Almost Done!

Happily, I'm nearing the end of my painting.

Don't get me wrong, I love working on it, but I also can't wait to see what it's all going to look like when it's finished.

Here's what I've got so far:

I think it looks pretty cool.

I'm also in the market for some inspiration for my next piece. I don't know what I'm going to do yet.

I've been thinking about something with Strawberry IceCream, but you know, not sure yet.

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated!

And here's a gratuitous picture of my bird. Her name is Diablo and she is very very loud.

(But cute):

Other Things...

• Okay, just to prove that I do things besides reading and painting (and watching TV, I do a lot of that...) Here are some pictures of what I've been doing the last few days:
• That's right!
• Shirts! Very, very big shirts... Don't ask why, it's a long story. I'll post about it some other time, I promise.
• But for now I just want to show off my wonderful shirts!
• Last week I didn't know how to sew at all. Now I can:

1. Thread the machine
2. Fill a bobbin
3. Edge anything you give me
4. And make seams that are almost straight!

• So... yay! I learned how to sew... good thing, because I'm going to be doing a lot more of it... yay?
• (FYI, the green shirt used to be a tablecloth... weird huh?)

Outlining?

• I'm working on outlining my painting. It's going to be a very simplified version of the original, so it'll be outlined.
• The problem is I can't paint in small lines, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this. I wanted to do it in a very very dark red, but I'm thinking I'm just going to have to go with black so that I can use a paint-pen.
• Anyway, here's what the painting looks like so far:
• Oh! Any I finished reading the first Thursday Next novel, The Eyre Affair. I absolutely loved it! One of the best books I've read in recent times! It's fun, playful and different. And I'm not the only one who thinks so:
• The Wall Street Journal thinks the book is
• "Filled with clever wordplay, literary allusion and bibliowit, The Eyre Affair combines elements of Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But its quirky charm is all its own."
• I think I'm going to get started reading Descartes' Bones next.

So Far...

• Hey everyone! Another quick post here!
• As you can see, progress is being made on the painting! The only issue I’ve come across so far is that for some reason my laptop is not recognizing my memory card. I’m trying to take pictures at every stage of the painting, almost every time I put on a new coat or color of paint. Then I take the memory card out of the camera and put it in my laptop and…. Nothing. It just won’t work.
• So I have to take the laptop, plug it into the printer, and put the card in the printer’s card reader. It takes a little more time and is mostly just annoying. Meh, not the worst thing that could happen.
• Here’s a picture of how the painting looks now:
• 
• I’ve got some work left to do on it, but for the moment I’m stuck. Don’t know where to go from here. Trying to decide how to do all the outlining, can’t decide if I want to do it in the same dark red as the door, or if I want to be lazy and just do it in Sharpie. We’ll see.
• In the mean time, I’m still reading my Thursday Next novel, The Eyre Affair. It’s really great so far, truly entertaining and a lot of fun. If you love a novel with a lot (and I mean a lot) of literary allusions and references, check this one out!

Progress

• Hey All! Just a really quick post here!
• ~o~
• I refined the sketch from yesterday and started to paint!
• ~o~
• I just thought I'd put a few pictures up to show you guys how the paintings coming along!
• ~o~
• So here they are:
• So far it's gone from this:
• To this:

Tribute to Dali

• 
• Okay, I said I'd post again if I got started, and I did, so I am.
• I decided to try to paint my own version of one of Salvador Dali's watercolors. It's called Study For the Divine Comedy. It was a design for a series he did for the Italian government based on Dante's Divine Comedy. I've loved this piece for a long time, and I thought I'd try to do something with it.
• Here's the painting:

~o~

• I don't have a lot done, mostly just the basic sketch. Okay, only just the basic sketch. I haven't decided exactly where I want to go with this yet. Tomorrow I'll be off to the craft store to buy more paints and maybe some new brushes.
• 
• They have a really nice little table easel, but I'm watching my budget, so I think I'll do without this time.
• I'll be posting more pictures as it gets more pretty. I promised I woul
• dn't give up on this one, so pretty or not, it's going to get finished.
• Here's my sketch:

Painting...

• Okay, so this blog is supposed to be 'things i'm doing...' but so far it's been mostly 'things i'm reading...' So I thought I should post about something different for a change.
• Today I'm attempting to paint. I haven't painted anything in a long time, and I don't even know what I want to do this time.
• The painting is literally a challenge for me. I was actually challenged to do this painting.
• Here are the rules:
• It has to be started today (July 7th)
• It can be anything I want, using any materials I want
• I have to finish it
• The last one is important, I seem to start a lot of art projects that never get finished.
• Right now I'm browsing through all my pictures on my computer, looking for inspiration, so far nothing, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. I'll try to post again later if I get some nice work done on the painting.

Still Reading...

• Well, I'm on vacation! Nothing to do, no responsibilities, it's kinda nice! I just sit home all day and watch King of the Hill.
• In the mean time, I'm still reading. I'm still working my way through The Eyre Affair, it's getting really good. I'm mostly reading that one and night and in the bath tub though.
• For my during the day reading, I picked up a few new books at the library (I went to return Sula remember?)
• The first one is Descartes' Bones by Russell Shorto. I heard about this one a week ago, and was really excited to see that the library had it. More on this one in another post though, okay?
• The second book I got is called The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries and it's by Colin Wilson and Damon Wilson... brothers?
• Anyway, it's exactly the kind of trash I loved to read about between the ages of 7 and 12. I would always watch Unsolved Mysteries on TV and I could usually be found in the 'paranormal' section of my elementary school's library. I'm excited to read (by read I mean skim) through this one! I'll post about it if I finish it, or just come across anything interesting!
• Until next time!

The Eyre Affair

• Now that I've finished reading Toni Morrison's masterpiece Sula, I'm getting back to my borrowed (I'll return it I swear!) copy of Jasper Fforde's first Thursday Next novel:
• The Eyre Affair.
• So far it seems interesting. As far as I can tell it's about a girl named Thursday Next who works for a secret-type organization called SpecOp-27.
• It seems to be set in a society where literature is taken very very seriously. I like that!
• Anywho, I'll keep ya'll posted and let you know if I come across anything real fun in the book!
• Remind me, I need to return Sula to the library on Monday (the 6th) and I might pick up a copy of:
• Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason
• by Russell Shorto.

Sula

• Just finished reading Sula I loved it almost as much as Beloved, but truth be told A Mercy is my favorite so far. I think I'm partial to any book I've written an A paper on! (lol?)
• But seriously, the book was fantastic. Never slow, always interesting, and on the short side too, for people who can't get into long books.
• And I'm not the only one who loved it:
• "In characters like Sula, Toni Morrison's originality and power emerge." - The Nation
• "They are enormously, achingly alive..." - The New York Times
• And even Playboy loved it: "As mournful as a spiritual, and as angry as a clenched fist..."

Toni Morrison

I guess I'm getting kinda into Toni Morrison lately, I'm on my second novel of hers in 2.5 weeks!

~o~

I've put aside Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next in favor of a copy of Sula that I picked up at the library.

~o~

I'll let you know how it is (I'm almost finished) and I'll keep posting!