I *think* that's finished.

Pretty sure this is done? Haven't sealed it yet, haven't matted it yet. Want to be sure. It's like they say... takes two to make a painting. One to paint it, one to shoot the sumbitch so she'll put the brush down when it's time to stop...

A detail that has been tough to capture in the photo is that the background are off-white silver stripes against the white-white paper. It's much easier to see in the previous post, with the detail shot, but the colors and saturation are pretty whacky with that one.

I'm very pleased with this. It was fun, and although it took about 3x as long as I expected, it is also about 3x cooler than I thought it would be, when I started it. Also, it's plain that all those people who told me I should go into print making were right.

PS, this picture is on the small side, the actual painting is about 6"x20". I'll post a bigger one tomorrow with mo' betta' details, but for tonight, I'm much, much too tired to keep messing with this.

workin' on it

workin' on it
Originally uploaded by Id Marks

workin' on it

Among a few other things, here's a little snippet from a watercolor composition I'm working. The watercolor part is done, I'm just inking in details now. It's time consuming, but enjoyable. It's always nice to see the piece come together, but there's a sense of being outside the magic, almost as if I'm simply witnessing something the materials were going to do on their own.

Reminds me of a few lines from Mos Def's CHAMPION REQUIEM (from The New Danger, 2004) -

If you see or hear goodness from me
Then that goodness is from The Creator
You should be thankful to The Creator for all of that
'Cause I'm not the architect of that
I'm only the...the recipient
If you see weakness or shortcoming in me
It's from my own weakness or shortcoming
And I ask The Creator and the people to forgive me for that

Old Dog / New Tricks

Took a two evening advanced course in acrylic abstract painting, with emphasis on landscape rendering. I went with a water theme, probably because I'd been listening to The Odyssey audio book all afternoon...

Although that style of painting does not especially interest me, the techniques presented did, and the instructor did a fine job of explaining them.

My canvas was, sadly, too small to try them all out at once, as most of them rely on allowing thin layers of paint dry between applications. Obviously this is tough with a small canvas! You can only get so far away from what you've just painted. Everyone else in the class was working with one or more canvasses in the 2'x3' size range, for the most part.

Here is the canvas I painted during class. Currently I have a couple of watercolors in progress, but when I have finished those, I am going to start some acrylic paintings. It seems that having a couple of canvasses going simultaneously is the cure for waiting, and I love trying new stuff. I did come out of the classes feeling pretty inspired to try these techniques, and full of ideas about how to put them to good use.

I admit it was hard not to giggle when several of the other course participants extended sincere sympathy to me, as an apparently obvious total beginner to painting. I took the small canvas (about a foot square) because I've not been feeling well lately, and didn't have a lot of energy for a large painting -- and I *hate* unfinished paintings. Also, carrying it to class and back home in the freezing damn cold on foot kinda sucks. $5 says everyone else in the class came in a car. Since I'd been doing watercolors during the day both days, I ended up painting the acrylic left-handed to give my right a break. Didn't really get into any of that with the other people in the class, though. I was just happy to be there.

There is a summer course, 3 days somewhere north of here, that I will probably sign up for, if I can work out transportation, and get registered before all the spots fill. It does look like fun.

Waiting Rooms, Pt 2

Dr. Brain's waiting rooms, Thursday afternoon, (outer and inner, 75 minutes combined)


Not composed, just freestyling.







Dr. Brain wasn't terribly interested.

Dr. F's waiting room, Friday morning. 90 minutes.








Dr. F liked it very much.


The resulting watercolor painting, Friday afternoon / evening, at home.








The cats stayed close the whole time I was working on it, but weren't impressed at all.

Zazzle Sale...

Edit: Friggin´time zones. Apparently Zazzle.com is on Pacific time. 9 a.m. rolled around here, and their deal changed to Posters / Calenders. 60% off is nice (super, even!) but doesn´t help with the cost of mugs. On the bright side, if you ordered 2 mugs, they now ship for free...? Ahh, well. Sorry. I was so excited, too.

Zazzle is doing sales on some things right now - mousepads and mugs, 35% off, with free shipping over $35, is the one that caught my eye. I'm adding a couple to the line up and hoping they show up fast, 'cause the deal is only today (Tuesday, 8 December 2010). I realize sales like this are an obnoxious high-pressure sales tactic.

On the other hand! Mugs like this are wicked cool! That sucker changes color*. Dude. It‘s black when it´s cold, and then when you put a hot beverage in it, the design is revealed. I want one, and will probably order one, because this sale is way better than the seller discount. (My margin on these is 10%, this sale is 35%...)

Also, I realized it´d been ages since I added anything to the Zazzle store. It is fun, and whenever I get enough credit from selling stuff, I think I will have custom postage stamps made and send them to my grandmother as her Christmas gift.

Here is a fancy link to the whole shop. It is a little busy for my taste, but I guess it´s what the young people like?

make custom gifts at Zazzle

As always — should you order a thing I designed, I am very grateful. Obviously it isn´t making me rich, or famous, or good looking. But it makes me happy, which is pretty damn cool.

And, no, I don´t want to talk about the apostrophes. Thanks for bringing that up, though... :/

* color change mugs being a well known and long standing object of appreciation for me.

Time Well Spent

I've been in a lot of waiting rooms lately. I've come to love the sound of someone's eyeball creeping off a back issue of Waiting Room Quarterly and onto my paper.

*creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*