Enough Bad Excitement

OMG. So things are as per usual, bonkers. Manga reviews are due this week! I have a 4th VtM Chicago player who needs to be onboarded. No I have NOT worked on the pins. No I am not writing. I am only working on the painting for the art show. I am brimming with the desire to draw and paint. I have been drawing Pokemon trainers a lot lately. I have also been drawing figures using reference. I recently got a copy of this book: FANTASY CHARACTERS & CREATURES: An Artist's Sourcebook by Satoshi Matsuura and it could not be better!!! Get yourself a copy!!! I followed him on Twitter once upon a time and I am so happy to have this book! It makes me want to draw! I always wanted to make a living being able to make art! And it never happened and I’m sad. It would be nice to live in a world that valued art.

Wild news: We are trying to catch skunks but caught a possum. We have ALL the wildlife! Even chased a bat out of the house last Saturday! Yes, a tiny little bat! It was adorable but I’m glad we got it out without it touching or landing on anyone. It WANTED to leave! It was so confuse as to where it was. But the animals have dug so far under the foundation of the house that it’s not good! It needs to be plugged up but of course there is no time to deal with that because my uncle went to the hospital on Tuesday, only a day after his 80th birthday. He was released the same day and got home alive but it’s always stressful and he’s not young. Why aren’t there ever stretches of good things happening? I guess that’s life… It would just be nice if things took an upswing. Like, GOOD things can happen right? Like a string of good things in a row? Things would still be happening, they just wouldn’t suck. Life seems to be moving just from one crisis to another and then someone dies. Is it just my age?

Anyway, have some WIP pics of the cat painting.

Here I was flat-filling the house.

Coming along….

Now it’s coming together and moving out of the fugly phase.

Could be worse…

Those fucking mushrooms. Red is NOT and never will be opaque. I had to get out the acrylic marker and paint in the caps then paint over them more. Then repeat. But goddamn I am happy with the house! I know it’s not realistic but I don’t care! I managed to paint a cute house! I want to paint more! I want to gouache! I want to draw and paint.

Got little purple flowers in the window box.

I will have to go BACK in with the gesso to fix the borders. And I need more opaque paint. And I am still too cheap to bust out the acrylic gouache. ANd you have NO IDEA!! I have the ENTIRE SET OF TURNER ACRYLIC GOUACHE!! Something like three big boxes of them! And they are UNTOUCHED. I just want to buy more sets of small tubes so I can practice?? I don’t know! But I cannot LINE to save my life! Everything is wobbly and blobby and there are gaps between paint areas and I can’t fix myself! I don’t know how to paint and I was never taught to paint, I was turned loose WITH paint and there’s a difference. :( I want an entire educational do-over.

Here’s a finished piece. I used photo reference for this! And was pleased to discover I still have a tiny bit of art chops left from school.

Can’t color inside the lines though. I’m going to purchase some color scheme dictionaries. I found three on the website of a Japanese bookstore I want to get. Then I’ll have color schemes at my fingertips when I am stuck on ideas. I’ll probably succumb and make that order soon.