Green Toothbrush Again

This is the same pose as the previous post.  I think I am slowly getting better at showing the planes of the face.  Brushing teeth is one of those things that is necessary.  We do it to avoid future pain.  We do it to be presentable.  It helps me mark the transition between waking and sleeping.  Nobody looks good while brushing teeth.  I often notice the many imperfections in my skin while brushing my teeth.

I was going to make a profound connection between bushing teeth and practicing realistic drawing and painting skills.  It is not happening.

I want to improve my skills, but have no time or money to take a class.  I plan to finish this series of five self portraits using a mirror.  After that I will look for a new assignment for myself.

Green toothbrush

Blind Contour fun.

This is the second self portrait in this series of five.  I was thinking about looking in the mirror and realized that most of the time when I am looking in a mirror I am brushing my teeth.  That would be pretty hard to draw so I thought I should do a blind contour first.

Day 67

Throughout my life I have tried numerous self-help strategies to be happier and at peace.  I will not go into detail today about my current strategy, but today is day 67 so I am thinking this one is working.

Today I was working on a mural project with a friend who said she had an art teacher in college who was crazy. The first assignment was to do five self portraits using a mirror.  I thought to myself, "that is educational genius. It also sounds like fun.  I want to try that."

Must paint

It has been 12 days since my last post.  Have I really not painted in that long?  I have a short term job in which I am painting a mural of letters.  I am enjoying the precision of it, but wanted to exercise some random mark-making.  This is the drawing of my bike from 12 days ago.  I just added some color.

The supper dishes are still in the sink.  I had to choose one or the other: clean dishes or time to paint.  There are others in this house who have the ability to do dishes.  They won't do the dishes unless I make a big deal about it and I am in no mood to make a big deal about it.  They will still be there in the morning and I guess I am OK with that for today.

Bicycle Day

Isn't today just the most perfect day? Could that question be answered "yes" on any day? Pondering...

Today was perfect because it was an unscheduled day with sunshine and 75 degrees F.

My morning was a jog, a long meditation, and sitting on the deck playing computer games.  After lunch with the family, I got on the bike and went to Snail Lake Park.  The deepest flooded spot is on the South end where there is a pedestrian tunnel under Gramsie Road. The water in the tunnel is almost to the ceiling.  I drew the lines for the first picture while sitting on the bench at the water's edge.  It was too hot on that sunny bench to sit there very long, so I got back on the bike to find a shady bench and did the color there.  After a while I was ready to bike again so the second picture was drawn at a third spot, also a shady bench.  It was good for my soul to spend some time outside, quiet, unrushed, doing something productive for myself. 

Purposefully unintended

Unintended because I was not trying to make a picture of a caterpillar/dragon on top of a tree.  Purposeful because I was intending to allow the watercolor to be watercolor and do its thing.  And then on the corner is a lovely unintended landscape with a yellow sun in an orange sky.

I need to take a class to hone my skills.  The good things that happen are still mostly happy accidents. 

I did decide to add orange to the tree from an earlier post.  Sorry Julie. I kept pulling it out and putting it aside.  I think it really wanted something more.  I think it still does.  I second guess myself because I often take the watercolor too far into muddiness.

Not a day for Details

Painted today! yay.  Now I am sitting in the living room with a friend while Bill makes supper. Yay again.

I am glad I had a chance to paint.  Today was about color and texture.  These are most likely not done yet.  

The foreground of the top one needs work.  

The bottom one is a green mess.  I might just try again.  The idea on that one is that there is a place to sit at the edge of the water and you can just barely see it through the foliage.

Reprieve

This is the beginning of something.  If I paint some orange on the trunk, it should start to look brownish, like a tree trunk.  I just am not sure if that is what the painting needs.  Light and shadow are always tricky for me.  It would be easier if I was outside looking at the tree on a sunny day.  But alas, I have squandered my time once again on work, food, and dishes.  And then I took a nap.  I am thinking of my life as a work of art (like Julie Cameron says in her book, The Artist's Way).  As I take a step back to get a good look at it, I see what it needs.  It needs more naps.  But not too many. Just a few here, a few there.  Also I need to add something new and different once in a while.  Today it was a long bike ride to get home from work, with a couple stops on the way.  I took the most scenic route with the least traffic, even though it was much longer.  One stop was to buy a smoothie.  Pineapple Mango.  They messed up and made a large when I ordered a small.  That was OK with me.

Family

I had a fun time painting with relatives on the 4th of July.  We stood around the picnic table and painted on canvases my step sister-in-law brought.  Daisies, paw prints, and fish were the themes of the day.