"It doesn't punish, it doesn't reward, it just is...and so are we. For a little while."

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Is this real?
Or is this just a ride?

The world is like a ride
You think it's real - it's just a ride 
And we can change it any time we want
It's only a choice - between fear and love

The ride goes up and down and round and round
It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored
Up and down and round and round
And it's very loud

Don't worry, don't be afraid
It's just a ride
And we can change it any time we want
It's only a choice between fear and love

Why are we here?
I think we're part of a bigger wisdom
That we won't ever understand
A higher order - call it what you want -
Know what I call it?  ~ *

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* "The Big Electron" by John Boswell 

 melodysheep

RoguePenguinScotland

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5 floors up

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Cropped and (more) edited version of a painting that I originally posted (on this blog) way back HERE.

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Pareidoodle

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Cracker Lamp RGB

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Pigma Micron 005 in 5x3.5" sketchbook.

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Therapy Bridge

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Pigma Micron in 5x3.5" sketchbook. So titled in reference to an exchange Nicola and I had last time acknowledging the therapeutic effect of artwork. The conversation sorta stuck with me so I thought I might oughta get me some this morning. It worked.
That's actually not a "bridge," per se, but the walk over the ditch in front of Mom's house. And no, I didn't squat down in the ditch to do this; it's from a photo I took about this time last year, and it's a lot easier on my old joints to hunker down for a snap than it would have been for the 40 minutes or so I worked on this. 😉

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...departed

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Pigma Micron in 3.5x5.0 sketch book. "Departed" just came to me as something to call it in the files, I guess since the building depicted is all that's left of the old mall. That's the remains of the old Sears store, and where I'm sitting is probably about where the food court was. I was drawn to the science-fictiony post apocalyptic look, which may be just in my imagination due to the absence of what I know used to be there, 'cause I don't see it in the sketch.
I also don't see proper perspective on the building; I let my hand drift up toward the right when it should have been angling slightly down; a beginner's mistake that creeps back in when you haven't drawn at all in almost a year...due to 'difficult' situations...that I'm looking into...
A bitter irony is that drawing and painting shore me up, help me cope in the face of 'difficult situations', better than anything else(almost?) yet that's often the first thing, the first activity I tend to drop when these kind of situations arise. Perhaps I need to strategize...

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PS: Just in case there might still be someone out there who doesn't know, you can see a larger version of the sketch by clicking on it. I just like it better smaller.

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(Hey Google, you need to update your spellcheck. It thinks "strategize" is not a word.)

"Hidey Hole" step by step, sort of...

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I think I'm not going to put much more of my older paintings up on this blog, since most of what that would consist is already up on Facebook, HERE.
Meanwhile here's a 'step-bystep' of one I like from 2008, the most thoroughly documented "procedural" I've got.

First off the finished product, "Hidey Hole," 10x8" oil on canvas, 2008. From an old photo.

Step 1, sketch in with charcoal.

Then a monotone value study, with mostly just a wash of burnt sienna.

Next, block in the darks. Sorry, it's been too long, I don't remember the exact colors used.

The sky must be next, to help set the tone, you might say, of all that's to come.

I work...

...and work...

...and work on the sky. 'Til I get that "just right" feeling of it. Thin, semi-transparent layers makes it look more...airy, or something. Deep like a sky is what I'm after.

Starting on the background...

Establishing color in the background.

A little more detail...

...but the color's wrong. Start over

That's more like it. More muted, more like I actually see it.

Then a lot of fun drawing leaves and limbs in the deep shadow color.

A little bit of detail in the tree leaves, and the brush below.

A kind of neutral base color on the left tree, where the light hits...

...and the 'bark-y' textures pop out.

Hidey Hole is the first in a three-part series, the other two on which I've made a start, yet to finish. I call it, in my mind at least, the "Unconscious Perinatal Projection Series." A triptych, I guess. Sort of. More on that later...

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Turn of the Millenium Autosurrea

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Fields of Arkansas

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There are lots of them...

10x10" (cropped) oil on canvas sketch from photo, 1996.

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