Share about my book…
My avatar is clipped from the cover.
I was on the radio for an interview yesterday which was fun but weird.
Book marketing is hard.
That’s the main points I think 
7 Likes
Well, that’s fascinating!
And… aargh! You know what? Faka wood. I’m going to take a break from it and do something involving studies I’m more familiar with. Except those face things… dun dun dun… I can see I’m going to need another canvas pad in the near future.
As one more aside, I’m going so all in on this story, working on a lexicon of these various languages and have a small translation list of both up. As usual, I mucked up a word and will have to ask our mod mod to edit something for me. Meh, my marbles, I’m losing them… 
4 Likes
Taking a break is sometimes the best thing we can do. We come back to the work with fresh eyes, so to speak.
I personally don’t want to paint like any other artist. I just want to —mhhh, how to say this? I want to paint edges like Caravaggio, or Vermeer, I want tot to excite the viewer’s eye like Tom Thomson Georgia O’Keeffe, Claude Monet, Matt Smith (contemporary America, impressionist), and so many more. So I guess I really want to be like all of the masters, old and new. lol
But mostly I want to be myself, paint what I want to paint, experiment, follow my curiosity, and learn continually how to make paintings that sing to the heart like poetry.
I think I will put the piece aside that I have on the easel. And start another one, this time stopping when it is good enough.
I just got this message form this site’s software:
“You’ve replied to @stryker99 3 times, did you know you could send them a personal message instead?”
A little overzealous.
3 Likes
Overzealous… I think Emily is running this forum. If you’re not up on her, Google “No Man’s Sky” “Waking Titan” “Emily” in whatever combination for quite a background thingie.
Rather than waste a bunch of paint dabs, I decided to do a quick study of my house in watercolor-like washes, and the darn thing looks ten times better than what’s on my canvas board now. Grah! So, I gessoed the thing over and will try it as layers of washes instead. And whatever happens, THAT’S FREAKING IT!!%$!@ 
While the gesso dries, I’m going to work on sketches for those other things. And if I can keep the ol’ energy going, write some more. I love spending time in that universe as much or more by writing about it. I don’t know if it’s this way with many other writers, but for me it’s like being with friends. I did hear that J K Rowling had a good cry over killing a certain character off. Not that I cry over my own stories, nope nope… nope… 
4 Likes
It’s listed everywhere except Play Books. Guess I will have to buy an actual book. 
4 Likes
???
What is play books?
I am already looking into it, but if you catch me with some info…
edit:
Ah…GooglePlay…oddly, they are not a retail partner with my distributor, which seems very strange. Because of my distribution agreement I can’t approach Google directly…
Paperback looks good on the coffee table
Okay, I can’t honestly say that because a coffee table is chin high on my book eating dog…
5 Likes
Hmmm… Very selective. My dog eats just about anything. Even steals tools like spanners, screwdrivers or a packet of bolts on the off-chance the packet might contain digestibles. Actually, now I think about it, my dog is an absolute kleptomaniac. So much so that she’s made it her own unique art form & thus isn’t entirely off topic for this thread 
If it can’t be eaten she will just horde it. Many a time I’ve had to search for a stolen item & found it in her kennel.
5 Likes
lol…oh, yeah, mine isn’t exclusive about eating books
5 Likes
This creative topic has sparked a fire. Here are just a few of the things I do or have done. My problem is I enjoy too many things and have therefore not stuck with one thing long enough to get really good at it. I do eventually return to do more of these projects but I am also always looking for things I have not tried.
Here is a pen and ink. I have done many more but this is the only one I still have.
Some of the dollhouse furniture I have made from a Stickley furniture catalog PDF with dimensions. It is close to 1:12 scale(yes, I sewed the bedding, not so good. Very difficult at that size, for me anyway))
One of the many crossstitch patterns I have done. Not sure why I have never framed it since I also make frames…
But, mostly I like to collect and decorate with things like these chickens over my kitchen sink
And this Depression glass and Made in Japan ceramic doggies (I have cats too)
Ok. So decorating is not really art but it takes an artistic touch…or so I am claiming.
9 Likes
Then my work here has… just started.
That owl is amazing. It flies right out at me. My sister-in-law in Japan did something very similar. I admire both of you. And those miniatures are just darling. Edit: I forgot to mention that mom collected knickknacks like those. I have little figures and all kinds of things scattered around the house, adding a bit of her character.
Well… anyway, here’s the result of three weeks of work on my end, on one vexing piece. GRAH! 
6 Likes
@sheralmyst
Love love love all of these!
You are an eclectic creator. It’s the strong sense of curiosity and the joy of problem solving to a specific end.
I have a similar bent. Music, songwriting, poetry, short stories, Novels (the last two items unedited), inventions (Mal calls them my Kluges --I call them prototypes). lol
About 20 years ago, I finally decided I needed to focus on something, so I chose the thing that I love the most and have enjoyed since I was a toddler: painting and drawing.
I especially love your in piece above! And I am gob-stopped at all that lovely tiny furniture! 
3 Likes
Only three weeks?
It’s a good start! As long as you are enjoying the process, keep going. You have some good stuff there with your studies. <3
When you start getting aggroed by it, take a break and do something you enjoy. Which it looks like you did.
Some people say “Never give up!”
I always throw up my hands in despair and yell “I give up!” …and then I keep going. lol Headbanger from way back.
3 Likes
Yeah, that’s me, nailed like a pea to a tree. 
Thanks for the kind words. The splashy study - it is a study after all - does give me a useful guide to go by. I’m very lucky that these budget acrylics work so well, amazingly well for the price. But it leaves me hankering for those pro quality paints to add to the paintbox. If my money situation changes, I might just splurge on those Windsor & Newton oils, as well as a full set of Golden Open. Woo…
Tomorrow, I kind of promised myself I’d plunk on some keyboards and see about furthering a music project. But if I get bored, I can imagine a few items which would fill in the gap.
3 Likes
Sort of a quick update.
The house sold, so I have a few dollars after I repay some debts. My brother only made me want to kill him a lot, but he managed to get hooked up with a good friend to help him manage the vast wealth he got, since it was essentially his inheritance, with some for a second brother. So I’m no longer under the cloud of money grubbing brothers nibbling my account away. Grah!
I nearly killed myself getting my car plates put on this morning - don’t ask, it’s embarrassing. And I drove to the local Blick store to see what sort of brushes they have available, hoping the bleeding stopped - and didn’t buy a one. And it turns out I didn’t buy the brushes I thought I did a couple of weeks ago, so I need to go back sometime. The poor brushes I had been using have suffered the tribulations of Weber wTar - I mean, wOil, and could use replacing. Not to mention the shaft lacquer is flaking off badly, and they feel like… brush leprosy or something unsavory.
But I did make off with a small treasure list of goodies. Liquitex Heavy Body Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Raw Umber, and Chromium Oxide Green for any number of plants. And a small tube of Windsor & Newton water oil Lamp Black, so I’m not stuck using Grumbacher tar. I also grabbed some smaller canvas panels - 11x14 and 12x16, as well as some Ampersand Gessobord in 11x14 size. Smaller pieces are surely easier…
And the pricing guides fibbed. Everything was slightly less than online, so I don’t mind shopping there so much. I choked on getting the Golden Open acrylics. But I have so many water soluble oils, I need to just buy a few tubes to replace the dead ones I have, and keep painting with the darn stuff. Oil painting is fun! And for centuries, it was the only painting anyone did.
And of course life isn’t done being weird to me. When I sketched in the front steps of the house, the angle was all wrong, so I have to gesso it over and do it again! GRAH!!
But for grins, here’s a cute pic of my pirate plunder! Yo ho! Now to eat some bodacious chicken soup for lunch and back to sketching out even more pieces. It sounds like Team Mercury is still tweaking their universe, so I’ll content myself with writing and art in the meantime. Oh poop, and putting in a quick online order since the Blick store didn’t have a bunch of what I wanted. But I have plenty to keep me in painting bootcamp for a good long while. Enduring a few tars included, oy…
5 Likes
Liking what I see…well, there’s not much showing but I like it.
3 Likes
I’ve been away for a about a week (give or take a few days) and we just got back, so I will reread this tomorrow and reply then.
Nice to see you got some decent paints!. <3
3 Likes
You’re right @Timsup2nothin . It does look good on a coffee table. Hope to start reading tonight.
5 Likes
True. On the other hand every one of those old dead guys would have been shocked at the thought of mixing water with oils and painting with it. Tried and true linseed oil + fine ground pigment made paintings that have endured and delighted centuries (especially those painted in rigid supports). So far it looks like acrylics are giving them a run for their money, but. time (a few more hundred years) will tell. 
That said, I feel your pain about the costs of painting supplies. I know I don’t put out enough paint on the palette even though I also know I make better paintings when I don’t have to break my concentration to go put another small dab of paint on the palette, or because I didn’t have enough paint on my brush to be able to simply put the stroke down and leave it alone.
There is so much more to learn about how to make a painting that sings. It is a two edged sword. It makes me fear that I will never get to make the paintings that I feel especially good about while making me happy that I will always have more to learn! ( and practise. practise, practise!) 
Most peopele think that all a painter has to do is push some paints together on their palette and slap it on the canvas with a brush, and prestp! they have a painting in an hour or so. I know I used to believe that, and it has hindered and frustrated me until I learned from other painters that this is a life long adventure, there is so much to learn and practise that struggling with our materials and tools is the last thing we need. There is enough struggle in getting the painting to resemble what we see and feel that we want to convey to the viewer.
Good drawing, etting the right values, the right hues, colour harmony, colour temperature, composition, linear perspective, atmospheric (aerial) perspective, edge handling, colour keying, handling the edges between shapes to draw the eye into and through the painting, and not off the sides to the other guy’s painting next to it.
and on top of all that every new painting is having to learn all that over again because the relationships are different in each one. And then of course there is the cost!
I have not until now felt consistently accomplished enough to try to sell through a gallery or online. But I used to show in restaurants and cafes, and did ok considering the level of expertise. When I got serious about painting, I stopped showing. But every once in a while I will have people visiting my studio and they will see a painting they want, and I will sell to them. I’m glad I waited until I felt that I could trust the materials to be archival and last a while, and that I could make a painting that someone would fall in love with and take it home. Every once in a while that happens. My friends try to get me to sell more, and My house is getting constipated filling up with paintings that I really should sell… I think I may be getting close (i better be, or my house will eject me to make more room for paintings!) It has taken longer than it should.Decades! Life has a way of getting in the way until we finally commit to our chosen vocation.
As of today I am putting a couple of isolation coats on the last painting I sold. Anothernother thing a painter in acrylics needs to learn: an isolation coat sits between the dry acrylic painted surface, and the layer of varnish, so that when the varnish is removed for cleaning and replaced, the actual painted surface doesn’t get disturbed or heaven forbid --wiped off. Oil paintings (not sure about ws oils) do not need this extra coat since the process by which they dry is a different chemical process (curing by oxidization rather than evaporation). Just a few coats of varnish will do for oil paintings, as they cure to a relatively non-porous and brittle solid. Acrylic polymers remain flexible and porous once dry, allowing for foreign matter, dust, smoke, oils from fingers, etc., to work their way into the paint layer. Cleaning acrylics without an isolation coat could destroy the painting.
Also isolation coats should also not be used on watercolours (according to Golden Artists Colors), since the isolation medium is also water-based.
So much to learn! And now I’m curious as to how a water-soluble oil painting cures? what is the relationship between the water which must evaporate, and the oil which must oxygenate? How does that make for a permanent painted surface?
EGAD! Walls of text! Now I’m rambling again! It is all so fascinating!
Ah well, good luck to us all trying to paint light with mud or glue, or apparently both. lol 
4 Likes
Well, you’re an old fuddy duddy.
Your remarks about painting are always fascinating to read. I’m hardly an expert on art, writing, racing, philosophy, video games or whatever, so I’m always open to read other people’s perspective and experience to add nuggets of knowledge to my brainbox to ponder. And your remarks set me off on a YouTube adventure to study some of that stuff.
Particularly on the topic of water soluble oils, there’s almost no difference between them, other than they clean with soap and water. Normal oils have a larger linseed “cocoon” of molecules around them than the watery guys, which makes the watery guys misbehave if water is used as a thinner, so the pigments tend to separate out, making them look grainy like watercolors, and make a poor surface for added layers, causing possible cracks or “allegatoring.” Except for Royal Talens Cobras, which are made specifically so that water can be used as a thinner while painting. I wish I’d known that before I bought a bunch of Windsor & Newtons. But they are cheaper, and really good paints. 
Otherwise, the watery guys dry a little faster, a day to a few days, but cure in about the same six months as oils, which is something I didn’t know. I spent some time learning about the curing / varnishing aspect, and will be budgeting for some suitable product next month. Using wax over watercolors was a particularly interesting study. However, I feel pretty confident in the Cobras, Holbeins and particularly Windsor & Newtons as far as longevity. Acrylic-wise, a few decades of life have shown that even some of the cheaper paints like the Blicks hold up well. Your remark about centuries of life does make me wonder. The old masters used paints that were in some ways more primitive than the high falutin’ mediums we can make these days, but that doesn’t mean they can weather the years any better. Hmm…
Your comments on brushes also sparked a quick look at them, and I hadn’t heard before that you really need to have a set of brushes for oils, and one for acrylics and watercolors. Maybe even another set for acrylics. So I do have to run to Blicks today because I’d rather get eyes on my purchases.
I’d forgotten most of the Old Masters used as landmarks in art history, and I became a fan again of Vermeer, a guy who hinted at some impressionistic tendencies while still making illustration quality works. I love the way some of his strokes are bold, yet not so prominent. And I had seen some of Matt Smith’s works before, I think some of his understated pieces, and thought they were neat. I guess it took getting a good look at his portfolio, along with my own struggles with paints, to really appreciate what an artistic genius he is. Impressionistic, but still his terrain is clearly identifiable as rock and scrub, and with incredibly lifelike rendition of a scene. His mastery of light / shadow / color gradient is astounding. I’m totally jealous.
But we as artists have to find our groove, our style, that way of speaking through painting which is the expression of our inner muse, our artistic DNA. My discouragements of the past few weeks should have driven me to learn from my mistakes instead of letting them overwhelm me. But I’ve struggled to deal with a couple of drug casualty brothers, one who was quite a pain over the property that finally sold last week - and kids, don’t do drugs, it messes up everything. While the relief should have sparked new life and energy in me, I was left exhausted and a bit depressed, so each hurdle I’ve tried to clear recently just made me tumble. I think I’ve managed over the past day or two to come to terms with all that, and hopefully I can now get some actual SLEEP for a change, which I kind of did last night, and get back on my creative feet. I have a few pieces to get back to, and new stuff with which to apply my creativity. I also have a chapter to tend to, so lots to do in the upcoming days, and fall is a particularly invigorating time of year for me. Grah!
And my goodies arrived Wednesday from Blick, and yesterday from Jerry’s, though Jerry could have packed his wares a bit better for the tribulations of UPS shipping. And grah, were they late, after 8pm! I swear, those brutes have no clue how to handle delicate packages. But here are my prizes.
I don’t know why I like sharing these pics, but what the heck. Now I can finally banish my Weber wTars and Grumbacher MUDs to the dusbin of history. Then, ART! GRAAH!!
A couple more tidbits. I was sitting on what passes for a front porch of my home with a friend yesterday when a police car came by. He stopped and got out at the corner and looked around briefly, then drove off. A few minutes later a second did the same, and a bit after that a third drove by, which struck us as odd. When we were done chatting I walked with him to his truck and I went to check the mail when I saw that my mailbox was open and the mail thrown in the yard beside it. Except it wasn’t mine, it was a neighbors several houses down. As I was looking it over, one of the cops drove up and asked if I was the owner of the house. I wondered what was up, hoping I wasn’t in trouble for some identity theft or mail shenanigan reason, but answered I was. She gave me some official state mail of mine that was crumpled, and said they were after a mail thief. How very strange. I wonder if they were going after socialist insecurity checks. Luckily, it was my car title from a recent purchase.
Then as I was making tea, there was a commotion outside my open kitchen window, and a hawk tried without success to catch a squirrel which tended to run around on the deck. He barked at the great bird and chased him to perch on the other railing. I said in a low tone, “Don’t harass my squirrel friend, it’s not nice.” They both looked at the interloper, then back to each other as the hawk clearly wanted some squirrel for dinner. But he wouldn’t have it and with a bark, lunged at the hawk which flew off. He flicked his tail indignantly and went about his day. What a happenstance.
Anyhow, time for tea, dum de dum, de dum. Cheerio.
4 Likes
Because we like looking at them…I feel a creative fire smoldering deep inside…may have to take some time to dive back into my unfinished dollhouse. But right now, I am in desperate need of a new desk chair. My lower back needs a really soft seat. Bad discs. One thing at a time.
2 Likes