Tuesday, September 22, 2009

We almost didn't paint so we could watch Antique Roadshow

First of all, sorry for that last post. I don't know what happe-PAJAMAS!
Ok, I'm done.
I've been taking a painting class with some pals (Maura, Vince, and JK, aka Just Kidding. That's his name, Just Kidding. I'm not kidding. No. You don't get it. His name is actually Just Kidding. For real. Whatever. Have it your way.)
We've mostly been doing still-life's, which I've learned to love.
Last week we painted from a picture, which I'll show you another day because the pictures I have of it are really bad.
We also did a live, nude model but I missed it because I was sick. I'm pretty bummed because I heard his penis was really tiny. Like, invisible to the naked eye. (Is that even a pun?)
Anyway, last night my friend GabUSA came over to paint for fun and I decided to paint a miniature still-life from the miniature food I collect. (I've been thinking about doing this for our final exhibit. We have one.)
It was obviously fun but way harder than I thought.
Painting really small is totally different. When I'm painting bigger, I'm more carefree, I don't worry as much about each individual stroke. With the smaller stuff, I couldn't really do that because each tiny move is so dramatic. The tip of the brush was basically the size of a maki.
Which goes to show that the materials are also more important. For example, it's really hard to make small highlights and with a big brush.
Anyway, I think the concept of miniature still-life's is cool, but at the same time, I think the viewer needs to know it's a miniature to appreciate it. I think there's a clever way of doing this. Like what if I incorporated a normal-size hand moving an object in the still-life, or painted a matchstick or penny in the actual painting? (Too cliché?) Anyway, I'll keep thinking about it because I think something interesting/funny (at least to me) could come out of it. I'll show you when I figure it out/feel like it.

(the storm before the calm. it seems to be like that in painting)

(the set-up)

(Gab's pooch)

(seriously, 2 hours later. matchstick isn't painted. just for size ref.)