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 #105 - Tricking myself into creativity!

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I did some little gesture/posture practice which I was planning on continuing but didn't because when I got back, I got into a conversation that completely got me out of the mood. However it transformed into something so much better - I had one of these superproductive evenings, that was thanks to the mere fact that I was in part being watched (funny how being watched gives me energy) and part being engaged in listening and discussing! This allowed new ideas to flow (words I'd catch here and there that would give me things to draw, directions to take) and at the same time, kept my analytical brain preoccupied. As a result, I was doing lots and lots of awesome sketches!


What can I say about today then? I did vikings, gargoyles, bakers, mages, knights, animals, birds, pirates with bums and stockings, trenchcoats, robots, reflections, strange beings, vehicles, death-stars, mines, superheroes and complete scenes! For a change, I did a lot of complete scenes, something that I find great success! And I enjoyed it a lot! So many things that I did today, would be things that I would envy if I saw others do them! Probably the greatest yield of "nice stuff" that came out of my "pen".

Having said that, there are three things that nag at me - one that I do all that with the ipad where I can undo - I wouldn't be as good if I was doing them in ink (then again, not many draw stuff in ink without first doing the exploration in pencil) and secondly, I worry if this is a one off. If next time that I sit down to work I am not as productive; or if next time I try chatting while painting I'm not that good. It's a deeply trenched impression, this disappointment that my success was just a fluke. Finally, I worry that I'm working color for a long time now and what if I end up being the sketch guy...

Anyway, I need to remember that this fear of it being a fluke, is not new, and I keep surprising myself. Maybe it is not a consistent reality, but it happens from time to time and when it doesn't it's not that I suck or that it's somebody else's hand that did it. I hope in time these flukes will be the norm.

Time for bed.

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