Busy...

I can not hang out too much today. .. I have started a new painting - and of course that drawing that I posted has to be finished. I figured I would do them both at the same time. Both portraits. Now I can not promise how the painting is going to turn out. I have not painted the face in a "very" long time. I am going to say - 5 years! I painted the side of a face...Wait. I take that back. I did paint a girl two years ago. Side profile. However - this one is of her face looking at me. Ohh.. and and and.. I need to crochet two flower barrets/pins for my avon costumer. She orded like 56 bucks from me online. Woohoo. Does not happen often but when it does.. makes for a happier me. :)  I am sore. I went to the gym lastnight... Wore me out!   Okay.. I need to go. I do not want to lose my "Zone".   XO XO XO XO XO XO XO all of you who read this and any other post I send out there!! 

What are you doing today anyway? 

Could it be the fountain of youth? Or something else?

I moved here about three years ago... and for those three years I have noticed something weird. There is a road that I take to get to my local wal mart. And on this road there is a water faucet right next to the road. It looks like its next to some rabbit cages or something.. yes.. on the side of the road. Its really a weird site. Well anyways. There is ALWAYS a car parked next to it and people are getting out and putting the water from this faucet into jugs etc. and then putting it into their trunk. I really did not think much of it till I saw super old people doing it! Those jugs have to be heavy after you fill them up right?  But yet.. they seemed to have no trouble! "WHAT IS IN THAT WATER?" Why are all of these people drinking it? It makes me want to drink it just to see what all the hallabaloo is about. NO! Its tainted. Thats what its about. They know that humans are weak. They know that the followers will drink too. Then pretty soon.. everyone has drank the water.... then what? So this is the crazy thoughts that go through my head EVERY time I go to wal mart now.. They have been for the last three years. I go to wal mart way too much too. It isn't bad enough that I really dislike wal mart then I have to think about that faucet. Maybe I will paint that faucet just so I can tell the story of it. Paintings are always best when they have a great story behind it....

Guilt?

I was reading a blog and the author of the blog was talking about how she felt guilty (http://debsheadstick.blogspot.com/) because she was not being very productive in her artistic trade. It brought the question to my mind - Why do we feel guilt when we are not painting, drawing, writing etc? 

For me, I do feel guilt if I do not paint or draw. I have even gone as far as avoiding my friends who do because I felt so low when I saw all the things they were doing as I sat and did nothing. There is nothing wrong with taking a break so why do we feel guilt? Is it because we know we could be growing but instead we are sitting on our hands? I like to think taking a break is a part of the growth process. But that could be my guilt talking trying to give me reasons for not doing anything..;) What do you think?

I am also adding a picture of the beginning of my newest project - Pencil, charcoal, and conte.

Its like a new painting that I can not stop looking at!

Today I picked up my Antique Welsh Dresser AKA English Hutch. I put it in my dining room and started to clean it up and I stood back....   I am so in love! I love my husband for buying this for me! Well I love him anyway but this is why he gets kisses all over his face when we are hugging.  There is a piece of stained glass in the center up at the top... and its funny because there is a bubble in one of the glass cabinet pieces. When I open it up and stick my head close to it - It smells like a very old house....  

Every time I look at it - it makes me feel like it does when I look at a painting that I am working on and its turning out very well for me! I can not get over it. I do not even want to put anything on it. It doesn't matter.. I just love it for what it is. Just like that! 

I added some plates in there to see what it would be like. I am going to crochet some lace for the edges of the shelves. Oh its going to be perdy!  Its funny because when I was wiping it down I noticed the notches in the shelves and I thought.. "oh that is no good.. Why do they have this big notch like this" then when I was putting the plates in I realized what they are for! My husband rolled his eyes and smiled at my simple mindedness. I just laughed. I really appreciate my "dopey" moments. I know how to laugh at myself.  

I started a new drawing tonight. So I will be posting that here and there as I go along. Also I have some new friends and I would like to say HELLO!! And Thank you! I am excited to get to know you better. :) 

Love always and goodnight for now.. I think I will go to the gym.... maybe.. no promises!

Sleepy = Emotional

Am I the only one that gets emotional when I am sleepy? Its the worst time to be emotional I think. I am sure it was because I was looking at old pictures of me and the my children. I looked so young and so happy. Now I do not feel that way anymore. I am sure it is where I live. My neighborhood has not many trees and a lot of the houses look the same. I used to walk for hours and hours. Now I walk around the house.   Makes for a sad and tired girl.   SO... I am going to work on this. I need to change my way of thinking and get my butt back outside and start walking again. Its so good for the soul.

But really.. I am tired. I started another drawing tonight. I really need to be painting. I will.. I will... But for now I am doing some drawings. I went to kinkos also to see what kind of stuff they have going on. I am going to go to a print shop next.. Might just have to work out of both. :) One to scan and one to print. All depends.

Oh. I wanted to tell you about this story that I saw on tv. This little boy said he had died and gone to heaven when he was .. I think 3 or 4. I watched a short clip about it. I believe in God. And I believe that it takes more than just believing in God to get to Heaven. And of course I often question many things. I think that is why I am obsessed with ghosts and death. Or it may just be because I have issues.. But still... It made me cry with happy tears the thought of it being.. I guess for sure.   Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back  ...   Okay.. I need to go to bed now..  All of you have a good night. I know this post is kinda off track and all but its just... how I feel tonight.. Off track. :)

Setting up a web site

I am looking to see if I can set up a web site where I can put my prints. I know that there is zibbet and all those places but I want a web site. Is there any good one that I can try out .. Kinda hoping I can find a free one that works well enough... Any ideas?

Okay. She is done. What can we call her? She needs an old fashioned name I am thinking. What do you think??

And I have to say that I think I am much more pleased with the end result than I previously believed I would be. Well.. there she is.. All done. I signed it up the right hand along the edge near her shoulder. Just do not have it in this picture.   I am thinking I may not really work on one that looks the same. This one will do. I had fun. Now I just need to fix it. :) NEXT - 

For a tip on how to get a really annoying song that is stuck in your head, out.. go to my MANIA link above. Also I am going to repost all the drawings that I did in here ... into my progress Link. Talk to you a bit later! 

After I posted this I went back and added just a touch of eyebrow to her eye.. It looks better :) 

A new Technique..

I was thinking about something. Well actually I have been thinking about it for a while. Like over a year but I just have not spoken about it out loud. Today I will. Sometimes I read art books or look at painting books just before bed... I was not doing it every day.. But now I think that I will. Every night now before I go to bed I am going to read certain books (who am I kidding. I will just look at the pictures probably). I have certain ones that inspire me the most. ANYYWAAYYY I am going to look at it every night now for at least thirty min. before bed. I am hoping that I will dream about it or at least have it in my mind while I am sleeping and pretty soon I will be painting like no ones business. Also maybe I will be so "ridiculously" famous that I will get made fun of on South Park! I am just kidding. Either way - It just seems like that would be good because I am relaxed a lot of the time when I am sleeping... and when I am relaxed is when I do my best work and learn the most...      Its just gotta work! Sometimes I pretend like I am painting too. I know that sounds weird.. but I paint in my head. Step by step.. And it helps. I started doing that because it is hard for me to paint as much as I want with my little ones always around :)

I went to the gym last night. Just walked. Nothing else. My legs up at the top are hurting. They are aching. Its not the paint (wow I said paint. I left that to show what a robot I am) that you feel after a good workout. Its like FLU pain. When I was growing up my legs would ache a little and the older I got the more they hurt. Sometimes at night they are sore (for no reason) and its hard for me to sleep.. I think if I am stressed out they hurt the worse.  This is the first time they have hurt me after walking. I looked so cute too! Normally I do not care what I look like at the gym. But I put little pony tails in my hair in the back. I looked in the mirror and just laughed at myself because they were SO cute! I never do anything with my hair. I was excited. Even my girls were googaling over my hair.

My worst critic.

I would not say that this is a bad drawing. I do not think any of my drawings are bad at all. It's just not what I visioned. 

The thing about the artist verses the viewer is that I saw something in my mind. And when I see something - I unfortunately EXPECT it to go down in THE way I VISION it. And of course you know and I know it will not happen. In my class I always tell my students TO never expect your drawing to BE RECREATED EXACTLY. 

The mixing of the sepia and the black did not work out to my standards. It might be that darker brown also. Its a good learning experience.  I am going to finish it and then start her again... 

Tonight we are supposed to have severe thunderstorms pushing through. I can see it outside. Its dark and smells like rain. A bit windy also. I do not like the T-storms. They scare me. I do not sleep well at night when they come through....                      

Well talk to you later.. Me and little Miss Emmie need to go to the store and see what we can waste money on today. 

Bisous..

Okay. Its a new day. I worked a little bit more on her last night before I went to bed. I have no idea how I did what I did because my son (16) and daughter (14) sat next to me the whole time and made me laugh with their ridiculousness. But I got a lot done on one eye and her mouth. I took a photo of her eye to see how close I was getting.. A lot of times I look at my progress through the lens of the camera. I know I could look in the mirror but I just use the camera.   Also I took a pictures of my chimes that I just got at Hobby Lobby. They were fifty percent off. How could I resist? The ones in the middle and the one off to the right. The metals set I have had for a couple of years. One day I will buy the large ones! Not today however. They are over 100.00! I can hear them out my dining room window while I sit here and draw in the sun.

I am on the "second" layer of pencil I suppose you can say. I was using the chalk and charcoal and now I have added some sepia pencil/chalk/charcoal. I really can not figure out what it is for sure. Seems like charcoal but not sure if they have sephia charcoal. And to be honest - I have NO IDEA where I got the pencil to begin with. Thankful I have it though.. I am using it. 

Working Slowly.

Well she is not exactly where I want her right now. The right eye still needs some work. Its really hard to figure out where the lines are because the original photo is so messed up. I actually had to lighten it and sharpen it to try to get the lines to pop out more.. So this is where I am right now. I used to expect them to look exactly like the original... But my biggest lesson in my YR class is that you will never draw the picture exactly like mine and I will never draw the picture exactly like yours... Kinda helps take the anxiety out of it all. Does not work every time however.

Getting back to basics.

I went to the store this morning and bought some new tools (and two new sets of wind chimes). Some of the tools I have never used before. I am trying to "ugrade" my drawings. I have worked a lot with charcoal but I have never worked with chalk. So I decided that I would do this one in chalk and charcoal and see how well they worked together. I have been practicing with the chalk. I like it! It works well. I have not made this silly ball for over.... uh eight years. So I thought I would make this one out of chalk to see how it looks.. Turned out decent enough. A little sloppy but decent enough. I get the idea. I think I am ready to start putting in the details. I have drawn the lines and they look nice. :)

(Compressed Chalk)

I have chosen the drawing I will start!

I found her and fell in love with her! I have to have her. So she will be my next drawing. I think I will do a series of old photos. I have two down.. and now I will work on this one. One of my subjects I actually had the pleasure to meet before she passed away.. She was a very nice woman too. :)  Alright so here is the prep for my next project. Hopefully I will find something to paint at the same time and be just as excited about that as I am this. I can not remember when I drew a picture last. I think I like to draw more than I do paint sometimes. 

I printed out two separate photos of her. One dark and one light. Then I have one also on my computer that I can see HUGE if I want for more details. But this is perfect for the lines and a lot of the detail. She is BEAUTIFUL! I can not tell you enough now much I love her. I wish I knew her name. Alright its time for me to go and start my lines. :) I will share my progress with you! TTYS! 

BISOUS! ;) Frankie

Stick with what you know.

I tried this new style of painting the day before yesterday. I know you have seen the post that I left. Well I changed my mind. I loved the first stage of the painting. It really did feel free and I learned so much from just that one stage of painting. I learned a lot about perspective.. and the biggest thing that I learned is.. "stick with what you know"..   After I learned what I needed to the painting became "unfun". I got the worst headache. The layout was perfect but the paint was not laying down right. I couldn't figure it out. So I sat and sat and painted here and painted there. Sat some more. Stared. Then I walked away. I have not been back since. Oh my gosh that reminds me! I left my paint brushes up there too. So now they are dry! :( I need to work on those now. Anyways - I am going to restart the painting over again. Same concept, same layout.. Only this time - MY WAY.   Also I might do a still life. Me and my British compadre over at http://creativedegenerate.blogspot.com/ had a nice talk to day about art and the directions we were going and that is when I made all these decisions. Thanks Kate :) Oh and you should go and check out her newest painting. Its really nice! Also there is a giveaway of some original art work at this blog http://creations-by-gena.blogspot.com/  Be the first to comment on the prize and its yours!  She does the cutest stuff.. Make sure you go before some one else does!

A whole new perspective on the situation!

I started a painting tonight. A seascape. I have been thinking about it for a couple of weeks now. I wanted to take a different approach as to how I started it. I really struggle with the beginning of the paintings.


From now on with each project I think I am going to focus on one particular. My last painting was the castle and I paid more attention to the trees and that wonderful color green. I think when I focused on this alone I worried less about the painting as a whole and it came along naturally because I was not stressed out about it. Does that make sense? So as I was working on the under painting of this new painting and worrying about the perspective of the rocks, I worried less about the rest and just painted. When I was done and stepped back I realized I actually painted in a natural direction because I was relaxed and I could see it clear in my mind. This painting is going to work out. Never have I been this happy about a painting with just the under painting!   I think I am rambling on. I am having a hard time explaining myself. 

Putting it on hold

Well I am going to have to put my recent idea for a painting on hold. Since I have posted my video more people have been noticing me. So I have actually picked up a couple offers. One for an ocean painting.. and another for a book cover. I think the book cover sounds really fun. I know that it would not make me famous or anything - but it would be fun either way.  So I am looking forward to that.   Anyways... not much else is going on. My house is a freakn mess. Always is after the weekends.. They all go to work and school and leave me here.. to clean up after everyone.. Love it. Then I do not get to paint.  Well I should go and take care of that now. Hope you are all well and loving life!

Going to start a new painting!

Okay. I got some stuff out of my system and basically out of the way...  Now I am ready to paint again. I always feel good about Fridays I guess because that is when I seem to always decide to start my new paintings.  I really need to get my hair trimmed some time today too. I look shabby! :) Did you see my little You tube video that I made. Over three hours it took me! First time I thought it was great.. I posted it. Then watched it. For some reason it changed! Doubled in size and was really long and boring. So I had to re do the whole thing. I was up till 1 am this morning. I could not let it go though. I had to do it! I would not have been able to sleep till it was done.  So with this I am off now. To start the painting. I will of course post the pictures in the "Paintings Progress" link at the top. I will also be putting in some things here and there in the JUST SAYING and the MANIA links as well. Just stuff that randomly comes to mind. If its ranting and raving.. it will go under just saying.. and if its me being a lunatic.. then Mania is where you will find it. ;)   Have a good day.. and I am off to do the under painting. :) - Bisous

This is my plan

Okay. this is what I think I am going to do. You can see the links under my painting of the dog? Up there.. up above - I am just saying will be where I post all of my silly rants.. and you know you can learn a lot about a persons rants! I will let you say what you want.. feel free.. but remember.. I am the boss on here and I will delete you if you cuss at me! (hahaha) The mania.. I may or may not allow any comments.. but that is where I will post my weird thoughts or my "deep" thoughts. I have a lot of those too. :) Some might be weird and some might be good. So keep watching for that.... I like to make up quotes and I will post them in there too. Or maybe.. hmm.. maybe I can make a separate page for that all together.. Hm. I will think about that. The Paintings in progress link pretty much sells itself. I just have to paint something or draw something to put in there now. I suppose I can put the castle and ocean photos in there.. Just delete them from the main page.. I can do that. Okay. problem solved..   Favourite artists also sells itself. :) Great. :):) now when I move some of this stuff my comments will be lost from my friends.. :( Bummer. But please come back and make more!   Okay.. I am going to bed now. Have a good night everyone!

BISOUS!

Moving this and Moving that

I am going to be moving my blog around. I have made the decision. Once I am done I will explain where everything is and if its missing - where it went :) Hopefully I keep this USER FRIENDLY!  Have a good day everyone.. and to all of my new followers.. WELCOME!

Why do you "really" paint?

I changed my blog around a little bit. Well the fonts anyway. :) I am wanting to make it more of "my" personal space but I am not sure how to do that yet. I need my own background. This one I found off of some blogger background site..Its pretty and all... but I want my own things on here.  I should be starting a painting today. And I may. And I may not. It was in the plans. I think I need to think more about it. I do need to get on it soon because when I am not painting - I am thinking.  Sometimes I do not like to be left alone with myself. I know a lot of you can relate to that. (big smile).

I was thinking the other day (and I know a lot of you think about this) about the reasons why I paint. I think of this question a lot and of course I always think I know the answer. I love the feeling of accomplishment - It's relaxing - I can not live without it - I was just born to do it - etc. I always have the same reasons. So I asked myself why is it that if I know the answers why do I keep asking myself the same question? Something is missing! So I thought a little deeper.. and of course.. I am painting to escape. But what? What am I "really" avoiding? So now I have different reasons for my painting. Yes its all of the reasons that I stated up above.. but there is another reason. I am painting for self preservation. I am running from my biggest fears. My Mortality. What are your reasons really?