Back In The Saddle Again – Work In Progress

Moving towards painting without drawing first. Didn’t say how I was progressing in that arena, just hoping that someday I might befriend proportion and scale without drawing first. Until then……

Willow charcoal is loose, ethereal, rubs off if you exhale too close to the canvas. Good for keeping loose, so I purposely remove some line work as the paint goes down or else the dastardly pitfall of filling in can ruin the gesture.

So just as Stella was getting her dormant groove back, I had to leave this piece and be away for a week. I’m going to seriously try not to muck it up since painting on top of already dried paint sometimes leads me to that dreadful trap of adding too much, playing the game of chasing values and almost reproducing an entire second painting over the dried one underneath. I said I’d try.

Please hope I succeed.

Now THEY have succeeded in convincing me that after a week away, walking them would have more merit than watching me twist in the wind figuring this stuff out. ” Oh, just take us for a walk and forget about your whining”……….

You cannot ignore 4 eyes and 4 ears of this magnitude of cuteness and continue your mission.

I tried.

Really, I did.

Trying to ignore them.

I know when I’m done for.

Walking, it is.

I am a sap.

Where Did These Come From? When Did This Start?

Every site, every page, every paid advertisement on every search engine is suggesting another way to ” Lose that belly fat “,  ” 10 tips to a flatter belly “, ” Free, easy rules for a flatter belly”. Does anyone believe this? Like the birds on Hitchcocks’ telephone lines, these ads seem to pop up in one place or another and now that I’m bringing it to your attention, try to avoid seeing one.

And they’re about as free and easy as the Nigerian chain letters.

I actually think a little belly fat makes for a more inspired model to draw from: meet the goat man-

My favorite spot for a little belly fat, actually exists right here:

” I don’t care if your tummy IS a little round, I love you and want you to come out and play with me”

If those ad people want to strike a chord with a burgeoning market, they’d re-address their focus to the world of bloggers and painters who sit most of the day and re word the come-on to read:

” Follow this easy tip for a tiny butt “

Bet they’re reading this now………..