Tag: Blogging

31 Things, Day 1: Painting

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31 things I'd rather be doing right now

The first “real” painting I ever did was 20 years ago in the 10th grade. It was an acrylic painting of the Tree of Life, a 400 year old tree in the middle of the desert in the middle eastern country of Bahrain. Looking back, I know that the technique I used in painting it was all wrong, and yet it looks really good. It’s one of my favorite paintings I’ve ever made. Today it still hangs in my mother’s house.

I thought I was going to make a lot of paintings after that one. I loved watching Bob Ross on PBS whenever I got the chance; his style amazed me because he was able to make realistic paintings in a very short amount of time. I tried his wet on wet oil painting technique for 6 or so paintings; even though it’s harder, I liked the results a lot. I gave some away as gifts, the rest I kept in a box somewhere. Most were not very good.

Over the years I’ve moved around to new homes, always carrying my painting supplies with me, but I haven’t lifted a brush in over a decade. I miss it. I would like to stretch myself and not paint realistic things, but rather something impressionistic. I’ve also seen some stunning watercolors mixed with pen and ink drawing; that looks very interesting, so I would like to try my hand at that too. I’ve also promised my wife that I would paint “our family” as trees, each tree a different member, with a little sapling for our baby we lost to a miscarriage. I haven’t forgotten, but time has a way of getting away from you.

Tonight I found my favorite painting in the box I mentioned earlier. It’s an oil painting called Nightstorm, using Ross’ wet on wet technique. I loved how the clouds and trees turned out, especially their light reflections. The photo I took tonight doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea.

Nightstorm

It just hit me now that this painting has the same monochromatic blue color scheme as the cover of my novel, which I also designed myself, but I painted it almost 18 years ago! Guess I like blue.

Talking about my cover, it brings me to another aspect of painting I’d like to try, which is digital painting. I made that book cover using some Photoshop filters on an existing digital photograph. That’s not the digital painting I’m talking about. I’m talking about actually painting with my hand, using one of these:

wacom

I’m blown away by some of the things people make using Photoshop and a digital pen and tablet. Someday, I would like to do something like this amazing digital painting:

View post on imgur.com

Whenever I paint again, it will be because of my near-uncontrollable need to create. I love to create something beautiful that wasn’t there before I started. (This is a common theme you’ll find in almost all my posts this month.)

So that’s something I’d rather be doing right now, painting.

31 things I’d rather be doing right now

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31TIRBDOctober is the month for a blogging challenge called “31 days,” where a blogger is tasked to write every day for 31 days about the same topic of their own choice. I already needed to invigorate myself into a blogging habit, so, challenge accepted.

My problem is I like a lot of topics – too many topics, really; how can I pick just one? Then, I thought, “hey, why not talk about them all?” So my take on the challenge is to talk about 31 things I like to do, or would like to do. If in your mind that doesn’t really fit the spirit of the challenge, too bad; get your own blog.

Comic courtesty of wondermark.com

By way of introduction, I’ll say it is very nice to know that I’m not alone in this aspect of my personality. According to Margaret Lobenstine I am known as a “Renaissance Soul,” someone who has a love for a great number of activities and wants to pursue them all. I read her book 4 years ago, and I was able to curb my enthusiasm for a little while, but lately I find myself wanting to go do a lot of things again. Maybe it’s time to re-read it. In any case, for the next 31 days, you my dear reader will get to see all the things that are bopping around in my head all the time, and why I enjoy them so much.

I’m calling this series “31 things I’d rather be doing right now” because no matter what I’m doing at the moment, even if it’s one of the 31 things, I’d rather be doing one of the other things. The Myers-Briggs test classifies me as a “P” as opposed to a “J.” They stand for “Perceiver” vs. “Judger,” which doesn’t help clarify things much; wikipedia says P’s “keep things open,” and J’s like to “have matters settled.” That’s pretty good, but in high school I learned a mnemonic device to remember it better: “P’s like the PROCESS of doing things; J’s JUST want it done.” I’ve never been able to find anything on the internet to corroborate that explanation, but it’s always stuck with me because it’s always been true about me. In many ways, I like doing a thing more than finishing it, which is why I can hop around to other tasks without finishing previous ones. Drives my family crazy, but hey, that’s me. It’s not that I can’t finish things or don’t want to (I published a book, after all); it’s more along the lines of, “ok, this is fun, but what else is there to experience over here as well? It’s the as well is what gets me into trouble: I want to do it all, and there’s just not enough time in a day/week/month/year/life.

Enough rambling. Here’s the list below, which will grow as the days goes on.

Who knows? By the end, maybe some of y’all might be able to help me think of ways to combine all of these. You’d get a big high five from me, so you got that going for you.