Finding my Bliss

I confess, this one was selfie inspired. I printed the photo I took, adhered it to my canvas, let it dry, then rewet it and took off all the paper...just the ink was left behind. Then I went all fun, wild, and graffiti crazy. Such a blast!

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Tamara LaPorte). 

"Finding my Bliss"

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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Solemn - Part 4

I've been remembering my dreams a lot lately. One, in particular, has really stuck out. I was dreaming about cockroaches. Ugh...I'm no fan of cockroaches. I actually catch them and then release them in the backyard where our chickens gobble them up right away.

Anyway, in my cockroach dream the cockroaches had fuzzy little tails and actually kind of resembled puppies. My waking thought was, "Cockroaches are so darn cute!" (Interpret that, dream analyzers!)

That feeling did not last long.


I completed this painting. I really enjoyed working on it. Particularly when I stopped thinking of it as a self portrait, that is. I've loved using this palette of dark colors but now I think I'm ready for some brightly colored flowers or butterflies!

"Solemn"

Just when it seems like I'm getting near to
completion I go and decide I want to make
big changes. I decided that I didn't like the
shape of her lips. I also decided that I
wasn't really liking the totally dark background.

I got the lips pretty much right and then the
nose stopped looking right.

I redrew the nose.

Then I decided I didn't like her hair or the
way the necklace chain fell on one side. I
also added a bit of green to her eyes.

I went over her hair with a yellowish tint and
redid some of her neck. I also changed the shape
of the right side of her face. I added some pink
to her face as well. Then a number of changes
happened and I neglected to document them.
I was too busy working on the painting...bliss!

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Solemn - Part 3

I wake up in the night pretty regularly. Mostly I can go right back to sleep, but sometimes I go on ahead and get up and move to the couch...where I fall asleep pretty quickly. Now, when I leave the bedroom our lovely critters always accompany me. Our eighty-five pound Hazel jumps off of the bed and our two cats follow right behind. They go about their business having a middle-of-the-night snack and whatnot while I grab a blanket, settle in, and doze off. When my alarm goes off I can hardly move because there's a HUGE dog at my feet holding the blanket firmly to the couch, and two cats are on top of me. I hit "snooze" because who wouldn't want to enjoy that for an additional blissful nine minutes?


I continued working on this painting for the class I'm taking.

I let my ego get involved with my work this
time. While this is only loosely based on the
photo of me I have to admit that I wasn't
really liking how darn sad/depressed I was
looking. So I went all wacky and upturned
the mouth and added some smile lines
around the eyes. I also added eyelashes.

Then I went and changed the color of the face
and neck entirely. But what I discovered very
quickly is that I did not, in fact, like it better.
Not at all!
Dave gave it the big thumbs down, too.
So, baby wipes to the rescue....

I removed pretty much all of the changes I'd
made. Only I kept a bit of the lighter color
of the complexion and I left the smile lines.
Those were on the photo I was using and, by
golly, I rather like them! Same with the
eyelashes. So it was a two steps forward, one step
back kind of day...I LOVE those kind of painting
days! I always ultimately move forward. 

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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Solemn - Part 2

I like to think I'm a hopeful person who doesn't easily give up. Case in point.


Me: "Want to go to an art show with us?"

Little guy: "Clearly you don't know me at all."


Yup, I'll keep asking him. He might as well get used to it.



I continued working on this painting. And I decided to title it "Solemn".

I added some black shadows to her cheeks and neck.
I also added black to her hair, lips, and shirt.

I used a yellowish tint on much of her face and neck.

I used white to add highlights to parts of her
face and neck. I also added yellow to her hair.

I began adding some reddish tinting to her
cheeks and lips. I also added a sparkle to her eyes.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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Untitled at this Point - Part 1

I started on a new piece. This time I'm doing a very loosely based self portrait. My goal was to capture reality, to capture truth. So when I took a selfie, I didn't smile ear to ear as is my custom. Rather, I pulled my hair back, bowed my head a bit, and took on a decidedly expressionless look. It was actually hard for me to look at the photo at first as the passage of time clearly shows on my face. Parts of my cheeks have become jowls. I've got dark shadows under my eyes. And my normal look when I just try to remain expressionless is that of a corners of the mouth downward frowning look.

But while it was hard for me to look at at first, after looking at it over and over as I sketched some basic features, I've come to really appreciate the changes my face has undergone and the story it tells. And now I consider it to actually be a pretty good photo.

So with this painting I'm continuing in the Max Beckmann style I used a couple of paintings ago. The color palette will remain the same...in fact I intentionally left all of my paints out by my easel. My routine is to put away all of my supplies away between paintings. It gives me a fresh start and keeps my area tidy. But this time I got to save those few minutes of work.

Another thing about this painting. I started by painting over a canvas that my mom had given me. She'd purchased it with the intention of painting over the glittery painting that had been done by another artist. I'll include the original painting in my blog so you can see what I started with.

Here's the canvas I started with.
It's actually a two canvas painting.
I painted over the top canvas.
Hope it wasn't by some famous
painter because it's gone now!

I covered it with a white/yellow background.
Here it is about two hours after I painted it.
It's shining because it's still wet...after all that
time. It took till evening to dry. This is why I
ended up posting a different painting last night.

I did a quick sketch.

I did a messy black background.

I did some basic outlining with black paint.

And I'm being super brave here. I'm posting
the photo I'm loosely basing my painting on.
Yup, lines, bagginess, dark circles...and none
of it bothers me any more. It's just me.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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Affected

I just finished this one tonight. I've been working on it for a few days, making change after change after change. It's inspired by a selfie blended with an abstract painting in Photoshop. While I don't think it looks very much like me, I'm super pleased that I've painted something that, once again, utterly and completely looks human. Baby steps and small victories. And, bonus, she reminds me of a cross between Pris in Bladerunner and Leeloo in The Fifth Element.

I'm a happy girl.

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Smile and say, "Cheese"

I learned something new, something that I bet you didn't know, but that you might just have to verify on your own.

What I learned is this...It is nearly impossible, well, for me totally impossible, to take a selfie with your tongue out and still look good. I learned this, of course, because I wanted to capture an image of my bruised tongue.

I tried looking surprised - not good.

I tried looking sad - not good.

I even tried looking "normal" - so not good.


So, go for it, you know you want to. Stick that tongue out and snap a pic.

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But First, Let me Take a Selfie

It was a day of brief waiting for me.  Not highway traffic or anything like that.  Nope, this was purely people impeding my path of desire.

I was at the gym today.  One machine away from the finish line.  As I was completing my three sets on my second to last machine of the day, a fella got settled in on my last machine.  I thought, "Perfect!  We'll finish our sets at the same exact time and I'll just move right on over to that machine."

Well, it sounded great, but what happened is this.  Whilst I did my first two sets he primped his hair and took quite a number of selfies.  I figured they must be facebook "Workin' out at the gym, yo" status updates.  Or something else just as important.  As I started my third and final set, he began his first.  Sigh...no worries, waiting is good for the soul, right?

After my workout I went to the grocery store.  I wandered around getting everything we needed, checked out, and headed toward the exit.  In front of me was a little boy who must have been about four years old.  He had his own mini shopping cart that proudly sported a banner that read "Shopper in Training" or some such thing.

Well, just as he passed through the door, following his mom, he stopped dead in his tracks, folded his arms on his chest, and uttered what must have been, "hummmph!"

I found myself not at all bothered by this delay and totally wished that little guy had a cell phone he could whip out and he'd say, "I could leave the store, but first, let me take a selfie."

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