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 #344 - The Refined Buddha

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Today I took out the conceited buddha piece and resumed working on it. I'm still thinking yesterday's(?) realization that I'm spending too much time "micromanaging" pieces because I'm too afraid to work freely on them after the first day. Perhaps this will change as I grow in experience. At some point I had decided that this refining touch was a desirable stage in making paintings, but now it's 20% painting, 80% refining and I wonder whether I should proceed like that, or cut back to earlier times where I was finishing a piece in a single day. Or a mix: Finish the piece on the first day, and revisit it for a short refining session. Then again most of my painting benefit from the extra work. I need to study the process pictures that I make more systematically and see if this applies to the majority.
In any case, today I was more calm compared to yesterday that I was completely disillusioned by instagram. Today I was feeling sad and stopped painting because I couldn't go on (too much inner pressure), but nonetheless it was a better day. At least, I don't feel despair like yesterday. I fixated another piece and now will sit and sign the two pieces so I can finally put them to storage. Overall today had been a day of "routine" - painting without the drama, and with better acceptance of the motions needed. I worked a bit more on my colormixing with pastels and I also got to refine the face of the buddha that I was dreading and it isn't going too badly. It is still possible that I might ruin it. If I had better understanding of the planes of the head and how light interacts with it, I wouldn't be so worried; I'd be able to do it right away. At least it inspired in me the urge to study more anatomy.
Just on time, since yesterday I managed to setup a "virtual" drawing from life atelier inside Tiltbrush where I can sketch 3D sculptures! A beautiful opportunity for somebody like me who doesn't have access to sculptures or nude models!

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