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.