More artz. I do have a couple of in process photos of this one but they're on my cell phone and I'm too lazy to get them. I personally am pretty happy with where this one is at but my professor disagrees so I may end up working on it some more.

I realized a while ago that I put up the beginning to this painting but I never put up the finished piece so here it is.

I accidentally cropped some of and I'm too lazy right now to take a better photo and fix it, especially since I don't particularly like this painting.

I'm not going to write much, just posting up a small recently finished piece. I just built a stretcher for a 4' x 6' canvas, and I have a 3' x 4' board and a couple more small ones so I'm going to have a few things going at a time.

I think this one started as a map of Dublin, Ireland but I can't remember for sure. If so I find it somewhat funny that the one of Florence started on red/pink and Dublin started on green. Not intentional though.

I am so not made for blogging it would seem. I have one mostly maybe finished painting that I will put up and the beginning of a new one that I'll put up as well, though it isn't very far. I don't think I'm super happy with either of them, especially not the second one but I'm much farther on it than this photo I'm going to put up. Also, these are both taken with my cell phone. Tomorrow I'll try to remember my camera when I go to the studio so I can take some better photos.

I actually thought I had a better photo than this but it was an earlier one. So after this one (the first official painting of the semester! Yay!), my professor suggested I look at some people and use their color palettes instead of trying to come up with my own. That's how I ended up on the one I'm on, and might be why I hate it so much.

Haha! I don't even know if there's a point in putting this up right now since it's so early on. Oh well, it's up. I much farther along in this painting and I'll probably put up another progress shot tomorrow. Hopefully I'll hate it a little less tomorrow.

Epic blog upkeep fail. How long has it been since I've posted? A couple of weeks I think. I don't have anything very exciting to post today, just thought I'd let the internet know that I didn't fall of the face of the Earth or anything. Classes started this past Wednesday so very soon I should be posting some newer and slightly more exciting things. However, right now all I've got is some photos of the studio.

A sad old paint covered computer on a sad old paint covered  table.

My area! Fully equipped with computer, microwave, and mini fridge (shared with others of course).

The rest of the studio, well half of the rest of the studio. There's even plants!

I really am running out of things to put up here right now, which really is just a sign that I need to do more art. Well in a couple of weeks classes start and I won't be able to avoid it. For the time being here is another piece from the abstract drawing class I took this summer.

This is gouache on paper.

And on a completely different note, have you ever come across a ridiculous captcha? Well I have recently.

How are you ever supposed to type that? Would "x/l(x" work? Anyway, I came across that while making accounts on a bunch of art sites to try and promote some of my paintings. I have seen more ridiculous captchas but this is the worst that I personally have gotten.

I'm starting to run out of paintings to put up. At least ones that are decent in any way. Then I realized I have had more classes than just painting classes. I didn't exactly specify that this was only a painting blog. I think. So anyway. This summer I took my final required drawing class. It was an abstract drawing class in which we explored various different mediums and techniques. It was really fun, and very free. The projects never really had very much in the way of restrictions which left it very open for exploration. Unfortunately (or fortunately in a way), the professor is holding on to some of our work to have a small show to display the work that was made in the class. That means that she still has some of my best things from the class. Doesn't mean I can't put up some of the not so great things.

So here's one:

This was done with graphite powder and some conte crayon.

I think I may give up and giving titles to my posts. I can never come up with anything. I'm not a very creative person...

I'm not sure I have much to talk about so we're just going to get straight to the art.

So here is another one I did early in last spring semester. It was probably finished sometime in January or February. It's one of my larger pieces. It's 34 x 45.5 in. This one was actually in two separate art shows at my university, the big undergrad one and a smaller one just for the advanced and intermediate painting classes.

So after this week is a big training week for supervisors in the cafeteria, then another week, and then classes start! So once classes start I should be able to update this blog with a lot more new stuff. Get excited!

Work, Work, Work, and No Play

This whole trying to sell art thing can get pretty discouraging. So can this blogging thing. I think I'm up to 50 views on my blog and more than half of them are from Russia, and find my blog through a website to get payed while wandering around social websites. I know I already mentioned this but I think it's funny. I can't figure out how my blog would be related to those websites. Anyway, I doubt they actually read this. Let me know if you do! I'd love to talk to some people from Russia anyway. I also have one visit from Macedonia and one from Germany.

More than that though is I'm working in the cafeteria full time, as well as a bit for teaching English. Adding this blogging thing and keeping my Etsy up, which no one has visited my shop in 4 days, I'm getting pretty busy. Basically it's all a lot of work with nothing to show for it. Well, I knew it wasn't going to be easy!

Well on to today's art!

I do believe this one was accepted into the art show last year as well. I'm already forgetting which ones were in there. I don't really have much to say about this one.

Well, now I'm going to have to start pulling out more of my paintings and taking pictures. Maybe even paint some more new things. I'm pretty much out of one's that I've already taken pictures of.

Keepin' It Up

I think I may already be running out of paintings that I have photos of to post. What shall I do? I can start posting not so good things I suppose. Or paint new things. That's a lot of work. I guess I don't have to post as often as I have been. Not many people read this anyway.

 I've found one of the things I enjoy the most about this is the statistics I get through blogger. I get to see who's looking at my blog and all those fun things. There also is Google Analytics which I just recently found out that I can in fact put that to analyse my home page as well as putting the code in my posts. Before it only collected data from the posts that I had the code but not many people actually click into the separate pages for the posts, they just read it on the home page so it wasn't very accurate. Anyway, according to blogger a good portion of the people who visit my page are from Russia, and they come from some other page so I think they're not actually reading it. Now that I have Google Analytics on it I can tell because it lets me know how long each person stays on my page. Is that a bit creepy?

 Anyway, here's a quick art thing because this is an art blog after all.

This is another small one, and pretty old-ish. One of the first ones I painted at the beginning of last semester I believe. It's only 11 x 13 in. I'm a little fond of it. That might be because it was accepted into the art show. Every spring semester MSU has a big art show for all the undergrad students. You're allowed to submit up to four pieces in every medium. Many people will submit as much as they can in every medium they have things in, so four paintings, four drawings, four ceramic pieces and so on. Every year they bring in someone else to judge the pieces. I can't remember who exactly judged it last year, but it was a woman who was the curator for some relatively large art museum somewhere. Anyway, I submitted four paintings and they were all accepted and this was one of them. I was a bit surprised they all got in, especially considering how small this one is. To hang it they just stuck some Velcro on the back, which I thought was funny.

So you should bother me about painting new things because the more people who bother me about it, the more likely I am to do it.

Into the Night

So in my last post I said that I would paint something new and I actually have! Woohoo! I've now painted a total of two things over the summer. Anyway here are some photos, in backwards process order.

This last one is really interesting isn't it? Also I think I forgot to edit it. Oh well it's just a sketch anyway. I know I said I'd have this up last night but the color of the pictures I took last night ended up being really off and I decided to wait until I could get some natural light. The light in my apartment is terrible.

Anyway, in case anyone is curious this painting is based off a map. A map of Florence, Italy to be exact. I think I may do some paintings based off maps of places I've lived/worked/taken classes. If I run out and still feel like doings paintings like this I'll start on maps of places I've just visited. This is the second one I've used a map, the very first one in this blog is based on a map of where I currently live. I can't remember if I mentioned that in that first post.

Every time I look at this painting I think that I've seen these colors in some other painting before but I can't remember where, or whose it was. I'm just stealing someone's colors and I can't even remember who they are.

Well, I have to head to work, because sadly painting does not yet pay my bills. I get to feed thousands of boy scouts this week. It's going to be a blast.

Moar Artz!

So back to my art! Because this is all about self promotion after all. Maybe. So here's another one I've done sort of recently-ish.

So all I really want to say about this one is that I really really need a better camera. Or learn how to photo edit better because the colors are much nicer in real life and I did try to edit them a bit. But oh well, chances are your computer doesn't display the same as mine anyway. This one was also done last semester, it's 24 x 33 in. I think this may have been one of the last paintings I did last semester actually.

I really want to paint something new. I have the board ready and everything I just don't feel like I really have the time. Maybe tomorrow. I started working in the cafeteria as a cook again, and I'm still working my other kind-of-sort-of job teaching English to Japanese people online so between the two I'm pretty low on free time. Well that's sort of a bad excuse anyway. Alright! So today I think I'll lay down an under painting and hopefully paint it tomorrow. By the end of tomorrow hopefully I'll have something new up here, so get excited! If I don't do it you have every right to bother me about it.

Oh the Things I've Learned

Well I suppose so far there aren't many things I've learned about this whole process. I mean this is only my fourth post, and I have yet to sell anything on Etsy so all I've really learned is either I need to be patient or I'm doing something horrendously wrong. Which wouldn't surprise me. One thing I have learned is I need a better camera for sure. I just can't take decent pictures of my paintings. I don't know how. Also for some reason all of my blog's views are from Russia. From a specific site that has something to do with getting paid to wander around Facebook so I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't have any actual readers yet. Unless you are out there! Let me know! Well other than that I wanted to make a post to talk about my friend's blog instead. I know I don't have any readers to really send her way. She has many more than I do and I do mean to tell her that I'm over here yelling at the internet a bit to try and get some attention but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Anyway, she's a former classmate of mine, we had a few painting classes together as well as one drawing class I believe. More importantly we were roommates when we studied abroad in Italy. Oh Florence, how I miss you. She has always been a bit of an inspiration to me, I've always admired her work and I don't doubt that she has influenced me quite a bit, even if our styles may be completely different. Here is one of the most recent pieces she has uploaded on her blog:

And here is the link to her blog, Solid State Studios. Do me a favor, and if you're reading this blog of course continue to read this blog but stop over by her's and check that out as well. Hey we are the new up and coming artists from Michigan after all. Wouldn't want to miss out.

The Hanging Ritual

Oh my gosh look I have three more page views. Maybe this is going somewhere.

So I haven't mentioned it in previous posts but my old roommates recently moved out and my new roommate moved in the next day (I live in a relatively small apartment near my university). My previous roommates and I didn't really bother much with decoration but my new roommate, well possibly more his mom, cares a bit more. I came home from work today and everything was moved around. Which is fine, I told them they could move things around and that I wasn't particularly attached to anything. While she was trying to decided which Van Gogh prints to hang where I mentioned my paintings, or she mentioned my paintings, I can't really remember which. Well of course she wanted to see some and then decided we had to  hang some up in the living room.

Now, I'm pretty lazy and I paint on board and I don't put a wood frame backing. I know, terrible. This makes it difficult to hang and the board is more likely to warp. So my roommate and his mom spent quite a while trying to figure out how to hang my paintings so that they would be secure. With a bit of jerry-rigging, some picture hangers, and a lot of nail holes in my walls I now have two of my paintings hanging in the living room. I have to say it doesn't look half bad. Here's a photo of my living room now.

And since this blog is about the art, here are some slightly better photos of the paintings themselves.

  

The purple and green one with the hills was the first painting I did last semester, while the yellow and purple one was somewhere in the middle.

If you would like to see more of my work here's my DA. There is also more on my Etsy, where you can also buy some. *wink wink nudge nudge*

A Bit of a Blast from the Past

Post number two! We're on a roll aren't we? In my last post I put up my most recent painting, and do realize it may seem a bit strange to start from the most recent but that's how it happened. For the next few posts maybe I'll be putting up some older, but still relatively recent, work (all done in the last 6 months or so). As I do new things, they will be added as well. Maybe I'll do some process photos, though I'm not sure process photos of my work would be too exciting, hmm? Well, to some artz!

It's obviously quite a bit different from my last one, isn't it? Maybe I'm just confusing you now as to what my style is. Well. This one was done sitting outside of the art building. It was my first time painting something from life without trying to make it look like life. This is another little painting, and it is on sale in my Etsy shop. Which, by the way, I haven't linked on here yet. Well doesn't that just defeat the purpose of all this. This whole Etsy business is a bit much for me. I'm not a salesperson. I just sit around painting pretty pictures. But I do intend to try my best and sell some things. If I'm lucky, maybe some people on here will bother me to paint more! It's the summer so I haven't exactly been doing very much and I need someone to bug me a bit.

Anyway, here's the link to my Etsy shop, and here's the link to my DA. I just made my DA today so it doesn't have very much up yet, though I do suppose it has more than this blog.

Hopefully once I start getting some people actually reading this I can talk to them about what they might like me to post! So if you happen to read this, just let me know what you'd like to see. :]

The Beginning of What May Be a Glorious Thing

So here I am, writing an entry in a blog for the first time since...well the days of LiveJournal. Back when every tween sat online whining about the boy that didn't like them or their parents who wouldn't let them stay out late at night. I spent more time teaching myself CSS in order to learn how to redecorate my journal. Between bouts of writing strange codes that today I would be completely unable to reproduce, I would write the occasional entry about my own hardships, that may or may not have been as petty as everyone else's. That, is what I fear this blog may fall back into.

However, this blog has a goal. Unlike my LiveJournal, this blog has some purpose beyond entertaining myself. That purpose is best described with a picture.

What is this thing with the squares and the squiggles and the colors? That my dear hopefully soon to exist readers, is my first painting ever sold. It is my first step towards fame a fortune. I am slightly ignoring the fact that it was sold to a friend of mine who hadn't really seen any of my work and may have bought it for reasons other than a love of art. That same friend has been bothering me to try to sell my work, to people other than him. And so here I am, writing a blog in the hopes that I may attract some attention. Or at the very least find some interesting people to talk to.

So maybe the purpose really is my own entertainment.