A Kinda Likable Oops

In between pressing winterizing tasks around the house (it got into the 20's here last night...brrrrrrr.  I was all set to complain about it, but the poor folks in northern Indiana got several inches of snow, so I'll just shut up), I was determined to fit in just a bit of art.  So I did a quick giraffe sketch (gotta go with what you love), and then for a change of pace, quickly outlined the sketch in India ink. 

As I began to fill in the form with some acrylic ink, the India ink began to run into my nice, clean colors, giving the giraffe an undesirable muddy skin condition.  In my haste, I had grabbed the water soluble India ink, rather than the waterproof one.    Oh well.  I had already begun, so might as well go with the flow, so to speak.  After that, ink was just brushed on with abandon.

After all was said and done, I rather liked this girl, if for nothing else than for her spontaneity, looseness and complete lack of an over-calculated attempt at control.   She's fresh, if a tad mucky, and was a blessed half an hour of just devil-may-care painting.

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.

Enough Lollygagging, Back to Work!

With the bears now in the rear view mirror, another creature calls out to be painted.  Only one of these is planned, the thought of one hundred of anything else right now makes me woozy. 

A 12" x 24" board was gessoed, and a thin layer of Fiber Paste was applied.

A favorite creature of choice, the enigmatic giraffe, was sketched on the board. This particular giraffe is of the Reticulated variety, and her name is Jasiri.

Another layer of Fiber Paste was applied with palette knives, sculpting the giraffe, and starting to 'raise' her from the background.  Parts of her anatomy, like the nose, are getting thicker paste layers to 'force' the perspective a bit.

Two more layers of paste trowled on.  I'm going to need a cement truck full of Fiber Paste at this rate.  I wonder if they sell it by the tanker full.

And since I like working on a black background to create a somewhat 'batik' look.....

Her raised outline is my guide now.  Tomorrow I'll chalk in some more guidelines.