Pages & Opinions about Horses

I have been busy doing wholly uninteresting things the last little bit. I have a few bigger projects on the back burner, (cute paintings, cursed fox statuettes saved from the dump) and a whole bunch germinating in the vegetable drawer, so to speak (single page comics, poetry zines). I'm not really keeping up on a watercolor a day for 100 days, to the point numbering them is pretty pointless, but here's some more pages.

I hate horses. I hate horses significantly more after having worked in a call center for a horse wagering company on the Kentucky Derby weekend.

Buildings. What can I say.

A lot of people were thrown off by the ear and this being a little unpleasant, which gets to how sterilized a lot of my art is lately if this is a shock coming from me. I like surreal and a little unsettling juxtaposed with my cute.

I spend a lot of my spare time in the local park by the library.

Abstract swoopies after a long weekend at work.

Our back porch.

This is my life right now, art wise. This and a smashbook I just started. Which, really isn't anything to scoff at.

Too many photos documenting a creepy painting

Like it says on the tin, here's too many pictures about a painting I did.

Concept sketches plus first background layer. Pretty sure I was dry brushing with a pastry brush, but it was in my brushes so.

Background. Layers of acrylic and gloss medium and ink and alcohol ink....

Using chalk to outline the composition. Chalk is 100% my best friend for big paintings like this.

Had to take a moment and draw a rough design on myself to see how it would look with a smirk like she has. I had decided at this point that instead of painting her make-up in black, I wanted to have the original background show through to push a more ethereal look instead of just woman with spooky make-up.

When I do big mixed media paintings, I always go ahead and paint in some white acrylic where I intend to add oil later. It makes it a lot easier to see what I am doing and also usually seals in the background so it won't interfere with my oils. Usually. This time, I did layer after layer after layer and the damn alcohol inks just kept bleeding through, which was fine everywhere except where it was doing it the worst, her eye. I finally used heavy matte medium to seal in the eyes and all the skeletal spots. I also used some molding paste to texture up the hair, because at this point, why not? This is before it dried.

Eyes, in. And already I'm seeing I am miles and miles better at oil painting than I was when I made the other creepy mixed media paintings in my room. 

(It was at this point I had to take a 3 day break from painting to assist people with online gambling on the kentucky derby. I have learned so many things about horse racing, most of which being that I don't give a fuuuuck about horse racing.)

And you know on my first day off I got right back to it. Her face in progress. Taking a selfie with the make-up and smirk was so worth it, that's one of my favorite details in the entire painting.

Finishing up on her face and neck and that. The kid voted I leave her hair ghostly, but I thought there wasn't quite enough contrast. I did take his vote into consideration though and kept it lighter than I had planned.

So she ended up a pretty bleached out strawberry blonde, which is perfect.

And all done. This post is long enough so I'll save a comparison of my creepy paintings over time for another post, but I have to say I am completely over the moon with her and somewhat shocked how much I've improved in the last few years that I have been doing these.

I thought this was a mail art blog. -_-

I've really had the antisocial mail blahs lately. Mostly been job hunting my ass off, which has paid off as I have orientation for my first temp assignment tomorrow. Hopefully once I get settled in I can start working through my replies or even make something neat to mail off. But for now, I wrote my 30 poems for NaPoWriMo, I am still doing my daily watercolors, I have worked the kid through so much teen drama and all that jazz. Here's a cute picture of Fen and a few more of my dailies. 

Current mood.

Fire spider.

Doodly little excerpts from a drive back home from the Coast.

On day 25, I coincidentally turned 25. (Yes,  I know I'm a baby.) I really liked how this turned out and want to do it again with a lot more time and planning. (I think I spent an hour and a half on this dang page and it's hardly 5x5)

hmmm could this be a sketch for a painting I would rather be working on right now? Why yes, it could.

I felt like a creeper painting this, but I was sitting at a park bench and this cute little house was in view. I really, really, really, love painting buildings.

That's all I got this week.