Next

Ahhh... what to do next... what to do next. I've been busy lately. I've had a few freelance gigs going on and I've also been working on some drawing of my own. I've just finished seventeen drawings in ink of strange faces made up of various shapes, curves and lines. Each takes about four hours so my time has been filled. I like drawing faces. I find it interesting. The weird thing is I don't really know what they're for. Most of my drawing is with an end in mind of making finished colored painting, print, comics, or such. I had no end in mind as I did these and now that they are finished I'm at a loss as to exactly what they are. It's a strange feeling.

I want to do some painting now that I have a little time. I need to start something new. But first I need to think about painting and I'm a bit tired. Bad sleeping lately because of some minor back pain. This sleepy state leaves me to wonder instead of think. I wonder what are these drawings I just did? I remember a vague idea for them related to making them into a comic but how to do that I never figured out. I started them anyway.

I also want to make a book. There is a site called lulu.com that prints books to order. You can sell the book there too but I just want to make one. Except I haven't thought out what I want it to be yet. More contemplating to be done. The drawings could have something to do with it but what? A lot of wondering and yawning today and not much thinking. At least I got the grass cut.

I have plenty to do once I figure things out. I have a couple of small canvases all ready to go. I have a new batch of 22x30 watercolor paper just sitting here waiting to become something. I have six tubes of colored acrylic paint waiting to be all mixed together to make black. I use a black line as well as black as a color in much of my painting and rather than buy a tube of black paint I get six or so tubes of colored paint and mix them together. It makes a much richer black than any tube I've ever purchased. I learned that reading about Ad Reinhardt the master of black paint.

I think I want to pull out my gouache paint too. That is what I'd use with the watercolor paper that I mentioned before. I usually use gouache to make small, about 5x7 inch, paintings. I haven't painted that size in awhile so I want to give it a go. Of course that means I'd have to figure out what I'm going to paint instead of just wondering about it.

I still have a pile of small, 8x10 inch, canvases that I do my acrylic painting on. I'm not sure if I want to mess with those right now but maybe I do. I'll have to dig through my drawing books to see if there is anything I want to turn into a painting. I could draw in my drawing book too. That's how most of my work starts out. As a tiny little pen drawing in my 5x7 inch spiral bound drawing book. The drawings aren't even 5x7. I almost always do several on a page.

Sometimes I do nothing but make image after image in that book and then go back and look at them weeks later to see what's there. I'll even go through my drawing books from years gone by to see what I did. Often something I didn't even notice at the time I made it will stand out and get made into a finished piece years later.

For a change of pace I might want to work on a photograph. I've been taking pictures but I haven't made them into anything finished in a while. Most of my photo work is done on the computer and I've been on it so much for freelance work that I haven't wanted to mess with any photos. But maybe now? I gotta clear my head and think. It's time for a nap.