Quote of the day:
"I want you to know that I put the F U in fun, little lady.' ~ Edward, 'Dharma and Greg'

Website(s) of the day:     ...and you thought your computer had problems...

I don't know what it is with me and charcoal. Every time I draw with the stuff, I end up looking like a vampire who has had a nasty incident with her own fangs. I can swear up and down that I never touch my face but it never fails. There are always at least two big black splotches on my lips where, in theory, my 'fangs' would slip out.

I knew my secret identity as an inept vampire would sneak out someday.

Here's the culprit. I took a time out from my final painting project to work on another hair-pulling/kick-it-out-the-door project ~ an abstract drawing for my final in Drawing III. Of course, right at the end of the semester, I would get inspired to do something like this and couldn't get it right. Until tonight, all I would come up with was a black sheet of paper. This one still has a few bugs to work out (like that very strange shape within the light triangle up in the upper righthand corner ~ what is that??) but at least the majority of the paper is still cream colored. I think I may finally be on to something. Finally.

Alright. I suppose it's time to let the world see some of the other projects that has driven me to distraction these last few weeks. I would show more...but I (on purpose?) left them at school, where conveniently I cannot work on them. I did take another look at the one based on the Spiral of Square Roots and I have to say, it looks better now that I've gotten away from it then it did last Thursday. I'm definitely going to have to do another version of it and expand it so that I can fit more of the spiral in. The rainbow effect should do more laps around the painting than just one.

...and here is my final project in painting. It looks rather monochromatic here. I'll have to take another look at it to see if it 'reads' that way for real, or if it's just the camera (here's to hoping that it's the camera ~ I don't know if I can take having to repaint it again!) I know that I used a bunch of different colors in this thing ~ two or three blues, burnt sienna, raw umber, yellow ochre, two whites, some violet...:::sigh:::

I was hoping to have this done by now, so that it can be drying since it is oil paint. As it is, I still have to fix that left antler, touch up a few spots in the background and put in some more highlights in the foreground since the light is coming up from the bottom. I also need to accentuate that fold of fabric that leads from just under the skull's 'nose,' since a lot of the 'movement' in this painting comes down from the antlers, down the 'face' and off the skull and continues down diagonally through that now invisible fold. Here's to hoping that the heater will help things along so I can get it to class Thursday!