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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 #312 - The sleeping elfking

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Today I created a very cute piece that I liked a lot. I'm not sure of its artistic value anymore (though I was very confident earlier) but it's very pretty. I like the richness of green hues, as well all the green character! Above all I like that I did a new watercolor piece after some time.
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day #311 - Cavemonster

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Today I resumed work on the Cavemoster or however it's called - unexpectedly I don't know what it is yet, but I'm not really worried. I know there is something lurking under the surface waiting to pop. It was another day of refining the brushwork (or better stickwork). The fact that I can't start a new piece because I don't have enough hardboards feels idiotic but honestely very limiting. I've observed that when the pastel dries a bit (perhaps cools down?) it's easier to paint on it which is a nice thing that I'm trying to use to my advantage. Anyway, this is a piece where I love the color vibrancy and has a certain naive cartoony charm. Plus, I am happy that I'm practicing these refining sessions since I will later be able to apply them to more important pieces (when and if they ever come). Another thing I'm glad about today has been that I did go out for painting! In the evening I started some doodling on the iPad but run out of time. Well, nex
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day #310 - 55 days to resurfacing

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Today I resumed working the Underwater scene. It was awfully fun; I've lately observed that if I start feeling that what I'm painting is already something formed/real/plausible, then all I have to do to improve it, is to "test" my new brushstrokes against my "intuition of plausibility". I can treat perspective like that, I can treat light like that. It becomes an exercise of testing something against "what feels right". The problem is while the painting universe is still very loose and nothing is clear, then you have to create. Then the light has to be painted and you don't know if it's right or not; the perspective has to be calculated and it's still unclear whether you've succeeded, you just hope that you did it well. Anyway, today was fun! Unfortunately now that I brought the piece to compare it to the latest incarnation of it, I realized it's not much of an improvement! The reason is that I was fixing the brushwork at it&#
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day #309 - Quickposes

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Somehow today I completely lost control and it got this late before I even started thinking about painting. I kept it at a 10-20mins minimum today, doing some posture practice on the iPad. Sadly the site I had been using did some changes, and while I was merely 9h away from the next milestone, the milestone was pushed 39h away. Pity. It took me some time to recover from the blow; apparently I was looking forward to the "award" and felt betrayed, I almost stopped using the site today. Anyway, todays postures were fun. On the other hand it doesn't feel too good that it's been so many days that I haven't produced a new artwork - of course I work on existing pieces, but something new? Oh, I crave for something new, it's the only way to measure real progress in my eyes. It seems that today I'm speaking repeatedly about measuring progress. I wonder what that means? Is it that I've lost my motivation and now I'm looking for a sense of progress to compens
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day #308 - The Conceited Buddha (version ___)

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I've lost count on how long I've been working on this piece. Lately pastel pieces drag and drag. This artwork had reached a point that I was starting to like it, so I was afraid of ruining it and had been avoiding it. Today I followed a hybrid approach; I altered between doing a few choices regarding the piece and falling back to "refining"/maintainance tasks (sharpening edges, saturating the paper) when I didn't feel very confident. Now that I compare it to the last photo I had of the piece, it looks like an improvement which is the best I could ask for. It's a relief. I've also started working on the tunic and its velvety surface; how it reflects colors and folds and found it very enjoyable! Another thing I haven't properly studied and I might benefit from studying at some point - fabric and textures. For now, I'll enjoy my rest.
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day #307 - Untitled day!

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Today I did some ink sketches and kept working the Underwater scene. It has reached a point that I often wonder whether I should keep at it or stop, but today I decided I will continue refining it to the point that the brushwork is somewhat clean. I'm in general satisfied with it; I like the human anatomy, the shading, the reflections, the specular highlights, it's a very soothing process! The sketches are very intriguing! Some of them carry the strange style that some of my pastel pieces have and I like this a lot. I like the strange portrait, the female body posture, and the temple scene; it turned out very nice. Overall good job. I need to get a new sketchbook though, I'm almost out of pages!
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day #306 - Timid and Tender

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Today I wanted to start a new piece with pastels but unfortunately I have already three pieces underway so I didn't have the possibility to start a forth. It was a very frustrating experience being so limited, when I knew so well that I wanted to work big and loose. Eventually I picked up the least precious of them all (the latest one) and decided to work on it. Only that it would not come easily. I felt very stressed (what if I ruin it? What positive addition can I do here?) and for 10-20minutes I was merely looking at the paper in turmoil. Eventually I decided to jump in and do something. I merely refined details hoping that I won't be doing anything destructive. It's very frustrating worrying about ruining a piece (hence I realize me "single session" rule), and it was even more so since I was petrified of ruining a piece that I wasn't supposedly "attached to" (not even happy about)! Apparently I was very attached. I worked a bit, trying to make t
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