Quandry

I spent my lunch hour working out some rough spots in our friend the Raven. I was thinking that it would be a good time to start laying in some greys. Turns out that in my desire to avoid "dark" and the temptation to use "straight from the tube" colors like a grown- up artist, I neglected to have a Mars or Lamp black in my kit. What I thought was black is actually burnt umber. And the other color I did not unwrap what a Chinese white... because I didn't want to "cheat" the save. Ugh!

Not only did I not want to leave the house after work tonight to buy eggs and a cake mix for this awesome banana cake I want to do in the crock pot. But I did not want to leave to get art supplies. So now... do I just go to bed to be ready for the day from hell tomorrow? Or do I suck it up and hit the stores?

A craft store on the weekends is like Walmart on Black Friday. Someone is gonna die and you pray it isn't you. And you pray there are no witnesses. In a crowded local someone will always notice something. Sheesh! Why do I think these silly little pissing contests between artists is what art is about?

Has anyone else run into that? There is a So and So school of thought and the Important Person Method of Doing Whatever. And then you have the  various trends, movements and techniques of the moment that someone is always trying to make out to be the most efficient or technically impressive way to do something. I am 42 years old. Haven't I learned that art is about what you feel and what the creative moment brings to people. NOT about how one guy can jack another in the profit margin under the guise of instructing the beginner. D'oh! D'oh! D'oh!

So... I think that I am going to work on other things instead. I want to introduce you all to my new studio mates & work up some sketches for an illustration of someone most of us know and love and have to learn to let go of before the addiction kills us. Or makes us stronger. Whatever. And I know that none of us gives this guy a thought for most of our lives. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I did some research so that I could say something witty WITHOUT eating my sole I wouldn't even know about the guy.

So... more to follow.