Flower Still Life

"Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

OPUS Outdoor Paint Challenge

"When painting and sketching plein-air I sink into the landscape, an attuned witness to its mood and beauty." (Dianne Bersea) 

This is from a bit ago... for the OPUS Outdoor Paint Challenge. My first time trying to do plein air painting. It was a lot more fun then I realized. I also realized it's a lot different from painting from a photo, or making something up. Definitely something every artist should do. However! I do recommend you don't drink a lot of coffee before hand...

I'd always read about doing it as a good exercise but I always thought, "Bah, how much different could it be?"

 

Pressure

"Hermits have no peer pressure."

~ Steven Wright

 So. I'm still pretty vague about this Blog "Thing". I think mostly I do it because Other People do so I should do too... Right? That is pretty much the reasoning as well that put me in the position of focusing on an art career later rather than earlier in life. For me, there was always this feeling of society pressuring me to have a "real" job to make enough money and live "decent". Even though it was entirely myself pressuring me with what I thought were other people's perceptions and expectations of me. I think a lot of it was thinking it was necessary for that whole Love and Relationships thing.

I finally decided (a couple months back) that perhaps jumping from one unhappy unfulfilling job to another and getting no where with either a real job or the art was probably not so conducive to being happy (and secondly, for success). So for now, I'll just be happily working a few days a week in a bookstore (Chapters) and focusing on art. Finally! Although, I still keep having this urge to go back to full-time just because of a potential love interest... But I've resisted my past stupidity so far... *cough*

And the art...!

The first one I did for a friend's birthday. I haven't actually titled it but it generally gets called "Tabi's Tiger" in all my filename organization [Oil, 11"x14"]

The second is "Diesel".  A portrait commission [Ink, 8"x10"]

"Tabi's Tiger"

"Diesel"

Stability...

"Sometimes you wake up.  Sometimes the fall kills you.  An sometimes, when you fall, you fly."

- Neil Gaiman -

Sadly, I seem to be eternally in a state of starting and stopping, succeeding and failing.  I have been doing better the last couple months.  I've only now started to update my blog again.  I gotta say.  I think one of the MOST important things for someone that wants to make art/illustration an actual future career and not a hobby... is stability.  A stable home, a stable life.  Maybe there's something to be said for "Painting in the moment" or being in some "art place/zone" in your head.  But, it's nothing compared to a steady stable flow of daily practice.

"Wedgie" (after the Norwegian Forest Cat), is based loosely on a photo from DeviantArt stock image.