I can’t wait! So excited for you! 
My art week is slooowww…I have some ideas cooking in my brain but I also have a small mountain of other things to tend to at the moment… 
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I’ve been… writing. 
I’ve been making up for not writing almost all of spring by creating another ridonkulous sized chapter. But this one has more substance to it, and takes the universe Team Mercury made for us in an interesting new direction, at least for me. This thing really is mostly writing itself! I hope it’s well received.
I’m hoping to wrap the darn thing up soon, and then not edit it to death! And after that, hopefully some arts. Either watercolor, or acrylics done in a watercolorish style.
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You know, seeing the way you “play and write”, I think you might very much enjoy starforged.
I still haven’t decided whether it’s really a game or just a devious mind control system that gets you to inadvertantly write your own novel… 
(the basic fantasy edition that started it all is free, if you want to give the mechanics a try without spending anything. Also, there’s a great browser tool that makes play a bit easier for both ironsworn as well as starforged)
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Hmm… it sounds almost like a “choose your own journey” kind of thing. It might be cool, but $20 for something which might work better as a group RPG with friends… I’ll ponder it. I mean, I can write for free when I have the energies and a nice supply of carbs n protein. 
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It was specifically designed for Solo play. There’s provisions for co-op play, but the maximum recommended group size is 3. Also, as mentioned, you have the fantasy version for free if you want to dip your toes into the mechanics. It’s how I got hooked.
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Oh! Thank you so much! You are such a sweetie! So nice to have a painting buddy! 
I know how that is! I need to learn to delegate more! Problem is living in the sticks, which is also a very good thing!
I’m looking forward to seeing some of those “ideas” of yours once you can make time for them.
I guess that is why I never edited mine --too afraid to kill it! lol
I’m patiently waiting to check out the finished novel, though, so keep at it! :cracks whip: ;grin:
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I guess this thread is on hold for the next few weeks?
I’ll do my best to keep it going.
So I haven’t been painting for this last week, I realised I have been resisting going into the Studio, though I have been working on my Blog posts for my upcoming website.
I was digging into my resistance to get at painting especially when I have three pieces I’m pretty excited about working on, and I realised that I just can’t stand the chaos in there anymore. I wondered what I could do by myself, blinder than a bat, and with little physical energy to spare, to get the hecked-up thing properly organised.
I was writing a blog about it and I can always work things out much better by writing about them, and I developed a strategy that I have implemented over the last week. I call it the “One Thing” commitment strategy: Before I do anything else,every morning I go into the Studio and look for One Thing that within my limitations I can actually do to clear clutter and get some organisation happening. Move something, remove something, clean something, etc.
I now have a larger clear space in which to work on paintings, and much less visually intrusive clutter to distract me even unconsciously while painting.
To make it easier for me to see my reference material, James installed a touch screen monitor on my Studio computer! It was originally purchased for a procedural/glass art collaborative piece whose parameters changed so that it was no longer needed. All I need now is to find a way to get my painting to do the same thing! 
And once the Studio is manageable I will be getting in touch with the eye surgeon again to ask if it is a viable option to have eye surgery while living with cancer.
So today I get to paint again. Hurrah!
I miss painting; tend to get really grumpy if I don’t paint for a few days. And I do know that if I don’t paint frequently enough I start to lose my painting chops.
Once I get back into the swing of painting again, I will allow myself to jump into the new expedition.
I hope everyone is well and reasonably happy.
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Having a few health issues. Nothing major, just missing a lot of sleep because of them. I painted another ‘card’ for someone just because. I like putting little notes on the back and mailing them out. I have a series of them planned. It is still so dang hot here. My yard is brown and crunchy. We had one good rain last week and a couple of shrooms popped up so I grabbed some pics but I have not even moved them to my PC yet…
Here is the one card I have done so far
Waiting for it to cure so I can varnish it. I had a fence on the left but buried it in flowers. I may touch it up and pull some weeds from around it.
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That is a beautiful card. You do such lovely work!
I do hope it cools down for you soon and that you feel better enough to get some good sleep!
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Another card
Fence reclaimed
These cards are quick works. Only spending a few minutes on them. For me, that keeps them fun and light.
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These are really beautiful and I’m so glad you are having fun with them. That, to me, is the most important thing!
My favorite of the three is the top one with the purple flowers. They remind me of Echinacea (purple cone flower). Such a pretty little painting!
I like the fence you added to the foreground in the third one. Feels more balanced, and keeps my eye inside the painting (always a plus!)
l like the middle one, too; a field of wildflowers. All three are lovely! Thanks so much for sharing these. They are very inspiring! 
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Correct! I have them in a flowerbed
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You seem to have hit your stride some time ago. Very nice to find a style so quickly.
I’m still writing like a fool, but it’s fooling itself into another novella chapter, so I might break it in two - or more - and break down for some artwork. If I feel brave… 
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Thank you for the compliment but I got some good pointers right here from all of you.
This card is similar to a piece a did before but I really like the palette knife work, though I am not as neat with it as others are, slightly messy seems to suit me better.
I am using painters tape to mask my borders but it sometimes grabs my paper…any suggestions?
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Placing your painters tape across fabric to pick up some lint helps reduce the tackiness.
You just briefly stick to your shirt or pants leg a couple of times before you put it on your piece.
Avoid pressing down on all the tape surface too. Just a light press down the paint side to prevent bleeding under.
Also leaving it in place for as little time as possible reduces the likely hood of it sticking to much. Cheaper tape tends to be more problematic.
I remove tape as soon as the paint has cured enough to not easily smear.
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Thanks! I got lots of lint
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Excellent List of how to handle the painters tape which is really intended for painting interior rooms. I tend to use the Artists tape (the white stuff) and I also remove it as soon as possible. Earlier in my journey I did have trouble with the really cheap stuff and had to use the back of a spoon to lay the fibres down again and then cleaned it up with white gesso.
I have some real Gaffers Tape now. I wonder how that will work for a clean border.
.I think that is lovely! And I, too prefer the kind of broken strokes you can get with a palette knife,
I’m experimenting with that as I (too slowly) work on Vine Tomato II. I want the tomato to be smooooooth and the aged and worn wood rail it sits on to be rough, so brush for the fruit and knife work for the rail.
I’m pleased to say that I have figured out a way to mount my panels on my studio easel so I can get close enough to the paint to see what I’m doing (about two inches – 
) I have ordered some really strong earth magnets and once I have them in place I will share some pics.
EDIT typos
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So here is phase 1 of my magnetic easel board:
Starting with the back of a 24x30-inch MDF board, --clockwise from the top left a four inch square of steel plate (haven’t sanded or cleaned that one up yet), a roll of real Gaffer’s Tape (from B&H photography online), one of the very strong earth magnets, four of the magnets taped into place so that the panel will be at the top left when attached.
Testing the steel plate on the front of the MDF board. Grabbed on strongly and was difficult to move. These plates I had made by a local steel fabricating company for about $2.50(US) each. I attach them to the backs of panels using two of 3M’s Command poster hanger strips which are reusable.
Here’s the Magnetic board in place on my smaller Studio easel.
And here is poor neglected Vine Tomato II in progress, oil on panel most firmly attached to the Magnetic easel board.
To test how well it holds I used a painting knife quite vigorously on the wooden rail portion. That was fun! No worries about the piece sliding around and ending up on the floor. I felt that it gave me a much stronger sense of freedom with my mark making!
Most floor type studio easels are made to hold canvases on stretchers, so they don’t work very well with wood panels or canvas panels. I have three desktop easels cluttering up my Studio that have the same problem. The painting panels just wobble around on then and create odd shadows on the work and your brush marks often end up on the tray or the top holder. With this design your brush or knife or whatever tool you like to use slides right to the edge and off if you want it to (and I do).
The magnets are stated to each hold over 30 lb. Here is a link to the Amazon page I got mine from. This is not an affiliate link.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092ZQ7C7S?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
And here is the (also not affliliate) link for the command poster hanger strips I bought to attach the plates to the panels:
I always use the "wall side of the strip on the back of the panel so it comes off without damaging the panel and I can just re-use the steel plate on another panel right away.
I got the idea for the metal plates to use with the EdgePro magnetic easel from Chelsea Lang’s YouTube channel. The plates work very well on that easel. I liked it so much that I wanted the same feel for my Studio easels.
I still have six magnets left so I will be fixing a steel plate to the back of a primed panel and once I get the magnets in place on the back of the board, I will use that as a palette next to the panel I’m painting on.
Oh! and I forgot to add above that I have a stretched canvas behind the magnet board on the Studio easel, just for now. I may nail the magnet board to some lengths of 2x2 for larger works that may need the top holder for more stability.
So that is my design for a magnetic easel board. Fairly inexpensive (compared to the $800 US I spent on my magnetic plein air EdgePro easel.) and easy to put together. So feel free to make one or more for yourself if you are so inclined. And if you do, and/or if you improve the design, please let me know. I’m pretty excited to share this.
EDIT: fixed the duplicate image instead of the VT II image.
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Good idea! Now you can get to work! 
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