A Day in The Life

I thought I’d try something a little different today. An actual journal post. When I first heard about blogs I thought they were journals. Online diaries. I guess they started out that way in the beginning.I dunno about you, but I wouldn’t have much of a following if I wrote an online diary.

When I was in my 20’s? Sure. Maybe even my 30’s. But now?

(Do you like how I wrote that . . . like I’m in my 40’s? Just keep assuming that. I won’t stop you.)

This post is just that – a journal. While I’m painting the sample for baby girl nursery today, I’m jotting down my random thoughts too.

It’s not that I think my random thoughts are interesting. They’re not. More of a ping pong match between me and myself. Or maybe racquetball.

10:12 a.m. Sketched out the basic composition and measured the stripes for the background.

10:44. I’m not so sure about the pink basecoat now. I have to paint a white layer to get anything to show up.

Random Thought: Looks like snow.

10:51. Castle rooftops – so far, so good. A little bit of detailing.

Should I leave the castle walls white, or paint them pink? If I paint them pink, they’ll blend into the background.

Random Thought: I should’ve left the background white.

11:13. I finally have a theme – not just a castle. Woodland animal families.

Maybe. These guys are pretty tiny, even if the ‘real’ painting is twice this size. Will the animals be large enough?

Random Thought: Should the horses be horses or unicorns?

I think I’ll tweet that question.

11:18. No response from Twitterdom. Horses, they are then.

It’s looking a little bland to me right now. Lots of hills, but what else? Hm . . . .

I’ll try painting the stripes and see what happens.

11: 25. Just the white stripes and it’s looking better.

Random thought: I gotta get to HD and get some colors mixed. Mixing colors over and over again is taking waaay too much time.

Clearly my measurements are off. One-half inch one one stripe is definitely not looking like one-half inch on another stripe.

11:33. This light brown is freakin’ me out. I think it’s the wrong shade.

Yep, I was right. I was wrong.

Still too dark. Dang.

Wait – I’ll glaze it on. That works.

No, I may be wrong – when I stand back, the darker stripe looks good. I think it’ll blend with the crib better.

Maybe I’ll just leave both – the light and the dark – and see which looks best in the room.

Noon. Lunch!!!

Ok, a yummy ham & swiss cheese sandwich downed and I’m ready to go again. I’m pushing away all the OCD-ish thoughts . . .

The center should be larger.

The animals should be bigger.

No, they should be grouped together.

Will it be too busy with the scrolls?

Just pick up the brush and paint!

Time to start shading. Why does this always freak me out so? Here goes nothin’. . .

No, first I’ll check my emails. Nothing earth-shattering.

I think I’ll go get the snail mail. The walk will clear my head. {yeah, right.}

1:43. Alright – no more procrastinating!

How in the heck do I paint water with brown?

Random Thought: Does that look like water? Or a mudhole?

Keep going. Keep going.

The carriage is too dark, I think. Maybe I’ll just put a wash of white over it. . .

Better? Too soon to tell. I gotta wait until everything is painted in.

2:00 It just looks too sparse. Oh. . . duh! Trees. Bushes. Flowers.

2:07. This’ll work but I need a bigger brush or I’ll be here forever.

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Random Thought: What time is it? 2:14. I’m gonna watch just 15 minutes of GH. Just 15 minutes, I swear!

3:00. What can I say? Luke’s goin’ into rehab after he yelled at Lulu and I totally missed how Patrick caught Lisa after she tried to kill Robin . . .

now you know why I don’t have a TV in my studio.

3:38. Uh-oh. Have I made a big mess outta this? Lemme stand back a few feet and look . . .

I’ve ‘lost’ the animals which means I have to either lighten the foliage or darken the animals. {fingers tapping.} . . . . . . .

Mebbe a little of each?

4:10. Definitely not happy with the saturated color of the foliage but can’t finish today.

Random Thought: What am I gonna fix for dinner, anyhow? How much longer can I paint . . .

I’m totally not done w/the inside but I want to put the ‘ribbon’ on before I have to fix dinner.

Random Thought: No one will know, right? That I’m not done with the center.

Random Answer: Just the people reading this blog, you fool.

Oh. Yeah. Right.

4:22 I couldn’t take it and ‘whited’ out a bush. Even though this is a sample, I just couldn’t stand that bush. Presto! Gone!

4:39. I’m gonna stop and clean my brushes (blech) before I start dinner.

Then I’ll upload the pics from today, see if anything I wrote down here makes sense . . .

Tomorrow I’ll figure out what to do with the animals. And the scrolls. And the trees.

The trees! They don’t have any leaves on them!

And tomorrow I’m painting clouds on top of the dinosaurs and kitties.

Maybe tomorrow night? Ha! Who am I kidding. I won’t touch this ‘til Thursday.

 

Hey, thanks for hanging out with me today. Not too exciting, I’ll admit, but a window into a nearly obsessive-compulsive/ADHD artist.

Just in case you thought I just slap the paint on and call it Finished.

Which, clearly, I don’t.