Quiet down already

Well I messed that up.

The color block painting got off to a good start but I've been messing it up ever since then. Tried to lighten the top, messed that up. Tried to blend in the middle, messed that up.

Added a bigger top section, messed that up. Tried to clean up the orange framing, messed that up.

Sigh. At this point every time I pick up a brush my inner monologue starts yelling at me about not messing something else up. Not a good way to finish a painting.

If I'm not getting the benefits of the mental quiet that comes with painting I think I'm going to take a little break from this, and probably from most project time in general. The kids are super busy, and classes and interviewing are already starting to take a toll. Yikes. I'm sure I'll need some stress relief pretty soon though. 

Hmmmmm. Not a bad start I guess.

There seems to be a little bit of self-doubt creeping into these titles lately. Titles are important, maybe I should spend a little more thought on them.

My doctorate classes started last and I'm still interviewing, but I sneaked some time to get some paint on the bigger of the two canvases. I'm not quite sure about the results. I had been sketching on my surface to come up with some ideas, and I thought I had hit upon a color scheme and layout I really liked.

One of many digital sketches before putting paint to canvas.

However, getting it on canvas wasn't quite matching up.

I like it better here, actually. It's growing on me.

Actually, doing this made me realize even more the positives I get out of painting. The only picture I took until I was done with the first draft of the painting was the one of my supplies ready to go, including my DIY plastic and plywood palet:

Each time I had a chance to paint I would think "okay, don't forget to get a few progress pic." And then I promptly forgot each time. When I was painting, painting was the only thing on my mind. Looking back on it, that's pretty amazing. I clearly need to paint more.

I really like specific portions of this painting though, this is one.

Both for my sanity, and the quality of my work. I'm still working on this one though. I feel like there's something salvageable somewhere on this canvas, I just have to find it.

Art without a home

I stole yet another project idea from somewhere else. But I had some surprise quiet time at home, a spare canvas, and needed a bit of mental distraction. I keep telling myself the next idea I get is going to go on a canvas I’ve made myself but honestly I can’t imagine finding the time to get one done.

Not a bad sketch at least.

It’s been a crazy fall; with the kids so busy I can’t believe I choose this semester to both take and teach a class. We’ve all been up to our elbows in things to do, hence the opportunity to post about projects other than the fireplace growing pretty rare. But with the wife back home and taking the kids out I had a quiet evening to myself after a stressful day at work so I thought I would sit down with some paint.

Huh. Maybe I should have done the tiny tiny letters first...

I’m not sure if I’ll leave the right edge as is or fill it in; I like the definition it gives the image but the all black side looks pretty good on its own too. We’ll see what the kids say.  

Just in time for Halloween.

Regardless of whether it’s finished or not I have no place to put it; I just put a new hook in a living room wall for some Halloween decorations but somehow I doubt the wife, as cool as she is, would approve of putting this going up once it’s time for the ghouls and goblins to come down. Maybe the boy will want to put it up; it’ll match his lightsaber nightlight at least.  

At least they fit; frames part II

So with the frames together I had to figure out how best to keep the canvases where I want them. In theory I could screw through the back of the frame and into the canvas but that sounds like it would take more precision than I’m really comfortable with. I’m looking for more of a glue or 3M solution.

That's not a bad corner close up.

As it so happens, I randomly had 3M stickers just laying around. Where did they come from? What abandoned project was never completed with them? Who knows. But they seem like an ideal alternative to drilling actual holes in something I painted. They lasted through the first night so fingers crossed.

It's not all completely straight but they're not terrible.

I realize these aren’t mindblowing but until I get around to painting something else I think they look pretty good. And since I doubt the wife will be okay with me putting a Battle of the Bastards painting up in the living room they’ll probably stay up a long time. With the frames on now they look like they’re up for it.

floater frame

When we were staging our condo to show (almost a whole year ago, wow) I had some spare time so instead of renting/buying art to put up I painted a few things. DIY strikes again! And as a glimpse of things to come, I loved what we ended up with while the wife wasn’t 100% convinced.

She was on-board with the two large pieces though, and they’ve made it into our new living room on nails that the previous owner left in the wall. Putting these up helped a new house instantly feel more like home, and they’ve stayed up even though I initially just put them on the wall to help get them out of the way when we moved in.

They're 24x30

That was eight months ago, and I painted these a year ago almost to the day. So to commemorate the occasion I used another day off to make a materials run and put together some DIY floater frames for our DIY masterpieces. I know, anything to distract from finishing the rest of the basement.

All I had in mind was just a larger version of the frame for Payton’s picture, turned backwards so the canvas can be attached to the inside lip, leaving the outside to surround the canvas with a little gap. I think white is a good starting point but to give it some additional depth, I decided to spray the inner lip with the dark blue paint I had around. Hopefully it compliments the blues in each painting without taking focus away.

In my excitement to get these done I ended up buying more 1x2 than I really needed, and had just enough left over to slap together a display for my Notre Dame banner too. More on that later though.

All in all these weren’t a difficult build. Using two paint colors slowed things down a bit as I let things dry, and not all the corners were the sharpest when I put everything together but all in all they ended up looking pretty good. Using wood joiners helped speed things up too, I with I had thought to use them a long time ago. We’ll see how well the paintings actually go in later this week.

Planning for the spacing; shooting for an extra 1/8 inch surround

All the cuts plus the outer frame plane

About to get the spray paint out

Fixing a bit of mess on a corner

Glued and drying

By the way, the other two the wife wasn’t entirely crazy about? Just went up in the nearly finished basement while I wait to see when I can tile over the fireplace. Hey, art is subjective and I still like them. At least they’ve found a spot, maybe they'll get frames next.

I don't care, I like these

 Purchase list:

6 8 foot 1x2"s