New computer, new media, new projects, same old me

I'll warn you all right now that I have absolutely NO concept of time, so imagine my surprise when I finally pulled up my page on my new laptop and saw that I haven't added anything since July! In my defense, I didn't get the new computer till September and I haven't been on it very much as I've been doing other things. Some of those things include paintings and sketches and such, of course. So let me update you with what I've been working on in that area.

First, I did finish a series of paintings on 4x4" canvases, showing different styles of rooster paintings in a variety of colors. A good friend of mine owns a local coffee and chocolate shop, and she saw the painting of the rooster I'd submitted to the art show. She also saw my sketchbook with pages of little rooster ideas. That gave her an idea of her own, to ask me if I'd do a series of rooster paintings on small canvases that she could display in her shop. They would be for sale, and she would receive a commission on any that sold there. She wants to support local artists, and rotate them at times in the shop, and mine would be some of the first ones displayed. I said that I'm happy to be the test for her, to see how it goes over, and between us figuring out the contract that she would need to draw up for artists.

On my Paintings tab you can see a photo showing 8 of those Rooster canvases. I did continue to work on other canvases besides those. I've done a cute little turtle, a lion, a bear, a fox and others. The fox is larger, but the turtle is on a 4x6" wrapped canvas. I'm also working on a little skunk, or maybe two. I'd been trying to get more organized with my paint supplies, but I get so easily distracted, even with the assistance of my daughter who is usually in there painting the same time that I am.

I have plenty of painting projects I'm working on, including a 3x5 foot wooden panel with the Peanuts gang from the Christmas special, where Linus gives the speech about the meaning of Christmas. This will be done in the same way as the two Halloween panels we produced two years ago that have the Peanuts gang in the Pumpkin Patch and trick-or-treating (think "sincere patch" and "I got a rock"). There are also wooden ornaments and things I promised the family I'd get done for Christmas last year, but haven't yet.

With all these paint projects that need to be finished, you'd think I'd settle down and get busy, but no. Instead, I spotted some watercolor pencils that my Dad gave me when he gave up all his painting supplies two years ago. I remembered that I'd been interested in using them to try and work out the scenes for the childrens' books that I've had ideas for for years. I've finally got the three books pretty well sketched out and thought that watercolor backgrounds would be great, and possibly have the finished pages be a sort of mixed media. So, of course, I decided to get the pencils and some watercolor paper that I had and start playing with them. I did one that was a super quick sketch of a girl with red/auburn hair. I thoroughly enjoyed that one and then pulled out my sketchbook and turned to a page of 60s retro inspired drawings I had done a few months ago.

I also decided to purchase a couple of the Micron waterproof ink pens, a brush and a regular liner. This was because I'd noticed that no matter how hard I try, the finished paintings that I do are always different from the little sketches that I draw, and I don't always like that. For a plate I made years ago for my Mom, I had sketched an art deco inspired design, but when I redrew it at full size on the plate, the lady's face did NOT come out the way I wanted, and how it looked on the sketch. Now I've thought that maybe I'll start sketching things on the actual paper or canvas, then drawing over it with the waterproof market. That's what I've done with the watercolor "paintings" that I've done the last several weeks. I sketch it, then draw over the outline where I'd like to keep the outline, erase the extra marks, then color it in with the watercolor pencils. After that I carefully use wet brushes to blend the colors. Some I'm fairly pleased with. Others, not so much. I may end up using most or all of the ones I've done so far as the basis for mixed media works, adding acrylic and/or markers. I really haven't decided.

Now though, I've found that I almost liked the colored pencils on the textured watercolor paper better before they are wet and blended. That leads me to the newest distraction, which will be using my regular Prismacolor pencils, along with the Micron pens, to create some that won't be paintings in the sense of a wet media. I suppose they could still be considered paintings, but I'd probably just say they are drawings. Of course, there's a good chance that even with that intention, I'd end up adding some mixed media to them in the long run.

That gives you some idea of my thought process and where I'm at with all my projects that I'm working on. Wish me luck and hopefully I'll be back on much sooner to give you some updates.