Works in Progress

I spent a big chunk of my Monday getting back to the easel. It felt good to be there. I need to be more selfish and make time for painting; schedule it, if need be. I'm ashamed at how little progress I've made on the two pictures I started back in November. Of course, I started out with planned paintings, because I wasn't feeling that confident about my skills, so instead of just jumping in and going with the flow, I've stymied myself with caution and planning and control. Not that those things aren't quite handy tools, in life as well as in art, but its been so long since I've been in the painting groove I'm not sure I can even claim the skill. Ever my own worst enemy, eh?

So these are what I'm working on right now. I know, I've added another one to work on. Mermaids are always fun to do and going from one painting to the next, while the paint dries, helps me keep my impetus. If I wander off to get a cup of coffee while the background dries, I may never come back.

This is going to be the hardest one of the bunch, because, ...shhh...I hate drawing hands, and this picture has several hands holding cigarettes in that intricate 1940s kind of way - because I LOVE to start pictures that I never finish. I like the grain on the buffet, though it still needs its drawers delineated. I'm still mulling over the faces right now. Its a delicate thing, because I will probably deviate from the photograph it's based on, but because it's my grandmother and great grandmother in this picture, I want to address the tension that's in the photograph. In the words of the Wicked Witch of the West (also referred to as Elphaba in Maguire's Wicked), "These things must be done del-i-cately!"

I know...don't say it...I know.

I've done so many mermaids in my life, I can paint them in my sleep. They're also good for warming up and getting going, for that very reason, and I'm sure there is someone who would gladly winkle this out of me, if I could finish in time for their birthday (did I say that outloud?) I really like the face of the girl in the front, and it's always fun to do the tails and then submerge them in the water, so the tails gleam up.