So I finished the piece… and through the process i definintely hit “good” and proceeded on to “meh… ok.” I’m still pretty happy overall with the piece considering the time crunch at the end there. I’m gonna upload a couple of images and call it done and finish loading up the van… then get some last minute stuff so I can head up to VT. Back next week.
So I did some painting last night. I finished up laying the base coast on the cuttlefish in the morning. The paints were being terribly behaved in the muggy weather, and I was ready to go Jackson Pollack on the canvas.
I did take a break to do food shopping for Firefly and write some emails and catch up with people over some camp management stuff. It definitely felt that time was getting away from me, and i got exhausted around 1am, so instead I slept. I got up at 6 and started off with some fresh paint and things went much better.
Now it’s getting down to crunch time and I’m going to have to haul and ditch sleep in order to both finish up and load up all the gear and equipment. Then we have our ride up tomorrow and start setting things up. At that point, tomorrow night, I can sleep. Even on uncomfy rocks I’m pretty sure I’ll sleep like a baby, and I’m completely looking forward to it. Right now I’m working with 2 hour spurts and starts of sleep.
I also need to prep a meal before I leave, but that shouldn’t be too bad. Just a matter of marinating some steak, and deciding what I want to do with the veggies I have. Oh, and prep the ceviche.
*yawn* Anyhow… I have more images of what I’ve been working on. If you’ve never seen one, I think Sepia officinalis is one of the most beautiful critters out there.
Here’s a good overview of what I did to lay down the base coat. It’s a lot of burnt sienna cut with white. It makes a nice color, and i will maybe go in a lighten it up later, but I really didn’t just want to launch right in there with a cream color and then fight with toning it down.
I’ve been leaving the bottles and glasses for last in the paintings i’ve been working on. I’m a little concerned with this set with the “reaching inside” aspect of some of them, but it’s all a learning experience anyhow.
So far so good. The next thing I’ve done after this is lay down the basic stripes on the cuttlefish. This is where the paint was being a real jerk. It’s probably my fault as the house was stale and i had a ceiling fan on. Silly acrylics.
The initial look of just the stripes was… unsatisfactory to me? But once I got around to laying out some of the shadows on the biggest guy on the painting, I’ve been a lot happier with the piece overall. With those depths starting to pop out I’ll feel good to go back and bring in the lights and outline the whole thing. It’s funny… laying down the main browns took me hours, but that shadowing took less than 20 min.
So I did more work on my darling farting monster. I am unbelievably happy with this piece. I hate to say it, but I think I’m taking these two firefly pieces home and using them to adorn whatever place we’re calling home come September. At least for a little while.
Yes, that’s a Ferengi ship, as well as my foot there. And a whisk broom. keep getting floor dirt almost making me batty.
So Firefly is coming up, and things are coming together for Bring A Cup, the camp i’m managing. I’m happy with things so far. I designed a ticket that I was reasonably happy with. I am currently in the midst of cranking out some paintings for the event, which i mentioned before.
The first painting i finished was more freehand and sloppy. It’s a bunny piece, so I’m moderately ok with that. Rubbish helped me finish up the outlining so i could call it done. I’ll give you a few images to check out the process.
These are two process pics earlier on in the game. I started out laying down the green and dark green silhouettes, then went on to picking various bunny colors for the bunnies, then filled in the ears. Finally i got into the pint glasses and beer, then rounded it out by outlining everything. The end result was this:
It’s not the best piece I’ve done in my life, but at 3′x5′ it’s the largest canvas/acrylic piece I’ve ever done, and it all finished up pretty quick.
The next item on the docket was the fart monster picture. You may remember the sketch. I’m not quite done with it, though I’m farther than this photo indicates at this point.
I’m excited with how it’s going, excited at how easy it’s going, and a little terrified of screwing it up.
Lastly, this morning i threw down some primer on a canvas so I can get started on my third piece, which you haven’t seen yet. I figure i can toss a sketch out there just to give an idea. If you know me, you know how awesome I feel about this picture.
I’m hoping to get this one laid in there and backgrounded tonight so i can really get into it tomorrow and Sunday. I’ll be sure to take progress photos.
Today is for down home music. At least, this is what counts to me as down home music.
An explanation: my dad is Puerto Rican. His tastes are… varied. Things i learned from my dad were an appreciation for 50s and 60s rock, and “salsa.” Some of the first music I learned to sing along with weren’t in English, and I had no idea what i was saying, but it was fun. My father definitely hails from the land of “bigger speakers are superior” and the only day where he was allowed to blast things were Sundays.
Sundays generally entailed going to church with mom, coming home and having cafe con leche with breakfast (if I was lucky, that was funchito), and then mom would close herself in her room so she didn’t have to hear the insane volumes my dad would crank.
I would hang out with dad and essentially groove either to Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Platters, otherwise he’d throw on Isaac Hayes, otherwise he’d go back to his roots and bring out stacks of records from home. Sonora Poncena and Fania All Stars were part of growing up for me, as was Celia Cruz. I remember when Sandra got my dad all excited about the new sounds going on with Ruben Blades.
I think I made it to my first musical when I was in either kindergarten or first grade. It was around the same year that i made it to my first concert, Rita Moreno at Berkeley College of Music, followed by Celia Cruz, and not long after that Ruben Blades.
I figured it was normal for people to go up on stage at concerts and dance with the singers during some sick instrumental solos.
So… I am bringing you some down home goodness, since I’ve had a hankering for the piano that goes on in this music. Some of this is stuff I remember, some of it is stuff I’ve picked up over the years. I didn’t know that Ruben Blades sang with Fania All Stars in 1979. That makes me insanely happy.
Ruben Blades with Seis del Solar singing Buscando America… he does a lot of activist lyrics actually, and i love this tune even though the synths kill me. It’s very ballad-y, but then gets into a great breakdown that makes me giddy. Piano starts to get fun around minute 4.
“To write a son”… yeah, this is awesome. hooray for music with attitude and instructional value! Sloppy awesome piano solo around min 3.
I’ve been feeling a little musically stagnant of late. That’s a big deal. It is almost unheard of for me to have nothing i *want* to listen to.
Decided to work on that this morning listening to Sound Roots for ideas of new things. This was after looking at new posts on Hype Machine and generally realizing that not only do i dislike mainstream radio… i don’t seem to realy like the indie kids either right now. Everything sounds like some whiny person with a guitar who isn’t having much fun.
so i had open studios recently, which was fun. i picked up a commission, which i’m excited about.
firefly is also coming up, so i started working on some art for some painted panels to hang out in the woods. our camp is very beer themed, and really fun. This is my first piece that i’m going to be painting up in acrylic. It makes me giggle with glee whenever i think of it.
So I did some painting last night. I finished up laying the base coast on the cuttlefish in the morning. The paints were being terribly behaved in the muggy weather, and I was ready to go Jackson Pollack on the canvas.
Here’s a good overview of what I did to lay down the base coat. It’s a lot of burnt sienna cut with white. It makes a nice color, and i will maybe go in a lighten it up later, but I really didn’t just want to launch right in there with a cream color and then fight with toning it down.
