My Lovely Lady

She's comin' along.  Still unsure of how I want to do her face and what shape her hat will be, but we'll figure it out together.

The Start of Something

I'm grabbing some inspiration from these:

And starting this:

Bellyboobs Final

You turds remember this?

I finished up that bad mammajamma before Xmas and had it at the New Year's soiree that Martha didn't attend.
Here's the finished product that should be meeting it's maker very soonly:

Suckit Saturday - May Update

When we last saw May - she looked like this:

Now she's done and she looks like this:

Here are all the May links to see how she evolved:
First.
Then.
And Then.

Sunday Confession - More Time w/May

When we last saw her, she looked like this:

With better lighting and about another 3 hours invested, she looks like this:

Still not finished, but she's gettin' there.

TT - Confession

It ain't Sunday, but I need to out myself.

I skipped the last acrylics class.  There are 2 major reasons why:

1. Dayjob.
2. Hella storm.

So I don't have any class photos or stories to tell you to close this out.

Sucks right?

Oh well.

In other news, here's a still from the movie for the pinup I'm working on.  It shows Adam's hand that I've been attempting:

Watch the movie, dammit.  This is such a great scene.

Here's a photo of something that caught my eye while I was working on it:

I guess that's all for now.

Sunday Confession - Progress

"May" after Day 2 & in shitty lighting:

I'm comfy with her face now but her left foot is pissing me off.  There's been at least 3 revisions of it today.

The scissors almost look real on this photo.  That's pretty badass.

The scalpel will get some detail work to change it from a butter knife to a scalpel.

I gave her a cigarette this a.m.  She deserved it.  Going all night with a receded hair line and no face.

There's a lot of Disney & Archer influence coming through, I think.

Or I could just be full of shit.

I confess: this is the first time I've drawn/painted a full human figure and its cool to see it come through the way I see it in my head.  That's always been kind of a frustration point.

Also learned today, hands are difficult.  There were probably about 2 or 3 attempts at a sketch for that where the smudges are on the "floor" under the cooler.  Will be practicing over the next couple of days.

Working On Something

Here's all my inspiration:

And here's this afternoon's progress:

I'm kinda diggin' it so far.
If you've never seen "May", its definitely worth a watch and will make more sense of what you're looking at.
Can you tell I'm slightly scared about her face?
Will probably be watching the movie a lot this weekend for more inspiration.

TT - 5th Class Review

Got there late again this week.

Once I got there, cupiedoll lady was back* and telling everyone that she'd been at the Emmy's.
I grabbed a spot as far away from her as possible.  Next to Donald, who had some rockin' shoes on and has also dyed his hair blonde.  I think he's taking advantage of being the only man in the class.

Cupiedoll lady started talking about what she wore to the events and that she didn't shave her legs and had worn a shorter zebra print dress.  Sally, the teacher, asked her if she wore her spanx.  Cupiedoll lady said, "No, I don't wear those.  I worry about how to pee when I gotta go." which spun us off onto a pee hole/crotchless type discussion that Donald plugged his ears for.
That's what happens when you have a room full of women.
Cupiedoll lady also kept saying that everything was "interesting" and started getting on my nerves with some of her questions, during which I looked at the girl next to me and said, "man, I really missed her."

We got on with things and started playing with gel mediums for "Cornfield With Cypresses" to add to the lines we put up last week.

Here's what my "Garbage Field With Green Turds" looks like now:

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*don't think I mentioned last week that she wasn't in attendance.

Sunday Confession on Tuesday - 4th Class Review

I was cranky before arriving at class last week.  Dayjob was annoying me and then I got stuck in traffic after stopping for gas.
I got there about 10mins late and everyone was already set up and working on that October piece.
Sally, the teacher, had the commission she'd mentioned working on, on display.  You can see it down there on the right.  The dogs.  She likes painting people's pets.

We worked on "October" for a bit after going through "toning" a canvas.....which is basically your primer coat that you build from.

Here's what my "October Barf" looks like after the 4th class:

Everyone was so tired of this one and vocally ready to move on.  My little red-roofed house looks like it needs stick figures outside of it.

The more we work on it, the more I kinda like it.  I'm just gonna keep adding to it and will keep you posted & show it again when I think its done.

In maybe a year, at this rate.

While this has helped to give me a new appreciation, landscapes aren't really my thing.  

Luckily, for me....after our toning dried, we got to work on our base lines for this VanGogh:

Yay.  More landscapes.

Pretty sure everyone will get tired of doing this one, too.  Although, we get to play with heavy medium and will be gloppin' that shit up.

We're all such good students.  Look at us, paying attention and crap.

Here's what my garbage looks like so far:

Kinda lookin' forward to layin' it on thick and smearing that shit around.  Stay tuned.

TT- 2nd Class Review

Here's our current project:

"October"

George Inness

1886

oil on canvas

Did my first wipeout underpainting*, which sucked.  Acrylics dry really fast, did I tell you that?

You know what happens when it dries?  It doesn't wipe off.

So then you're staring at a dark brown streaky rectangular turd, trying to remember what you just got done drawing underneath.

(Noted: I think I need glazing fluid instead of this gel medium. wonder how that would make a difference)

After staring at the rectangular turd for a few minutes, I started to make out some shapes and wiped out what I could and did some shading.

Then we started on some midtones.  Oranges, yellows, greens.

She said mine looked "innocent".......?.........and that I was painting light, would probably need another coat, and showed me the difference between a heavy body paint and the shit I'm currently using.

(Noted: heavy body = more opaque = better coverage)

Cupiedoll lady wasn't as annoying this week after the first hour but did mention her store was having a big labor day weekend sale.  Gotta give her props for hustlin' during class.

I contributed a bottle of chard.  Another girl brought in a red and a white.

I had 2 glasses even though I poured 3.

One of them had to be thrown out because I tried to clean off my brush in it instead of the water jar right next to it.

Next week (week 3 of 6) we finish up this one and start a new one.

Here's what my version of "October" currently looks like:

"October Barf"

Karen

2011

acrylic on canvas

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*this post gives a really nice rundown of what a wipeout underpainting is, but its done in oil.

with oils, you get 3hrs to mess with it.

with acrylics, you get maybe 10mins.

TT - First class review

I didn't realize there were grown-ups that didn't know that yellow & blue make green. Or that red & blue make purple. Or that red & yellow make orange.

You turds all knew this, right? or should I just go ahead and consider and/or accept that my standards of general adult human intelligence is too high?? Yeah, probably the latter.

*eyeroll*

And of course there's always one in class that drags everyone else down. I spotted this chick straight away. She looks like a cupie doll but with an awesome asymmetrical hair style I was rockin' 2+ yrs ago before I got lazy with my hair. And apparently she owns a place in town called "Rich Hippie"...some boutique she says is very "colorful". I'll swing through in the next couple of days to scope the joint.

When we first started playing with black & white values....she was all "I hate grey."

Towards the end of the class with at least 40mins left, we were working on shading and tinting* and she was all, "the class is almost over. this doesn't make sense [why we're still working on stuff]. this won't be dry by the time we leave."

I addressed her last concern and she was somewhat quiet after that.

She was also the first to jet out the door.

This woman will be trouble for the class.

Next week, I will not be set up next to her.

At first I was worried about the class being full of old people but there's a pretty diverse mix of folks in there.

And one dude. His name is Donald.

And our teacher's name is Sally Evans. She's pretty cool. She said we could bring in wine & that the class has been known to be somewhat of a happy hour.

Next week, I'll bring wine.

I did learn how to keep my paints wet longer. Acrylics dry really fast which can be a little challenging depending on how big a piece you're working on. So, having them stay wet longer is a nice golden nugget of info I got to take away from last night. Also, kinda interested to play with glazing mediums, now that I know how/what they're used for.

Here's a picture of playing with black & white.

Did you know black & white make....gasp!...GREY!!?? *sigh*

Here's what it looks like when you mix colors only using primaries.

Did you know that red, yellow, and blue are primary colors!??! *facepalm*

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*shading = adding black to a color

tinting = adding white to a color

you're welcome.