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 #75 - Relief and the priestess

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Finally, a breath! Blessed be insomnia! I woke up after 3 or 4 hours of sleep (I'm sure now that even the slightest subconscious stressor like expecting mail is sending me into insomnia) and decided that since I couldn't sleep, I'd rather get up and do another self-portrait... I wasn't very enthusiastic about it, so instead I decided to explore some "light" starting something with color. I first made the background and then decided to add something in the foreground, and it all came together perfectly. The subdued colors of the vista and the saturated and contrasty colors of the foreground; I'm super excited! Probably I've never done anything so skilled color-wise.

Now truth be told, it's just a fluke. It's not that I planned it, or that I start with lesser expectations any other day, but it's just that once in a long long while, thinks just "flow" and something nice comes out. I don't know how to do it again. What do I like? Other than the colors, I like the purple shadows, the orange sky, the dress and skin highlights, the posture. Pretty much everything; I don't like the brushwork - it looks okay from afar, but up close it's too digital. Anyway.

I liked how the piece not merely was something different from the monotonous gesture/posture practice that I've been doing last week(s) but also was colorful and creative: there was a story, a mood... an atmosphere!

Later on (like I usually do after such successes) I tried repeating this success. Doing something creative, so I tried doing some compositions with a character overlooking a distant city. Okay but nothing exciting. I also did an interesting vertical composition of somebody on a building holding a lantern a horse fighting off wolves and a robot. Anyway, lots of small somewhat creative doodles. Finally, when I gave up I wrapped up my daily posture practice so that I don't lose my streak. I'm starting to understand a bit more about the female leg anatomy and how to simplify it.

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