The more I write, the more articles I will have just like these. They’re musings – things that inspire me. I’m quite sure they’d be useful to you as well, because it’s a good thing to share thoughts. You and I are human after all. And we’re both artists. It’s always a good thing to know how other artists think.
It’s OK to become obsessed with a color
Yellow. More specifically, yellow medium gouache. I’ve done three out of the last four paintings using this color as the primary color.
I’m about to have several paintings for sale at the local bar. And three of those paintings are using yellow medium gouache.
Why? Because I took a chance doing these gouache silhouette paintings and you know what? They work. They work big time. I love this color because it makes the black really stand out. Plus, it’s kind of a vague color. What’s in the background? The sun? Fire?
I had these gouache paints laying around collecting dust and I thought to myself “why not?” Sometimes, you just have to do things like that as an artist.
Well, now I’m going to use this color until I run out of it.
You need models who are good dancers
Well, not everyone paints humans. But I do. Specifically, beautiful women for my fantasy pinup art. If you’re new to this site, I use primarily two models – Allie (the blonde) and Roxy (the brunette). They’re both very close friends of mine and both excellent dancers.
You see, a girl who can dance can also model. Even better, a girl who can dance can do pretty much anything. Dancing is grace. Dancing shows character. Dancing shows that a woman likes living life.
I don’t like devoid personalities. I’ve worked with models in the past who may have well been good looking zombies. Because that’s as much personality as they had.
I got lucky. Neither of my current models are models. Of all the models I’ve worked with in the past before I started working with Allie and Roxy, I’m only friends with one of them.
Several of them I enjoyed their company. One of them I really wish I got to know better because she had a lot of brains and was a downright fascinating person. Another one made damn good soaps and lotions and I’m still a customer of hers.
But now that I’m a painter and not a photographer, dancing adds a whole different layer for modeling.
That image above covers the first two random artistic musings. That was the specific medium yellow gouache I was talking about. Both are of Allie, from live model sketches we’ve done recently.
Running is underrated
“What? What does that have to do with art?”
Last night, I drank way too much. We killed a bottle of Japanese whiskey (quickly becoming one of my favorite drinks) and on top of that, I split a small bottle of absinthe with two other friends.
Drinking too much though is no excuse not to get out of bed. The alarm still went off at 7AM and rather than not doing anything, I got up and ran. Yeah, I should have stretched. My calves didn’t feel too good afterwards.
However, running helped get the remaining alcohol out of my system so I could paint.
Heck, I don’t even like running. I do it because I don’t want to die. I hate doing anything cardio. I love lifting weights. But cardio? Hate it.
Running is probably best of the worst for me. So that’s why I run. It’s my favorite exercise of the exercises I hate but still have to do. If that makes any sense.
After the run, I pretty much came back to life. Stretched. Then got a lot of painting done.
I don’t like wasting days. Running salvaged this one for me.
