Adding Grass…and Happy Trees!

I’m using too much water…which can’t be helped as my gauge and watercolor paints are all dried up and need water in order to loosen the pigment up again. And I seem to be having a problem in getting the shades and highlights right. It all just looks…muddy. I don’t like it looking muddy. It makes me think of my classmate’s project, back in my Painting for Illustrators class. He decided to do a collage of character faces from the Star Trek Series. I think mostly from the Next Generation more so than the rest of the shows. And his faces, especially the ones for the Klingons were…muddy. Ugh! There was no definition of high lights and shades in their faces…they looked bland and flat…and I’m afraid my plains are going to look the same way!

And using too much water isn’t helping any at all, because it makes it all look shiny before it dries, which means I have to wait until it dries up a bit before I can see how muddy it’s turned out. I know…a sign of impatience, and I’m sure there’s a lesson of patience to be learned here…which only makes me grumble and piss and moan to myself and random people who might happen to be online while I’m working on this. Breathe in…breathe out. All. Will. Be. Well.

If anything, I had to remind myself how to go back to dry brushing. It’s not all that hard to go back into, and I think that’s what I was trying to do before hand. Dry brushing is a very good way of making the grassy texture I was going for. However…it is a horrible waste of paint. If though you end up using small dabs of it, over a large amount of space…you end up using more and more and more and more…which can be very expensive if you’re not careful. So…for the most part, I’m trying to be careful, so I don’t wind up using more paint than I intended to. I think I’ll be mixing my base green up another five times before this project is through, though.

The more I look at this in comparison to the pictures of the original layout, the more I’m not liking how the mountains are turning out. They’re too brown…and not grey enough. I might just end up adding more white…more snow to them, as was seen in the original image I was using as a reference for them. References are key to making a good…plausible landscape setting. As it would with a cityscape and ocean view as well. It just…looks more real, more believable. I should definitely be fixing the mountains before I add in the trees.








And adding more snow doesn’t seem to be satisfying my dislike for the mountains. I had this problem when working on my dad’s submarine painting. I couldn’t get over something I didn’t like, that I thought wasn’t working out…and eventually gave up on fixing it only to find that…well…when you step back, it made the painting come together. So I’m putting my dislike for the mountains aside, and heading forth into painting the trees. Paint the trees, Cere…and you’ll see that it will turn out better. Trust yourself in this.

Heh…guess it only goes to show that I don’t have much trust in myself, huh? I should. I really should. I’ve got several other people, family and friends telling me how wonderful a person I am…how open and free spirited, not a drown of the ‘fashion/style/what’s new and wonderful and have to be a part of it like everyone else’ world…that I’m uniquely my own person and am more talented than I give myself credit for. And I’m overjoyed and amazed when someone values my skills more so than I believe them to be worth. Amazed…considering that most of the time I can’t get much recognition for my work. I’m not entirely sure why, though it might be do with my anti-social tendencies. I’m tired of the conventions…dealing with mass amounts of people…it’s the noise, honestly. I like peace and quiet.

And it might be why I’ve done better when I’ve picked up a commission during a primarily one on one conversation. Or a three way conversation…but either way…the crowd is smaller, and it is then that I get excited about the piece. My enthusiasm shines through more so in a quiet setting than it does in a noisy one. So…now…upon thinking about it and comparing personal experiences, I figured out now that though I might not be able to gain the recognition I might crave, or think that I want…but if I continue with just those personal conversations…one person at a time…then at least I’ve made a small step forward closer to being recognized. Heh…besides…aren’t the smaller things in life more precious and worthwhile?

Haven’t I always said that writing your thoughts out helped? Is anyone out there enjoying the chance to see how I make my revelations and help to bring peace to my scrambled mind again?

I did add trees, as you can see. But I didn’t get to type in my problems with them. My roommate had decided to occupy my computer by showing me Bob Ross’ ‘Happy Tree’ video footage…which made me laugh and reminded me of my high school friend that I had mentioned earlier a week or two ago. However, as appreciative I am of my roommate’s want to help me through my frustrations, he disrupted my routine, which made me more agitated than I normally get when I’m painting. Though…just looking at the thumbnails before I transfer the pictures from my camera to the computer…the trees kind of give a sense of depth to the painting…I think…