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 #44 - Beast Encounters

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Beasts, beasts, beasts. So what is this? It's difficult to find something that I like here. I'm sure it's not because of the artwork, but my general frame of mind. I should (and could) be happy about lots of stuff: The purplish tone of the underneath the beast, compared to the greenish landscape. The spikes at the back, with the white spotlights; the sky, the orange stripes on the body... So much more that I hate.

I hate... I know I'm supposed to give the positive things about it, but it all looks so horrible that it feels like I'm faking it. So let's try and decompose all the negativity! The cloud are shapeless; true, they didn't turn out as beautiful as I had hoped they would; but they were successful up to one point, and next time I'll make sure and avoid the blue shadows on the clouds. The foliage is nice, but to homogenous, not much variety - I overdid it; I could had put less trees, or created more variety, but then again, if you look at one at a time, they are fine; I like the depth of greens. The hill is to small yet high. Good point, only an ant-nest or a pile of trash could be so tall and so small. I should be proud I've seen that mistake! I doubt I'll do that again: there is no depth; all the background hill and trees create an abrupt wall no more than a meter behind the actors. The beast is completely uninspired design and the human character is more like a mannequin than a person. True, but this has been a step up from the usual efforts! The hill is too light-colored compared to the background; also true but I think the main issue is that there are no other dark planes in front of the trees. The beast is missing a leg, the backs perspective is wonky and the joints at the legs are placed in an ugly way. Also the posture is very stiff and uninteresting. Yet, it's an improvement, and I haven't drawn many animals in my life.

I admit, this is not something weak artistically, but at least there is narrative in it, there is rendering, and while nothing is particularly well-made, the brush-work is good, and there is definition in the intricacies of the subject. I relieve myself from the burden of calling it an bad egg. It's an effort in the right direction, with good intentions, and lots of small advancements!

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