day #365 - the end of an era

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I thought I was on top of it; I had finished early and was looking for a movie to watch already 3 hours ago. And I don't know how time went by. A phonecall, some networking studying, some online shopping and here we are, already past the time for an early movie. Regardless, today is a special day. The blog is over! I finished 365 days of daily painting and recording it, whatever that means. A big part of the process I will have to keep doing mainly for myself. Perhaps taking daily photos of my work and saving it on some folder. This has provem useful many times when I trying to date a piece I've been working on. Also making a small diary of today's achievements. It's still useful. But this will be done for my eyes only. I also don't know if I will be continuing my obsessively daily painting. How would life be if I had days off? Now for example that I'm moving out and I have to daily chores that until now were completely taken care of, perhaps I'll allow my
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day #41 - Showdown

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Today... Today I didn't go out. I didn't find the time; I was locked down at home waiting for a work-call that came too late only saying "let's leave it for tomorrow". Very sad stuff. I knew that I had lost once again the opportunity to try my new watercolor paper. At home I could feel the discomfort in the thought of touch watercolors again - what's the point if I'm not painting plein air? My mind could barely recall all those time that I just doodle in my sketchbook and then water-color them. Come to think about it, I was played; next time I'll just open the sketchbooks and see how I've been using watercolors so far.
Anyway, I took my watercolors out and put them on the desk in case I decide to use them. I had started doodling with my fineliner and brushpen when my brother called. I decided to make it an absent doodling session. I don't do that too often, but today I did. I started stacking objects in space; did some uninteresting characters.  I created a wheel by rotating freely arcs in space and then stringing them together; that felt like some serious improvement. Then I did some halftone(?) landscapes; I like those, I like how bold strokes create geometry; I love it. Mountains, sea, rocks; boats. Stark light/shadow contrast. And then I stood up to pee and had an image in my head - something with narrative: A warrior, riding a frantic lizard/hippo like beast and running diagonally towards the camera; That's how I started doing the lizard. It turned out more static than expected. Eventually I placed the rider with ...a horse at the front of the two beasts. At least there is some story here. I like the loose rendering of the dunes; the gigantic beast opposed to the small figure; The figure is also slightly sensual, titled to the side. I like the stance of the lizard, and how the illuminated dune, constrast with the tiny figures. Then I did a Zeus. Rising over a mountain, right  hand holding the mountain top, left suspended above something... Mot much to like here; the left hand gets confused with the face - is that a finger or a mustache? But I like the boat and the fact that the light-source appears to be coming from beneath.

And then I went on doodling on the ipad. I was filling space, the I sketched something and then I started rendering rocks... And here it was... rendering lava for the first time. It's not well integrated; right from the start I knew that it too removed from the plane of the rocks but I decided I didn't care enough to fix it. The metallic limbs of the spiderish creature have a nice reflective shine to them. The creature is interesting; both creatures are interesting, though the one in the foreground looks a bit flatter. I like how the light only illuminates certain hairs on the back and tail of the dark monster. I like the rocks a lot. The composition is fine too, and while the palette is "ok" I'm not too excited with the colors. What else?

The different textures, the shading of the spidery zoidbergy zombie monster. That would be all. This one was 2,5h. I'm glad there is a story and an execution! Time for bed!

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