Illuxcon and Separation Anxiety

  So, this past weekend I went to a convention called Illuxcon.  I have wanted to go for years and this year, not only did I go, but I showed some art in the 2 night Showcase event.  Needless to say, being my first show, I was a nervous wreck.  And on top of it all, after planning and waiting all year for this, I came down with a terrible head cold the night before I left and was sick all weekend.  But it was a pretty great experience despite feeling like death warmed over.  I would have like to talk to and meet more people, but I just wasn't up to it and I didn't want to subject people to my sickness.  Everyone was so nice and I got some really positive feedback.  Enough to encourage me to keep it going.  
  In the first hour of the first night, I sold my most expensive painting on the table.  It was also my newest painting, 'Nightflight'.  Having only finished it only a couple of weeks before, and being my new baby, it was quite devastating to sell it so quickly.  I really didn't think my stuff would sell, not like that.  And had I sold one of the other, older paintings, I would have handled it better.  When I realized the man might be about to say he wanted it (on his 3rd pass by the table within about 10 minutes time), I started to panic and wanted to rip the price tag off and say it was a mistake.  But that would have been very unprofessional of me and I just went with it.  I am still having pangs of regret and separation anxiety over the piece, but I am forcing myself to let it go and turn my thoughts to moving on to another painting.  I think I would be much better about it all if I had gotten a really good photo of the piece first (which I did not) so I would at least have that.  Live and learn.  The new owner seemed a very nice man and I believe it will have a good home.  He has also told me that he will try to get a good photo of it for me, so that will be great if he can.
  So, now I am recovering for a few days and the ideas for new works are churning in my noggin.  I am thinking of doing a couple of shows in the coming year, so I should have plenty to blog about in the coming months.

This was my table at the Showcase.  Sorry for the terrible lighting...I should have changed the setting on my camera. And it's blurry.  I was sick, remember?  ;-)

Nightflight

So, we are going to call this done.  As with most paintings, it is never really finished, you just gotta stop working on it.  So, I have stopped working on it.  I signed it and everything, and if you know me, you know I never sign anything.  It is something I am trying to do more often.  Now, on to the next one!
(Oh, and I gotta get a better camera, so sorry for the so-so photo)

Almost...

I am so close to finishing this one.  I will be glad to have it done.  There are so many things I am having to do without really good reference and it makes it that much more difficult and it shows.
So here is just a cropped bit of the almost-done piece.  Hopefully, I will have the finished product by the end of the weekend.

There are some parts I am really happy with, and others, not so much.  I will post a better picture of the entire finished piece in a few days :-)

Dragons are Hard

First, I should say that I have never attempted to paint a dragon before.  And I am finding this first one to be quite a challenge.  It is a great learning curve and shows me that I would like to learn to do more dragons, as well as other 'creatures'.  Much practice is needed, so I will add it to the very long list of things to practice more of and more often.

This is a very much in-progress shot and the color is off due to on-the-fly-with-bad-lighting camera shooting:

Also, other parts of this piece which are in progress:

Hopefully I will have this done (or mostly done) by the end of this weekend.  That's the plan, anyway.

Somber Faces

This is something I need to work on.  Expression.  Blank or somber faces are easy and the go-to when drawing or painting.  It is a bad habit and I need to stop it!  It's not that they are terrible, just boring.  One of the many, many things I need to work on.  It never ends, not that I want it to ;-)

My Cluttered Little Studio

I have a studio which is more than many artists have.  So that is nice.  I see so many posting photos of their art space and it is small and cramped and they produce wonderful art anyway.  So, I should be producing better stuff than I am.  Not enough time spent in there is what I suspect the problem is.  Anyway, I am always very interested in seeing other artists work space, so I decided to post a bit of mine.

Back in my art school days, my classmates would make fun of me for organizing and laying out all of my tubes of paint and brushes every class.  Things haven't changed much in that regard.  It is an OCD thing, I think.  I work better when my tools are organized.

I built the brush holder and the paint tube rack myself. 

A few of my paintings.  (Some in the back and top are studies or mastercopies of other artists work.)

My easel, which is really a table.  Real easels bother the heck outta me.

I have a drawing table as well (and another in the house).  And stuff tucked everywhere!  But it is cluttered neatly!

Unfortunately, I do not have any windows, but I like to work mainly at night, so I guess that really doesn't matter.  And I have to use an air conditioner to filter my air and I have to run it in the winter, too (but just on the fan setting).  It is a decent space, but the bathroom is all the way in the house and it never fails that just when I am really getting into the paint, I have to make the hike.

New Blog and Nightflight

I am terrible at keeping a blog.  I am such a procrastinator and just lazy in general.  But I am gonna try this again.  I hope to use this as a place to put up ideas, sketches, progress of my paintings and just artsy stuff in general.
 First up, an idea that I have been moving forward with for my first dragon ever.  Not to happy with the wings and I am more than a bit intimidated with the nighttime lighting, but I am going with it anyway.

This last one has been worked digitally a bit to see if I like it or not.  So, the actual painting doesn't quite look just like this.  I will post other progress later.
Yay!  My first new blog post is done ;-)