Blog Rolling

I'm working hard on this blog reconstruction.  Really I am.

I think I like this template a bit better, but I lose some customization ability (and ah'm all about custom-I-zation, baby....ah should call this post 'Pimp My Blog').

There has to be a 12-step program for Blog ADD.  If not, I think I'll start one when I finally finish tweaking this one.  Ironically, it's the ADD that will prolong the time until the final tweak.

Along with another episode of Extreme Blog Makeover, there is actually some art to be seen here.  This is a quick study that will hopefully grow up to be a painting someday.

Tiger study

Acrylic ink on watercolor paper

I loved this photo reference for two reasons:

1. There's a great abstract quality to it.
2. It's a shining example of 'Cat-itude'.

Felines of all ilks have seemingly perfected this pose of 'nonchalant disdain'.  They feign indifference by turning their back on you, yet one ear is continually pointed in your direction like a furry radar dish, making sure you are still hovering in the area, ready to spring forth and grant their every whim.  

They've got it made.

Blog Fog

This little blog redesign is a definite work in progress.  I'll be trying on templates like a soon-to-be bride tries on dresses. 

I'm shooting for a light neutral post background that will not compete with the artwork colors,  with dark lettering (apparently easier to read).  As always, I'd love your opinions on the various stages of remodeling, since you're the one who has to look at it to read it.  Bad fonts?  Silly colors?  Annoying backgrounds?  Can't read the darn thing because it hurts your eyes?  Please let me know.

A Pair O' Bison

Recently, we took some friends up on their offer to spend some time at their place in the Wisconsin heartland.  While perusing the local newspaper over breakfast one morning (all three pages of it), we came upon an ad for tours of the local bison farm, and decided "why not?"  We finished our eggs, and off we went.

The farm was beautiful, and the tour was quite interesting.  After being guided through the various barns and corrals, our little handful of tour-goers climbed onto a tractor-pulled wagon, and were driven out into one of the pastures to commune with one of the bison herds.  While other wagoneers fed ears of corn to interested herd members, I was busy snapping pictures of some of the more photogenic bison.  One that particularly caught my eye was one of the large bulls in the herd, stoically keeping an eye on the proceedings.  His head looked to be approximately the size of a Volkswagon Beetle, and his coat was starting to thicken up prior to the inevitable arrival of winter.  He was gorgeous, and patrolled the herd with the self assured air of the 'Big Man on Campus.

Big Man on Campus

Acrylic Ink on Bristol board

And just for some loosening-up fun, I did a wet-into-wet, high key version.

 

Big Man 2

Acrylic Ink on Bristol board

The dog portrait is temporarily on hold right now.  Did you ever have trouble 'seeing' where you're going with a painting, and aren't sure of the next step?  Now every time I go into the studio, it stares at me from the easel, seemingly mocking my Artistic Brain Freeze.  I am hoping doing some quick studies, like the bison, will thaw out my creative neuropathways.

Dog Daze

Critters, critters everywhere.  The next entrant in our creature parade is Payton, the beloved dog of a friend.

As photo references go, this one isn't going to be easy.  It's a head on shot of a black dog, with no discernible light source.  Another photo taken in late afternoon light was provided, so I'm going to try to recreate those colors on this reference

Here's the sketch on a black gessoed panel, complete with annoying glare.

The first layer of underpainting.

Additional underpainting....

There's going to have to be a lot of subtle coloration done in those darks, otherwise he's going to look as flat as a blackboard.  

More work will be done on him a bit later...Woe is me, I have to spend this absolutely gorgeous day outside catching up on gardening chores (picture me with the back of one hand pressed against my forehead, the other patting my heart)  It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.  :-D

Psychedelic Giraffe and Blog Repair

After a few days of frantically trying to catch up on everything I let lapse around here, it's time once again to sit down and catch up on what's going on in the blog world.

Here's the continuation and completion of the giraffe:

The first layer of the background was filled in, and the salient spots were chalked in on her face.

The first colors were blocked in.

 Several layers and glazes were added.

And here is the final result:

Jasiri

24" x 12", acrylic on hardboard

© 2010, Lisa Walsh

I submitted this to the Cincinnati Art Club's Viewpoint Show.  I have my fingers and paintbrushes crossed that it gets accepted into the show.  If it does, that'll be a big first in my fledgling art career.

There was a submission deadline for the show, and I didn't leave myself enough 'comfort time' to get her done.  You think I would have learned by now, but I cut my time too short, and wound up doing marathon painting sessions to finish her by deadline.  Now I see at least a dozen things that I would change, but it's too late.  I need some 'simmer' time to take a break from a piece and come back to look at it with fresh eyes.  Lesson learned.

And another lesson learned...I had the yen to clean up the Picasa account that Google so happily supplies when a Blogger account is created.  I went through what was there, sorting and organizing, and deleting the things that somehow seemed to multiply on their own, or no longer seemed useful or pertinent.

You know when you go to delete something, and a little dialogue box pops up and says "Are you sure you want to do that?", and you just mindlessly click "Yes, of course I want to do that, why do you keep asking me, you're really getting to be an annoying little dialogue box."  Well, I failed to completely read the annoying little dialogue box.  If I had, I would have realized that the annoying little dialogue box was telling me that whatever I deleted from Picasa was also simultaneously being deleted from this Blog. 

!@#$%&*?#%!!!!!!

I had wiped out about three quarters of the blog photos before I realized the swath of destruction I was creating, and there was no way to undo it.

Well, there were a lot of bloggy-type things I needed to catch up on.  Add 'replace photos' to the list.