DAY SEVEN: Jelly fish, girls, and dissidents

Yes, that is what I will be painting in the next few months. I've planned out my next 11 paintings and I've started a new one today. I just finished the drawing on the canvas. It was the only canvas I had left in the house and I thought that the size (3' high by 4' wide) would be virtually perfect for my subject matter, which is a girl laying down on her bed in dark room. She is laying under a window, and there is light coming through in these really pretty jewel tones. Its a nice painting. Sad, and nice, and just what I'm good at. But about an hour into the drawing I realized, "Holy shit this girl is going to be huge." Not just a little hefty, but like the BFG, or Andre the Giant's girlfriend. I finished the drawing anyway. Out of laziness. It took another hour. I need a sense of accomplishment before I go to bed...but I'll probably still destroy the drawing in the morning.

I do want to take pictures of the different stages of my painting and give you guys an idea of my process. The materials I use and the steps I take during the creative process are somewhat strange compared to most artists. I'm reluctant to give away any tricks of the trade, but more than that, I HATE showing my work to people before its done. Ask Tom or my roommate, Josh about the extent to which I completely flip out when they look at my canvas before its done. He (Josh) even brought up my (mis)behavior in one of our talks about feelings (Ugh!). According to him I'm volatile, insensitive, and I have a mean streak. Okay, duh. But I make good comfort food. So, basically his relationship with me is a vicious cycle of tears and binge eating. Okay, I'm kidding. I don't make good comfort food. But I do throw him some packets of ramen every once in a while, so I hope he feels vindicated. But really, his accusations of me are based wholly on ONE incident when I snapped at him for looking over the top of my canvas. Cry me a river.

Regardless, I'm making a sacrifice for the sake of shameless self promotion and I'll post a bunch of pictures every step of the process. Maybe I'll even do a video or two.

Anyway, I'm headed to bed and if the drawing I just made survives until tomorrow, I'll take some pictures.