37... huh....

 

 

    

 

Oil on Canvas 24" x 30"

So, I knocked this self-portrait out pretty quickly my birthday weekend. I just stood in the bathroom with my small easel and did it. I had initially planned something completely different, in fact, in order to avoid getting lost in details I painted it without any corrective lenses. (Nearsighted means my image in the mirror - about 5 feet away - was blurry, but my view of the canvas in front of me was pretty crisp.) Great idea at the time I started, but, I, of course managed to completely overwork it anyway. In all honesty, it was "done" after about 10 minutes... and I knew it, but I just had to second guess myself, and the notion of how long a "proper" painting should take, and, hey, what if I could improve it, hone it, perfect it? Ugh.... It was perfect. The first creative blast of gestural strokes nailed it. Oh well. I was just funnin' anyway.... On to the next!

Fun and Frustration with Ink... and Halloween!

Grrrr.... Practicing with various inking tools and techniques over the weekend and I churned this drawing out on Halloween. It kinda' made me chuckle so I thought I would share it. This was done entirely with brushes and ink - no pens, markers, or digital "doctoring" of any kind, although I may have used a little <AHEM> Pro-White in a couple of...  problem areas.... Damn, inking with a brush WELL is tough, but that's why we practice like this. I don't bust out my expensive Series 7's for stuff like this, so the brushes used were cheap and not of the best quality, but for practice and playful purposes they do all right.... Anyhoo, I hope your Halloween was a happy and haunted one!!

A few different brushes and black FW Acrylic Ink