365/2013 - Day 104

it's getting there...

Maybe there is still a very slight chance I could consider this guy for submission still...I don't know.

Baby steps today in painting the raised (plaster cloth-covered glass disks) dots.  That was a challenge because of the angles and surfaces...wow...but it's getting there.

I don't  know...I don't know and I just don't know.  Yet.

365/2013 - Day 103

more painting...then decisions

Today I have been working at painting the sugar glider-creature throughout the day and night.  And finally -- at nearly 11 o'clock tonight -- I decided for sure that I am just not going to be able to finish him the way I'd like to in time for the upcoming show I was aiming for.  I will still finish him, but at a slower pace.

He has gone in a couple of different directions today/tonight but I think I have finally hit on the theme I like the best...it is just going to take a while for me to achieve it.

Also today I spent a lot of (frustrating) time trying to photograph a couple of other pieces for the same show.  Tomorrow I will go back to it with a couple of other pieces.  After that I will choose what I want to submit for consideration and then put the CD together and hope for the best.

365/2013 - Day 102

Okay...I'm goin' in...

I'm taking the plunge and painting the sugar glider-creature's face tonight.  Gulp.  Lots of holding of breath.  

before

mini sneak peek -- LOTS more to do on his face -- last sneak peak of this guy until I decide if he is being submitted to an upcoming exhibit

365/2013 - Day 100

whew -- dots are done!

I finished the dots on the sugar glider-creature's side panels today!  

This was another lovely Wednesday Morning with Joan and Leann...my dots started here this morning.

The cobalt teal (or teal cobalt?) dots are done on this side!

Next I am closing the design with deep violet dots.

The deep violet dots surround the entire design and rein them all in.

Light blue violet dots are in interior spaces only.

Yikes...next up will be the face!

365/2013 - Day 99

still painting (dot, dot, dot)

Back to work on painting the sugar glider-creature.

Side two of the yellow dots.

As I was painting around the first circle today I found myself counting each dot.

I decided to write the count down and add them up when I was done with this side.

408

Tonight I turned the sugar glider-creature back over to side one and added cobalt teal dots.  I didn't count them.

365/2013 - Day 98

back to it

Dots.  That's all I can think about right now.

365/2013 - Day 95 (part two)

more painting

I kept walking past the sugar glider-creature and stressing about how I was going to proceed with the painting and the dots.  Then I just said "this is going to get away from you and you will not have enough time to finish before the submission deadline if you don't just DO something...anything."

So I did.

I printed out four sugar glider pictures and I squeezed out a little white, black and Payne's gray and just tried not to think about it.  Then "they" arrived and I kinda trance out and everything was fine.

Now I have something to work on.  The dots will show up better on the lighter color field.  I wasn't too concerned with how precise I was/wasn't around the circles and dots because the next layer of dots will butt right up to the ocher dots.  It will be interesting to see what comes next over the grayish base.

I prefer the gray(er) sugar glider colors over the beige(r) ones.  Obviously this is not meant to be an actual sugar glider.  I didn't even know what one looked like when I was making this guy...he just sort of evolved into his present form...then when I was trying to do something for an online show of marsupials I saw my first sugar glider and man -- it sure reminded me of this guy.  I had heard the name sugar glider before, I just didn't know what they looked like and I sure didn't know they were marsupials.  Anyway...that's his back story (the short version).

365/2013 - Day 95

painting the other side of the sugar glider-creature

Now that I have the first layer of ocher dots completed I need to start thinking of where to go from here.  I am hoping to get this to a finished enough state to photograph it for submission to my favorite local annual juried exhibition.  Fingers crossed!

starting on this side of the creature today -- I want/need to stay even with both sides

the dots are not this yellow -- they are ocher not lemony sun

this is much closer to the actual color

now what???

365/2013 - Day 92

back to painting

Tonight I got back to working on the painting on the sugar glider-creature's side design.

There are a few deadlines coming up for shows I would possibly like to submit entries to.  I would like to finish this guy for one of them, but this will require a lot of fairly labor intensive layers of painting.

it has been a while since I worked on the sugar glider-creature and I don't remember exactly how I was achieving the circles

I don't think I did it this way...

...but I got to pretty much the same place in the end tonight

I know I will really like this guy when he is done, but why oh why do I set myself up like this?  Geez.

365/2013 - Day 55

awwwww, nuts

I had a feeling I wouldn't be using all seven of the plaster cloth guys.  Some just aren't far enough along.  Some aren't turning out as I'd hoped.  A couple are beyond painting in the amount of time I have left.  But I am still hoping for a few.

You wouldn't think so, but tearing paper takes a LOT of time.  And then adhering the little pieces to curvy surfaces takes time.  Man.

I am really falling in love with this guy now.  I want to do a really good job on him...and that means he will not be going into the upcoming show...just not enough time.

Another plaster cloth guy that will not make it into the show is the marsupial.  One of the several reasons why I am having trouble with his painting is the complicated task I set for myself.  Another is that I have never tried to do this before.  And yet one more reason is the uneven surface of the plaster cloth.  This painting design/style is hard enough but the bumpy surface(s) make it very hard to:

• get the edges on the layered circles sharp
• the gazillion tiny dots that go in between the larger layered circles are becoming textured when I try to put them on with the other end of the brush or with an eraser on a pencil -- I found a tiny sponge brush that will probably work but I need more time

I discovered last night that the millions of small dots I want to add (to represent Australian aboriginal-type art) are going to be painstakingly difficult due to the nature of the plaster cloth surface -- I don't mind putting in a lot of time, I just don't have that kind of time for the upcoming show.

More tearing of paper for the manikin guy.

I can't add any more paper bits right now -- he is too wet -- needs to dry a bit so I don't tear the pieces I already applied.

And another thing I learned tonight about painting/using colors...if you have a carbon black snake and you try to add phthalocyanine blue to the dry surface to make it look blue, it actually goes waaaaaay dark purple.  WTF?  

It LOOKS like a beautiful dark blue when it is wet on top of the very dry black paint, but it goes purple as it dries.  Even a second and third coat stay purple.

So -- another stab at going blue taught me that turquoise deep will stay blue...at least on top of the other blue (now dry as well).

They are both very appealing blues...it's just taking longer than I anticipated to get to the next step!  Gah!

I will finish all of these guys...but at a more reasonable pace.

Ah well -- live and learn. 

365/2013 - Day 53

shopping in my basement and the last sneak peek at the marsupial

I was "shopping" in my basement this afternoon and look what I found -- I really needed some more light on my work table in the temporary plaster cloth studio!

Okay -- I finally chose some patterns and ideas for the marsupial guy.  These are the last sneak peeks at him and his paint job until he goes into the upcoming show (or not).  Tonight he got a raw sienna wash over the burnt umber base coat...then I started on the pattern(s).

Do you hold your breath when you are painting?  Especially smaller spaces and straight-ish edges?  I do and I am quite exhausted now...LOL.