Shadow's Log Stardate: 9.26.2013

Keep your head up man, some days just don't go your way. I cracked two nozzles and bent a needle in one day a few months ago. Clean up and go throw back a few. :)

Wow dude, I think if that happened to me I would have had to review my future as an artist. lol that was a costly day especially if it was a micron!
 
I would love to do a stardate log like you're doing Shadow, but i have the feeling that I would update it every six months. I give you two huge thumbs up for doing this. Maybe I just need to do it because it might push me to become dead serious about pursuing this hobby. I should really do the paint pal thing too, but I would hate to sign up only to get disqualified from the next round. Maybe I will. Can you tell that I have a hard time making decisions? Best of luck to you and your journey. BTW, I really liked the painting of the little critter in the hand with the little carrot being dangled in front of it. I'm not kidding when I say that I could see that in an art gallery selling for big $. Sometimes paintings like that strike a cord in people who just have to have it. I thought it was unique. Look at Picasso... both eyes on one side of the head? Seriously? And his paintings sell for more than a small country makes in a year. Go figure.
 
Wow dude, I think if that happened to me I would have had to review my future as an artist. lol that was a costly day especially if it was a micron!

No micron. I whacked the needle in my HP-CH, it bent the needle and cracked the nozzle. Roughly $40, then I dropped my Infinity nozzle on to the concrete floor. Of course it landed right on the tip of the nozzle. Another $20 for that. Still not a cheap day. Lol
 
I would love to do a stardate log like you're doing Shadow, but i have the feeling that I would update it every six months. I give you two huge thumbs up for doing this. Maybe I just need to do it because it might push me to become dead serious about pursuing this hobby. I should really do the paint pal thing too, but I would hate to sign up only to get disqualified from the next round. Maybe I will. Can you tell that I have a hard time making decisions? Best of luck to you and your journey. BTW, I really liked the painting of the little critter in the hand with the little carrot being dangled in front of it. I'm not kidding when I say that I could see that in an art gallery selling for big $. Sometimes paintings like that strike a cord in people who just have to have it. I thought it was unique. Look at Picasso... both eyes on one side of the head? Seriously? And his paintings sell for more than a small country makes in a year. Go figure.

jump in , do the best you can, and move on. You will never get better with a downer attitude and no confidence in yourself. Start early, if you mess up, you have plenty of time to do it over or fix it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I would love to do a stardate log like you're doing Shadow, but i have the feeling that I would update it every six months. I give you two huge thumbs up for doing this. Maybe I just need to do it because it might push me to become dead serious about pursuing this hobby. I should really do the paint pal thing too, but I would hate to sign up only to get disqualified from the next round. Maybe I will. Can you tell that I have a hard time making decisions? Best of luck to you and your journey. BTW, I really liked the painting of the little critter in the hand with the little carrot being dangled in front of it. I'm not kidding when I say that I could see that in an art gallery selling for big $. Sometimes paintings like that strike a cord in people who just have to have it. I thought it was unique. Look at Picasso... both eyes on one side of the head? Seriously? And his paintings sell for more than a small country makes in a year. Go figure.

Thanks Rados19 for the comments on the scorpion pic, it has several mistakes in it and I never thought about selling it. I am just learning for about 6 months now from scratch, we tend to be our own worst critiques hmmm but I guess if some one seriously offered lol as they say "every man has his price" !hehehe As for the log itself, the whole purpose is to get us to put time in, make the effort, and participate and the rest is up us to do it. It is a tool and a great one I may add, I am disabled and retired so I have the time to do it but it also help keep us focused on keeping active in what we love. 6 months ago I couldn't draw stick figures, now look at me .... now I can paint stick figures with a little pizaz lol The first step is to "START" , from there do what you can and as time goes on you can look back and see your progress as you go. I believe this was the brain child of our own Cordyk , and I can honestly say it has helped me so far stay focused and on track. So next chance you get start one and watch your self grow...sort of like a "Chiapet". lmao Good Luck friend!!
 
Log update 12/26/13 I completed and cleared my paintpal piece ..woot woot !!
 
Log update: 1.6.2014 Today I bought my second Badger Velocity that I purchased from our own Strictly Attitude (thank you), so while I wait for it's arrival I am trying to plan out an original painting so there wont be a reference pic but will try to remember progress pics. One of the issues I seem to have quite often and I guess it is because I am still a beginner, I find myself having trouble finding something to paint. It is not for the lack of references it is more the issue of having too many things I want to paint. So this time I'm going to see if I can get my hands to be cohesive together.
 
Log update: 1.6.2014 Today I bought my second Badger Velocity that I purchased from our own Strictly Attitude (thank you), so while I wait for it's arrival I am trying to plan out an original painting so there wont be a reference pic but will try to remember progress pics. One of the issues I seem to have quite often and I guess it is because I am still a beginner, I find myself having trouble finding something to paint. It is not for the lack of references it is more the issue of having too many things I want to paint. So this time I'm going to see if I can get my hands to be cohesive together.

When it comes to an original piece, most artists will use portions of references and put them together to make a final piece. Using tools like Photoshop, GIMP, or Pixelmator to get proportion, position, and color palette of your painting will help a lot. Many times I will create everything in an image editor, then use that as my reference. What you can also do is to take reference photo's off the web that have the textures you are looking to achieve in your original piece, and have them on hand to use in your painting. One thing that I practice a lot is to take sample pictures off the web and I will paint a small section of the very textured parts of the painting a few times. Most times I just do it monotone so I can get the technique down. Once you practice that texture a few times, adding it to an original painting becomes much easier.
 
Log update: 1.6.2014 Today I bought my second Badger Velocity that I purchased from our own Strictly Attitude (thank you), so while I wait for it's arrival I am trying to plan out an original painting so there wont be a reference pic but will try to remember progress pics. One of the issues I seem to have quite often and I guess it is because I am still a beginner, I find myself having trouble finding something to paint. It is not for the lack of references it is more the issue of having too many things I want to paint. So this time I'm going to see if I can get my hands to be cohesive together.

There ya go.... self portrait of your hands being cohesive together!
 
When it comes to an original piece, most artists will use portions of references and put them together to make a final piece. Using tools like Photoshop, GIMP, or Pixelmator to get proportion, position, and color palette of your painting will help a lot. Many times I will create everything in an image editor, then use that as my reference. What you can also do is to take reference photo's off the web that have the textures you are looking to achieve in your original piece, and have them on hand to use in your painting. One thing that I practice a lot is to take sample pictures off the web and I will paint a small section of the very textured parts of the painting a few times. Most times I just do it monotone so I can get the technique down. Once you practice that texture a few times, adding it to an original painting becomes much easier.

Yeah Jeff, I do have Xara Xtreme that I used to use for some things I designed for web pages for the old pool league. I'll have to try and load that up on laptop and play with that a bit.
 
Log update: Since last post my 2nd velocity was delivered and the same day my parts for my first one came also. I had a theme I was contemplating in my head to put on the tailgate of my truck img_0124.jpg and thought I would paint it up till I got it the way I want first. it came out pretty good but the arm needs to be redone. Wow, still need to do something for POM yet starting to fall behind. :dejection:
 
ok needed to update log so here goes.....been a rough 10 days, had to attend a funeral for family member, am down with flu, and to top it off had to put one of my dogs down last night. He was 17 years old so he had a good life...RIP Brutus
Will get back to working on painting soon but I have learned one thing regarding the "race to face".....portraits are NOT my cup of tea. lmao
 
Sorry to hear about all that shadow. Sounds like a rough time.

As for Portraits I'm with you on that one. That's why in my capacity as a judge, although a nice and product is great, I for one won't be focusing too much on that, but rather the methods used, improvements made, lessons learnt, problems overcome, different strokes and blends that are used etc. That's why I'm hoping for some nice WIP's, not only will it help out other newbies, and levels the playing field for the different levels of the people taking part, but it will help me out too! And after doing the little portrait I just did, I am definitely empathising with all the race to the facers.
 
Been about two weeks since updating so...I managed to finish my race to face piece, at this point I am figuring out what my next piece will be.
 
Well lately I seemed to be getting a dose of home front reality, and thus haven't been able to do any painting. I also seem to be having a block on deciding what to paint next, some of my frustration is that some of the references I would like to paint are too small and distort way too much to work with..at least for me. I try to find HD/High resolution pics but even a lot of them blur out as well, I'm thinking my next step will be investing in a projector but don't really want to go that route just yet and I tried using different programs to resize but again they only blur them.
 
Have you tried vectorising them? As far as I can remember vectors dont blurr when enlarged, you could then blow them up and be able to print them.

Lee
 
Have you tried vectorising them? As far as I can remember vectors dont blurr when enlarged, you could then blow them up and be able to print them.

Lee

Thanks for the input Lee, yes I have tried switching Vector and Raster with some success but not much. For some if I open them in Paint and resize they work as along as I keep image max of A4(8.5x11), some work somewhat ok if I use Posterrazor, but I haven't found the system that works best for me, so i'll just keep trying different things and maybe break down and buy a projector. I would have been able to buy a projector but the wife went out to a breeder and bought me another Pug puppy 11 weeks old. grrrrr like I really needed another dog to want my every second of time...lol
 
Really nice job you do have a talant.

Thanks Snowbird1, I wouldn't say it was talent but more the ability to learn. As a musician a person can be taught to play an instrument but I doesn't mean they are talented, you can usually tell a talented musician by the way they play...is it mechanical / forced or can you actually hear it played with feeling there is a huge difference. The gang here is the best and always willing to help, and if you put in the time and effort you will see progress. That is the purpose of this log and I encourage anyone to do it and if nothing else it will help keep you on track.
 
Ok, finally got to paint a bit and I can see even just a few weeks of not painting how one can get off track. Here is a piece I painted, there is no WIP because it was one of those hurry and paint while you can deals. Some of it is out of kilter but was only a practice piece anyway so here it is.... demon.jpg
 
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