I have to get some lights for my house. I bought into this “15 watt fluorescent bulb” scam where they tell you it’s equivalent to normal lighting, but seriously, I might as well be painting in the dark. It’s ridiculous. I work during the day and generally end up squeezing in painting to the evening… I’ll probably just cop out and put standard 100 watt incandescents in, which are nice and blinding.

I was told today that my shirt makes me look dated.

Anyway, some of the snakes need to be lightened a bit, and some need to be darkened a bit. Then the spots, the rest of the codeine extraction paraphernalia, and this one is done other than the frame… And judging by the photo, I need to get some sleep!!!

It’s been very hard finding time to paint lately… work, work, work, definitely making me a dull boy. I painted the shell of the turtle today as well as roughing out the pills. You can click the picture to zoom into a bigger shot, and if you’d like to see some textural detail, click here.

I’m trying to commit myself to finishing this painting, which has sat unattended for months, within two weeks. It’s being done in a mix of acrylic slurry (”sludge”; the byproduct of manufacturing acrylic paint — sort of a neutral plastic mud), irridescents, and regular acrylic paints.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while — I have been extremely busy. Anyway, I wanted to post the final version of my nesting doll project. Continue reading for the whole thing. The concept behind the dolls is that the song can be sung as they’re opened one by one.

I know an old lady…

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Since marzipan was on sale at the grocery store, and I have a cupboard full of food coloring, today’s project was making sculptures with the marzipan and then painting them… and then eating them!

SOLD

I’m not sure if it’s totally done yet, but it’s definitely almost done. As I mentioned in the first entry, this is a mix of standard acrylics and metallic paints as well, on a 24″x48″ canvas. I think next I’m going to finish off the turtle painting because my “real” work should finally be firing up again and I have months of catch-up to do which will make me quite swamped (which is a wonderful thing).

I took this picture outside in overcast weather so I think it’s quite accurate in terms of colour, but still it looks much better in person I think.

I’d wanted a tattoo of a jack rabbit for a long time but I don’t have enough room left for a life sized one. Next best thing is a painting of one. I used a photograph, enlarged it with a projector and decided on colour as I worked. Shannon helped make technical decisions (”You should thicken up the outside line”) and took the picture.

The starfish are painted with a mix of rubine red, iridescent silver, and micaceous iron oxide acrylics so it’s a sort of “unphotographable” painting… I haven’t decided yet how to progress in terms of colour scheme, and am currently flip-flopping between a bluish duotone and typical bright psychedelia. This painting is currently unspoken for if anyone reading this feels like making me an advance offer.

All rumors of my limitless wealth from the sale of paintings to gazillionaires aside, even though I am stretching my luck covering my basic bills this month, I picked up three wood panels today for a multi-frame painting that I’m planning of some critters playing catch (two critter panels and a ball panel)… although I still have to finish Cold Water Extraction, I figure I’ll do that quickie first.

SOLD

Note: The original entry is after the break… You can see that since then I’ve repainted the owl’s eyes on Caitlin’s suggestion (“it’s dark in space so their pupils should be dilated” — true), added some white linework, and beefed up some of the outlines. Other than the frame, it may be done now. You can click the painting for a much higher resolution picture (warning: about half a meg) if you want.

I still don’t have the depth of color right; it’s much deeper and richer than this picture conveys… I really need to learn how to photograph my work properly.

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Continue reading for close-up pictures of what Caitlin and I are each working on…

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