Best Intentions

It tends to be a lot more likely I get things done when I commit them to writing, so here I am to describe what I hope to be producing in the next month or two. I've sort of been letting these ideas evolve in the past week while I did a lot of cleaning/organizing (which I'm still not done with) but I'm getting to have time to start working on them seriously. In the meantime I've been doing a lot of experimental practice sketching, mostly just seeing what I've learned that has stuck and what I need to work on, and what the most useful techniques are. It's funny how you sort of have to "compile" the skills after the fact, and see how they fit into your own processes and techniques.

Anyway, the Summer Art List:

1. The Big Project: I've used photos of amazing and stunning Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva for reference for one of my WoW characters for a while, which always makes me feel a bit guilty. So in return, I'd like to do a painting of HER, doing what she does best, magically leaping very high. I have in my closet a 20"x48" canvas that's been sitting there a long time, and I think it would be awesome to do a monochromatic value painting of her, in a good deep blue, with maybe a few red highlights. I've started doing some preliminary sketches off photos, but it's going to take a while to get together the right pose, lighting, and background. I'll probably be doing a charcoal or two, maybe even one full-size, before I start to paint. I don't expect to get it done before maybe August.
   
   
2. Cat Faces: I love painting cats. I've mostly done it in Photoshop and Painter, but I just bought two 8"x"8 gallery-wrapped canvases and I'd like to try it in oils. I also want to focus in and do *just* the face, on that square format. It's a little like "Green Eyes" below, but I want to zoom in even more, so it's just the cat face.
   
   
   I would love to do more cat commissions, but I think what scares people away is the digital format I've been working in, and also all the fiddling with different reference photos and getting poses right and so forth. If I can just work from one good photo and make a unique little oil painting, it might be something people would more likely go for. I'm going to be doing two of our dearly-departed kitties for the two canvases I have: Peter, who was a silver tiger and had a gorgeous striped face with a ruddy nose, and Maggi, my mother's adorable, round-eyed tortie-and-white. Not only will they be nice samples, but I will certainly find a good place for them to hang in the house, and when I can manage it I will do Bruce (above) to match.
   
   
3. Last but not least is a little experimental project I want to do, surrounding a lot of nature photos I've taken and a batch of little 5"x7" canvas boards I recently bought. After finally getting the gist of what Impressionism is all about in my last Art History class, I want to try to loosen up and do some painterly, impressionistic paintings of ... natural things. I was going to devote myself to trees, but I might just pick out a number of interesting photos and paint from each one, and see what happens. At very least I'll hopefully make some things along the lines of "Rocks, Wind and Trees" but more focused and more a snapshot than a landscape like that.

So those are the personal plans - I also have a logo I'm currently working on and a big drawing I have to do of my WoW raid group for our get-together in August. My intersession course started yesterday and WOW is it compacted. 15 weekly modules over the course of 18 days, so generally one module is gone through a day. I was hoping it would be something I could do quickly each morning, but these past two days it's taken me two hours to get through all the material and assignments!

Anyway, there are my plans! I will complete them! And I will make updates along the way!