being a bitch, I suppose, so let me explain: There's always one person in a class or workshop who is utterly convinced that if they only used the right tubes of paint, then they, too, would be Sorolla or Rembrandt.... They will spend the entire time looking at the instructor's palette, or asking what colors they're using to get an effect, and not ask anything else.
Read MoreWhat I'm working on
Finally had a chance to paint today, as opposed to all the Not Painting/Not Drawing/Not Writing I've been doing lately.
Had lunch with an old friend today, and as I was explaining that I hadn't done much painting lately (read: none), I thought, 'Okay, this is lame. I'm being lame. I need to just get something on canvas.' It is amazing how just one look of mild reproach from a friend can be the spur I need. Thanks, E.
This is an underpainting I just did, from a sketch I did a couple of weeks ago. Once it dries, I'll start laying down color on top of it. I wish titanium white dried faster, though --even in this heat, it still takes somewhere short of eternity to dry. Hopefully by tomorrow night, I can start glazing.
My study of Caravaggio's Sick Bacchus stares balefully at me from the wall it's leaning against. Sigh. Maybe I'll work on that while this is drying. Or maybe I'll varnish dried paintings.
Or find some new way to procrastinate, like doing work for the day job. There's certainly plenty of that...
comic-con, or friends and zombies
Not to mention hard on one's ego, when you usually can paint like this: But the painting of friends-as-pimp&ho-zombies was tragically overdue, so it had to be done.
The artists drew and painted so much, that the booth couldn't hold them all, so they had to go upstairs for their panel.