Needlepointing

So, things are still pretty crazy here. Or maybe I'm a bit crazy. Yeah. Maybe that's it.

See... I'm doing a needlepoint tapestry. Right now, it's just a practice one to make sure I have the stitches down.

Here's the thing, though: Repetitive motion.

I literally lose hours while working on the tapestry.

Yesterday, I was puzzled by the ache in my right shoulder, until I realized that I'd spent about fourteen hours doing the same thing again and again, hundreds of times.

Doesn't sound all that fun, but it is. Really.

I think the big thing is that doing needlepoint like this is a lot like painting by numbers. Just a lot less messy. And it's wonderful to start seeing the picture taking shape.

Which is another thing. I keep saying that I'd stop when I did one thing, but once it was done, I'd go on to the next thing and the next. And the big thing is that I'm working on a fine grid, so I'm having to make many more stitches to fill the same area as the previous tapestry I did.

But yeah, that's pretty much what I'm doing when I'm not (still) unpacking boxes from my move.

What are you doing these days?

Painting Plans

Today's going to be a short post, I'm afraid. Would have loved to do more, but I caught a tummy bug or something, which means I spent most of today not doing a thing.

However, I did go to the doctor and the medicine he prescribed seems to be helping. Fingers crossed I'll be much better tomorrow. There's really too much for me to get done, so I don't want to be kept back by this.

Anyway. I thought I'd mention my painting plans for the month.

My mom had asked me a while back to paint a still life with a lemon for her. So when I finished my grandmother's painting, I started looking for pictures I could use.

The thing is, my mom wants one that's really plain (which will probably end up making it a pain in the backside to do), but another picture caught my eye. One I KNOW is going to be really difficult. The reason: it's an action pic of half a lemon being tossed into water.

It won't let me go, so I decided to do both. Actually looking forward to it, so here's hoping I actually feel good enough to stand for a few hours on Saturday.

And yep, I will show you all when I'm done, if the second painting doesn't end up looking pathetic.

Anyone else taking on a tricky artistic project?

As promised...

Sorry for skipping the past few days. Work was really busy last week and when it wasn't I took the time to finish this instead...

Yup. Very late, but my grandmother finally has a completed Christmas present. In case you're wondering, the lady on the right is her. The one on her left is her cousin Joey.

So... looks like my piece of art will be a piece of cake.

Yep... I decided to stop being a wuss and picked up my brushes again.

The painting is, if I say so myself, beautiful.

More importantly, I should be finishing it today. YAY!

If I do, I'll post a picture after Christmas. Monday's post will be about this year's Christmas tree again.

Other than that, I also rewrote a query and drafted my first ever synopsis. And I must say. Both look pretty dang good.

Now I really can relax. Looks like I'll do everything I need to get done before Christmas after all.

How about you. On schedule or way behind? What do you still need to do before you can relax?

Time's a running out.

I'm still busy with my painting for my grandmother, but I get the feeling I might not finish it in time.

The reason? I got myself stuck in a conundrum. I have 6 days to Christmas and not too much left to do to finish the painting.

What I do have, however, is a ton of detail work. Glints on the ocean. Sunset clouds. A blue haze. Rounding light houses. The figures' hair and detail to their clothes. One of which has a spotty shirt. The rocks need to be highlighted. Sand needs to be added. And a mountain has to be etched in.

Point is, I'm terrified that if I rush, I'll make a mess of it.

So I don't know if I can do it in the next 6 days. Especially when I consider that my guests start arriving tonight.

Oh yeah... and I still have gifts to wrap today.

Siiiiiigh.

Have you ever started a painting MONTHS ahead of schedule, only to run out of time because you got scared of the detail in the end? How did you overcome your fear?

Painting again

Mmm... now I feel happy.

It's funny. After doing NaNo in November, I thought I'd spoil myself and do nothing substantial in December.

It rested me, I guess, but it just felt like I'm wasting time, which prevented my full enjoyment of my relaxing time.

Today, though, I finally had time (and the light) required to work on my grandmother's Christmas present. Remember the beach scene I mentioned before?

It's now really starting to look the way I envisaged it. Especially the two figures forming my focal points. I had the devil of a time with some hues and with the figures' arms, but it's such a satisfying feeling to see them coming right.

All in all, the painting has really been performing well. So much so that I hope that all of my landscapes go this well.

And of course, that I don't mess it up in the home stretch.

Anyone else doing any visual arts? Or making Christmas presents?

My current oil painting project

Now that my edits are done again, I have a more time to do some stuff I love. Still taking a break, hoping that I can start writing in November. Still haven't picked which story I'll work on, though.

In the mean time, I'm busy painting my grandmother's Christmas Present.  It's a beach scene, which is a new challenge all of its own. Reason: this particular beach doesn't have breakers, only millions of tiny little waves.

On the other hand, I think I managed the sand's many footprints upon footprints quite well.

So now I still have to paint the figures, rocks, sky and water, as well as some mountains and a quay. Lots of different textures and shades. Not a huge variety of colors, though. Lots of blue. Blue and brown. Bluish brown. Millions of blues for waves. A bluish gray, I grayish blue.... And blue clouds.

And they all have to be different.

Fingers crossed it works like I want it to, because I spent quite a few hours and lots of paint on it.

Fortunately the light is improving (summer's here and with it, more sunlight), so I'll hopefully be able to finish the painting in time.

Of course, the final medium will be almost pure linseed oil, so it's an open question as to whether the painting will dry in two months. In fact, I might have to wait for weeks after finishing this layer as well. We'll have to see.

Maybe once it's done, I'll show both the photo and the painting.

Anyone else painting something?

My First Finished Oil Painting

I mentioned a while back that I'd move over to oil painting as soon as I settled. Well... I finished my first one in years and I must say I quite like it.

As promised, I'm showing what it looks like, and here it is:

Anyone else been indulging their creative side?

Still not flu-free

Just when I think I've beaten the flu, it sucks me under again. Sigh.

But at least, because of the fact that I can't focus on anything else, I've finally gotten started with my oil painting. Didn't pick the easiest subject ever, so we'll have to see how it turns out.

In the mean time, I have two parts of Doorways waiting for me to edit as soon as I stop having this splitting head-ache.

But yeah... struggling to focus on anything at this stage, so I'm going to sign off now and hope I can post something worthwhile on Friday.

Remember that I'm always thinking of you! Please let me know if you need for me to pray for anything. I know I haven't asked in ages, and I feel pretty bad about it. X

As Promised...

Hello! I'm finally back in the saddle, now that my body adapted to its change in diet.  So, as I promised, I took some pictures of the sketches I've done so far.

Only three, but I am planning to do more. Will probably get going because I have more energy now.

I did some editing of the photos, since the light has been very bad the past few days (cloudy with lots of rain). But I pretty much edited them to resemble the original sketches.

Anyway.

The first sketch I did is quite simple, because I just wanted to get my eye in, since I haven't seriously drawn anything from photos in years. She's actually one of the characters in Doorways, but I'll be drawing her again sometime when I'm better, because the sketch isn't quite right.

The next sketch I did was actually a planning for the third sketch that went wrong. So instead of throwing away the paper, I colored it in and erased out until I had an ostrich feather.

I picked this picture because it had so many textures and tones and I wanted to see what I could do with them. It took me three failed sketches before I had one that worked, then I went over to the real one. Drew like a woman possessed and finished it in under an hour.

And that's my journey with charcoal thus far. Really liking it, but wishing I could go on to oil painting. Can't though, because it's too risky to paint right before moving house.

Any of you paint or draw?