Little Black Sketchbook

It is the best feeling getting to the end of a sketchbook.  More often than not I'll prematurely start working in another one because I want a new size paper or paper texture, or I just lost the last one I was working in.  This little black sketchbook has actually stuck around for a while (although it was originally abandoned for about a year with only a couple pages filled).  The majority of it has been filled with notes I took while working in the studio as well as interning at Fuller Craft Museum.  The past month or so I've been filling it with sketches.  It feels so much better to have art in there than notes but with the combo of the two this sketchbook is definitely going to be a keeper.

14 Paintings Progress

I've been painting pretty hard this week, even at the studio now on tired Sunday! I'm really pushing myself to get 18 hours/week of work done for this project.

Each un-stretched canvas is 10"x12"

As you can see some of the painted edges come to a sharp and distinct edge while others are a little more loose. I began working with the tighter edges but decided to see what would happen with the visual tension if I was less focused on the hard edge and more into letting the mark making show itself.

I have a deadline to have the whole group of 14 to be done by February the 8th (which sounds a lot further away than it is!)

I really thought I would be blowing through these but I had a very tentative start. Each piece seems to be coming out a bit quicker than the last.

This one will be finished this evening and after that I'll be adding some Damar Varnish I made into my medium mixture. I'm very excited for this as I've never worked with varnish before and am looking forward to seeing the results once the pieces are dry.

Went out with friends last night and had a really fun time... ended up eating my friend's pizza and then almost an entire box of mac and cheese out of the pot with a spoon, always a sign of a good night. So now I am tired and don't really want to work, but I suppose that is part of the professional practice, working a lot and meeting deadlines instead of just doing it whenever.

It's just me, my coffee and coco puffs.. I think we can do it.

p.s. all of these colors are a bit more bright in real life.