Tag Archives: my art

My weekends rule…

September 13, 2020 horatioandemily Leave a comment

I have folks staying with me in my home, and they are awesome (my kitchen is CLEAN y’all!) so I come to Woodbridge for the weekends…spending time with my Man.

I bring my Art Bag with me (most everywhere) so the is always something to create/draw/paint/color/whathaveyou

My BFF jokes that it’s the biggest backpack not carried by a camper…

Still, tho…the world is on fire here on the west coast and the air is atrocious

If you’re not familiar with Purple Air, the numbers should be under 50.

I sketched this out today…I plan to redo it in color on canvas…

My style…I started drawing at least one face per day and have a blast doing so…

I have stellar fellow art students that I am connecting with online, and I am blessed with opportunities to keep learning.

I hope you have those too…

Art Journal

I’ve been practicing…

September 1, 2020 horatioandemily 1 Comment

Drawing every day, working on shading for faces that just came out of my brain/hand…

I tried to copy a photo from Pinterest:

…and I think I did pretty well:

Oddly, I made her mouth too small…I usually make the mouth too big…

Anyway…I’m off to keep practicing!

Art Journal

Feeling the fruits of practice

August 20, 2020 horatioandemily 1 Comment

I have been taking year-long, online art classes from Effy Wild. I started with Journal 52 when Effy took it over from the prior instructor, then in 2019 I participated in Book of Days, and now I’m in Moonshine for 2020. What a year so far!

Our latest lesson was a blast and I’m really starting to feel like I’m discovering my artistic style

I used my water-soluble pencil for the first time and I LOVE the watercolor effect

Liked it so much, I almost didn’t want to go further and “mess her up”

I dont have the exact supplies as my instructor but I make do with what I have.

I used red, white, and blue glitter paint as I didn’t have violet. I tried my red over the gold for the background but I thought it was too pink…

…so I covered it with Pyrole Red and wiped some back off. If I’d thought it through, I’d have used a more transparent red.

After I covered her glittery hair with nickel azo gold, I used a stencil to put the swirly gold marks.

Then I worked on her face. I’ve been sketching and shading at least a face per day for a few weeks now and I can absolutely see improvement in in my technique over that amount of time…

The quote is, “She’s mad but she’s magic. There’s no lie in her fire.” – Bukowski

I think this creation is inspiring me to work on canvas so that I can show some of my work in a local spot (I live and work in the downtown arts district).

I call myself an Artist now. Without sarcasm.

Stay tuned!

Art Journal

My First Commissioned Work

August 10, 2020 horatioandemily Leave a comment

My second Brother, the most fatherly of my Brohim, asked me to create a painting for a dear family friend. We have known Mike since I was about 8, so it’s a long time we’re talking about here.

Pages from an old book of Mozart scores makes the first layer…

Mike plays guitar and my Brother, Joe, plays the tenor saxophone, so I included an image of a Gibson Les Paul and a tenor sax.

A tenor sax is only a few inches shorter than a Les Paul…close enough.

I added layers of ultramarine glaze to the background.

So…I have a thing for circles and decided to add one here. Modeling paste is a blast to work with…I love the texture.

I decided to shift the layers to convey movement.

This is the final version under one type of lighting

The final version in different lighting, complete with gilded edges and my signature on the back.

I delivered this to my Bro yesterday, and even though it’s belated, Happy Birthday Mike!

This was my second completed canvas…

canvas 1

Canvas #1

February 9, 2019 horatioandemily 1 Comment

Back in July, I had a coupon (I mean…of course I did) and bought the largest canvas that would fit into my car (3′ x 4′)…all because I found a $15 easel.

Started here:

Then flipped it over…which, it turns out, is becoming an ongoing concern for this canvas…

This thing feels HUGE…So. Much. Acreage.

I add layers…

Sometimes subtle…sometimes not…

“What we learned here is love tastes bitter when it’s gone.” – Rt

Yes…that is the last sighting of my ex’s self-portrait…

Buried…

There is some anger coming out, says I…

“So go on and cry me a river
Don’t say this will haunt you forever
It never did, it never will.”

– Alter Bridge

“I gave you all my energy and I took away your pain
‘Cause human beings are destined to radiate or drain
What line do we stand upon, ’cause from here it looks the same
And only scars remain”

-Ed Sheeran

There is so much emotion I’m painting on here…

Turning it different directions keeps it from getting stale.

“You never loved me. You just loved how much I loved you.

– Mother!

Brought the bright back and started feeling the blood-rage, I think…

The glazing process involves some ugly phases before the luminous qualities start to show…

And here I left it while I spent my holidays in Las Vegas with some dear friends.

After I returned home on the 5th, I kept at it:

And the texture makes me swoon…so I decided to go in a completely different direction.

I feel like this is coming to some sort of finale pretty soon…

It’s winding down…I feel it…

AND…here it is on my wall. Replacing the “zombie girl” (me) that my ex painted.

This is too cool.

With the lights on:

I love it.

I’ve learned so much from making this. Not the least is discovering that Golden brand glazing liquid is slow drying while Liquitex brand glazing medium is not.

It is also quite likely that I will never record a(n even partly) step by step photo record of a canvas again.

Yes, I have started another canvas already. It will be for my very best friend of 35-ish years; my Anjo.

This blog has been out here on the interwebs for 6 years now.

I have posted on this blog 99 times before now, so this this my 100th post…about my first canvas.

I love it. I do love it.

Thank you.

Edit: This painting has a name.

“Shrike”

After the Hozier song, which fits Fucking Idiot to a T. In it, the shrike does everything I always wanted him to do, but in the end, he just wants to hang all of his shit on me (the thorn).

I love it even more with a title.

Art Journal