Home Stretch

Victory is within reach at last. While this portrait has its flaws, I am finally becoming convinced I will finish it without screwing it up (this perfectionist's worst fear). Really, this whole thing has been as much about conquering my perfectionism as it has been about creating a piece of art. The other thing it is about is the fact that my hands don't shake any more, which is a great help. I have always had shaky hands ("essential tremor" in the words of my doctor) which I inherited from my beloved grandfather. I always assumed I was stuck with it and with the effects it had on my drawing, painting, and lampworking. My mom urged me to check with my doctor, which it had never occurred to me to do, and she was able to prescribe beta blockers which immediately stilled the shaking. This is the first really ambitious thing I have done since then, and I feel like it has made a big difference. Thanks, Mom! Now I'm trying to figure out if I need to deepen the color on the pillow. Tasj thinks it is deep enough. I am not sure. I don't want to go too dark, but my tendency is ever and always to avoid dark darks and light lights. I always have too many midtones, in other words. I'm interested in other people's opinions. There's time, since I have some monkeying around to do before the next step. I am going to photocopy the work in color onto regular paper and try different background colors for behind Twickie's head. I am thinking about rose or gold to contrast with the blue. BTW, I used the slate blue from Twickie's fur for the pillow, which is giving the drawing a nice unified look. A slightly blue-toned rose may be the way to go. I thought about grey, but that just seems wrong. It's going to be a simple gradient behind her head. I don't want to distract from her face by including the window or anything else like that, besides which that is more complicated than what I am ready to do right now. I'd be delighted to have opinions, like I said, so comment away.

Soooooo............slow

It seems like the closer I get to being done with this, the slower I go. Sigh. But at least it is turning out largely the way I hoped it would. I have put in the colors on her foot. I also roughed in the shading for her pillow, though that is going to need some touching up before I apply color.

Next I need to consider what to do with the background behind her. I want to keep it very simple to avoid detracting from her face and form. Probably I will do a halo effect with a neutral color. Maybe I should go all techno on it and try different background colors in Photoshop. I've never tried that, but have heard about it. It's the last thing I want to do (would have to teach myself some new stuff that DOESN'T have to do with sewing), but for this portrait it might just be worth it. Oh, I could do it the low tech way...make a few photocopies, heck, even color ones, and just apply the colors directly to those. I kinda like that idea better. It would be easy and relatively cheap, and the colors would be pretty exact.

I've been sewing a lot for a craft fair I have this weekend, so my work time has been sporadic at best. Got too many irons in the fire, as usual.....such is life for the queen of ADHD.

Confusion

Who's Twickie? Some of you wondered this and expressed your confusion. That's one of Daphne's many nicknames, and it just slipped out. Let me tell you how pitiful we are here at the Skilling household. Not only does each dog have at least three nicknames, we (mostly I) make up songs with those names to sing to them (when there is no one present but family members, of course). Fortunately the dogs don't care whether or not we can carry a tune as long as we sing to them (which they actually like), play with them, give them treats....all that good stuff.

Exciting Progress

Twickie is really coming along! All of her fur is blocked in now except on her foot. Of course there will be a lot of refinement to come as I fine-tune the contrast and improve the texture of the fur. I'll probably work on that some before adding the pillows she is lying on and the background. This has been a slow week for working on art and sewing because I had a sinus infection that made it hard for me to do much of anything besides work and keep up with basic things like laundry. But today I was feeling better and really got some things done. The little bag is from Wednesday (because school got out early due to weather and I got some work time in). That and another new bag are on my Bags for Sale blog (see links above right). I also started putting some of my beads on a new blog for sale. I'm not selling off all my beads, but I have way more than I will ever use (I used to make jewelry in fairly high volume, for those who don't know). Might as well see if I can convert beads into fabric and other things I need. So needless to say, things have been pretty busy here. I continue to enjoy excellent creativity and lack of perfectionism, which is delightful.....now I just have to get (and stay) healthy.

Relief

Well, Keith fixed my links (see last entry below). So now I am back in business. Now if only I could get back on my feet healthwise. I made it to work today, but came home so exhausted today that I just want to sleep (which is what I am going to do next). Hopefully I will have some progress to show shortly. I do have a couple new bags on my bag blog, though.

Ugh

As much as I love technology in general, I'm not particularly skilled in troubleshooting problems with it. A kind person informed me that my link to my husband's blog was broken. Come to find out, they are all broken. I've spent about the last 20-30 minutes trying to fix the links, to no avail. Never fear, however. I have married my own tech support. I am hoping Keith will look at it for me tomorrow night. So if you want to see any of the blogs on my list, drop me a line and I'll send you a link. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Busy Busy Busy

I'm enjoying a time of tremendous creativity and artistic productivity. Today I had a wonderful work sesssion on my Daphne portrait. I added her ear and refined the color balance on her face; much still remains to be done, but progress is good. Additionally, I created another small purse with an applique design. If you are interested in purchasing it, or any of my other purses, artwork, or jewelry, please check out my sale blogs in my blog lists. I am in the process of photographing and posting items for sale to help fund some purchases of materials for upcoming projects. If only my creative journey would always go so well!!!