Abstract Art

I went back to school last Thursday.  All of my classes are either studios (Color and 3D) or art history (Western, Aztec, and Modern) courses, so I've been eating, breathing, and sleeping art this entire week.  I'm not entirely sure yet if this is a good thing... I've already been sucked into creating my first piece of abstract art.

Feast your eyes upon it:



I actually think it would look really good in my bathroom; the colors are interesting and the composition contains a good rhythm, but it was SO boring to paint!  Hopefully my next school project will be more engaging...

In the midst of all the havoc created by school, I worked on my cousin Amber's painting.

I'm getting very close to finishing it now. I just need to touch up the sidewalk, put the reflection in the reflection pool, and add the surrounding flowers.

....and fix a mistake I just barely noticed while looking at this picture.
                                                                                                                                         Dang it.

Painting in the Rain

If you've been living under a rock for the past week, and only just emerged, you probably didn't know that it rained on Tuesday. And when I say "it rained," I really mean that an apocalyptic deluge swept over the valley.

                                                 It was pretty great.

                                                                But NOT as great as this:

I think the combination of rain and Sixth Sense really helped my concentration.

Distraction

It's been a busy week.

Not as far as the painting goes, unfortunately, but everywhere else. Things have gotten crazy at work and school is less than a week away (yikes), which requires certain preparations. Plus, I started two additional projects, one of which is doomed to remain unfinished for the rest of eternity, and the other turned out too fantastic for words. Seriously. I was impressed with my own work.

Anyways, here it is:

The actual temple is finished, so now I just have to work on the surrounding vegetation and the reflection pool.

That's about it for now... but, for your enjoyment, here is a peek at what my palette looks like at the end of each painting frenzy:

Yes, my "palette" is really a paper plate. This way, I don't have to wash it off each time, I can just throw it away and get a new one. I'm lazy like that.

California, Proportion, and a Teeny Tiny Paintbrush

I must apologize for the lack of new posts, but I was chilling (literally - I was freezing) on a beach in California last week several miles away from my art supplies, so things have been on hold.

When I finally returned, I noticed something horrifying:



The top section of the temple was much too large in proportion to the bottom level. This picture may not be the best illustration of that fact, due to the viewer perspective, but it's there, trust me.

Actually, I knew it was there before I left. I was just in denial. Seeing it after my week-long hiatus made me realize how big of a problem it really was, so I buckled down and spent a good part of my afternoon yesterday fixing it.

I was having difficulties painting the divisions between the window panes and the long, thin shadows around the columns because all of my brushes were too big. Even my smallest paintbrush, a gift from a High School teacher who knows my fanatical penchant for miniscule detail all too well (I often used an old and very battered brush in her class that contained just a single hair), wasn't up to the task. Frustrated, I visited my local art supply shop, and found THIS:

                                                                                                     It's beautiful.

And it does it's job well. I think this might be the best purchase I've ever made, though a few of my books are close contenders.