Significant Silence

This is where the witty tag line goes...

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Painting food for an art trade. Definitely not my usual BUT it's actually been a lot of fun now that I've started.

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Making some art for a game! 😁

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Guys looky what came today!

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Something I don't think artists talk about enough is taking time to sit with your work.

The painting on the left was ten hours in, the end of my 5th class. It was done. Everyone said it was done.

I decided to come back for the last two hour block anyway, a bottle of wine in hand, and just pick a few things to fuss over.

It made a huge difference, the lines and highlights are more crisp and I couldn't be happier.

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So pleased with this little white bottle detail in my latest painting.

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Im a big fan of gesture drawing. It was always where I felt most comfortable so that's how I usually start my paintings, just a loose idea of where everything goes to get a feel for the size of the canvas.

Next is color blocking. This is something I'm working on getting better at. It's a strange sort of push and pull trying not to lose all of the background color at once. I have a hard time choosing my colors for still life's before the blocking is completed. Which is why I like to get most of it in one go.

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I've stayed close with my art teachers from highschool one of them posted the other day that through all this uncertainty, fear, pain, and anger at what's going on in America rebel by making art.

It doesn't have to be political based, just make connections with other people that have different ideas and see the world differently. Invite people into your world and be open to seeing theirs.

I thought it was a very beautiful sentiment and as someone who easily gets overwhelmed by all the horrors this world has to offer, it's such a nice reminder that most people are simply trying to live their lives.

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Class 4/6

Edges are cleaned up and the bird and dish are starting to settle.

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The blurry bird or Burb as one of my friends christened him, is a little more defined. This class I focused on the shape of the bowl and the edges where the background meets the objects.

This bowl is hand made with leaf imprints so it isn't perfectly symmetrical which constantly has me questioning if my painting is correct.

I also struggled with getting the green color of the bowl. It's this sort of patina copper blue green that a lot of other people painted a much warmer, yellow green but I really liked the softness of the color with the little yellow bird.

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Two hours in and feeling comfy.

I'm quite happy with my rough block for this painting. Since it is a weekly class the goal is always to keep the layers precise and thin so there's time for it to dry by the following week.

I took a lot of care in choosing my colors for each brush stroke and focused on really looking at and assessing the shapes and edges.

Never stop learning when it comes to what you enjoy! There is always one thing to learn, a new perspective to consider and new friends to meet!

I've talked a lot about how much I miss having a strong art community, last night was the first painting class I've signed up for in about a year.

The instructor always tells me he's glad I'm there but he isn't sure why I keep coming back. Art is as much about community to me as it is fulfilling the desire to create. I can paint by myself, I do most of the time but it always feels good to problem solve with a group of people with the same goal you have.

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The beginning of a brand new painting! I don't usually grid out my paintings, I'm a fan of how things sort of naturally fit together while working, letting the edges and lines settle in next for each other. It makes me pay attention to the painting as a whole rather than filling in the space I've pre designated for things.

That being said, this painting has a lot of tile and pattern work that I don't feel confident enough not to sketch out first.

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One thing that I was never very good at was making art and then creating a new piece expanding on the same idea. It was the bane of my existence in art school, I couldn't figure out how people maintained excitement when working on a series. Starting something new was always more fun, a new puzzle to solve.

As I've been trying to spend more time in the studio over 2024 and now 2025 I've been asking more questions of myself when I manage to problem solve something.

The first painting (left) was the very first in my sunflower series. It's painted in acrylic, the first painting that got me back into my studio consistently. It was acrylic because of the dry time. I could problem solve on the fly and clean up was easy. I needed to be able to paint for 20-30 minutes and not have clean up feel like a chore.

As soon as I finished it I wondered what would have been different if I had done it in oil? Two similar oil paintings later the question became 'if this painting was handled more like that painting, what would be different?'

This most recent painting (right) is the answer to these questions.

With the exclusion of the flowers that work to ground the figure in the first painting I was met with a new problem, what else do I add, what other element gives this painting more to say?

If you ask any of my art friends, they will all tell you that I've sent them endless snapshots of this painting asking what else? I considered adding a spray painted element, painted stickers, a textured fabric look to the sky. Finally I landed on this subtle wallpaper idea and it stuck. I made a mock up to make sure I really liked it in conjunction with this painting and then spent somewhere between 4-6 hrs painting each flower and leaf with a liner brush.

Now I see it. The links of painting a series is simply the flow of ideas and what ifs. I really enjoyed painting the flowers and the next painting info will expand on this wallpaper idea in some way.

Back to the sketchbook.

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Picking away at this painting over the weekend. It feels good to be back in the studio after the holidays, I'm really glad I already have a couple things started to pick back up. It makes it easier.

I have the sketch reference taped to the painting while I work on the folds of the shirt and I kind of like it, maybe I'll paint it in.

[churchofpossum]

Devotion

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Why do I love this so much 💖

[beaunydoorin]

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She won't. She won't promise.

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[mookybear12404]

I feel like the first class you played in DND tells a lot about you

Reblog and put in the tags what your first class was

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#barbarian

I was so terrified of messing up learning the rules I literally asked the DM what the easiest, most straight forward class was. Ended up making Herja, my human barbarian.