Yesterday my mom came to visit and she helped paint in the grey suit on W.C. Clark.

This picture was taken and converted to panaromic from three pictures by my brother David. He came to visit for the weekend, and yesterday he helped paint. Notice Alicia on one side and myself on the opposite.

It was so great to be out on the wall again today! Even though my fingers were shaking from the cold and my pants were covered in mud from kneeling, it felt theraputic to be painting outside and with such purpose. I was asked while on break inside South Austin Music what I was working on, and I quickly responded, "i'm having fun coloring." They laughed and jabbed, "staying in the lines?" Ironically, while growing up I could never stay within the lines with crayons and my big sister Annika would just let me color the middle parts. She has been my most enduring fan.
Dealing with color is a much more relaxing venture compared to the previous "drawing" stage. Where color is more intuitive, expressive, and ultimately forgiving; drawing is bound within the science of perspective, relative proportion, and reason. Particularily in dealing with people's likeness, more focus and patience is needed to get optimal results. Both stages I love with a passion, but nothing is more gratifying than laying down the finishing touches at the end and seeing the final outcome. That motivates me now more than ever.

For those reading this who don't live in Texas, these last couple weeks have been icey cold and wet. Not good conditions for painting my mural outside, which is quite frustrating since I really wanted to be done by this time. The good thing is that it has given me some time to hangout down in waco at Harts N Crafts, my wife's giftshop, and I've been able to focus more on my personal work and direction after the mural. I know I want to work on at least one other big mural this year, but in the meantime I'm developing a concept for a new art show and also in talks with a friend of mine over ideas for a cool graphic novel.
This unfinished pencil drawing (5"x7") shows the early development that my paintings develop out of. You can see that a heavy emphasis that I put on the eyes. In them, you catch about 80% of a persons likeness, character and vitality, or "life". I establish the directional planes of the face through parallel lines, and add depth through hatching and blending. It's a good idea to determine early on where the sides, top and bottom of the head will be placed to keep the over all image in perspective. Then add in the rest of the features and establish the larger overall shadows, while keeping in mind always the direction that the light is falling across the three-dimensional surface.
Check back soon to see how it develops.

So yesterday was a pretty busy full day. I managed to finish at least a good first coat on all the lettering, so alicia can have something to work with when she comes to paint with me. That will free me up to focus on more problematic areas. I also touched the last of the faces including the WC Clark, who may need color changes in the end to meld better with the other characters. His skin color is a bit saturated for my tastes, of course it's a bit bit difficult to put it all into perspective without the other color in the clothing to balance it. So I will be continue on with the clothes now and try to really get that quickly.

This is a little sketch I did recently while driving in the car. It began with a couple of leaves and grew organically from there.

Unfortunately, I was a bit distracted by having to pick up my car from the shop for an oil change today, and did not take a picture of the progress. Check back tomorrow for all new pictures and more color.

Today the weather was perfect. It was sunny and warm with a cool light breeze. If you stood in the shade it would actually make you cold, so it was a lucky thing that I am hit with direct sunlight all day long. There is literally no point in the day when I'm not exposed. I had lots of people stop by to talk me and I even gave out a couple contest sheets, to win a free t-shirt. (if you don't know what I'm talking about, I attached the flyer to one of my previous posts)
Painting also went well. I'm back in the groove again with selecting the appropiate brushes, and I seem to be able to translate the proportions I see on my reference to the wall faster. All I have left now is two faces to complete and then I can start painting the clothes. The lettering on top is a breeze, but the color doesn't cover very well. I remember red and yellow both being bad about that in my first mural for Buzzard Billy's in Waco, so I think after I get the initial coat down, I'm going to leave it up to Alicia to clean up. That's kinda her expertise anyhow.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to finish those last two heads and letters above. Then if I have time, I want to start experimenting the clothes. I figure it should be the easiest stage, and if it turns out to be at easy as I expect, then I may ask my new friend Tie-die Scott to help me "fill in" the color. He's between work and can use the extra cash right now, and I wouldn't mind focusing on more challenging areas. Plus the sooner I finish, the more I can help out Alicia with the store, Harts N Crafts. It's her busy time of the year!

Happy New Year! After a long vacation visiting family and my short visit to Waco to help Alicia at Harts N Crafts, I got sick with the flu and missed out on working this past weekend. Which was a huge disappointment! Plus Alicia had to return to Waco to work during Baylor's Rush (Sorority enlistment), which left me having to fend for myself on the couch, watching old war movies on the history channel and football. The weather was gorgeous outside, and I was perpetually either too hot or too cold in my fifteen layers of clothing, two blankets, and heater running. The sickness has now moved mostly into my nose and throat, but I hope to make a full recovery by next weekend.
Anywho, this morning I woke up early with Alicia and got some Tamale House for breakfast. So good and soo cheap. We eat there like five times a week, and it actually saves us money. Then I had to take care of my first driving ticket!!! I feel lucky and blessed to have made it this long without one, and once I take defensive driving it won't be on my record... but it still really sucks. I got it driving back from Abilene going through Temple (annika: yeah, i should have remembered your warning and honestly this time was the exception). We had both cats in the car and we were stuck behind this slow car in the fast lane, and finally got space to pass him when it turned into three lanes. I took off and a few seconds later I was on the side of the road shaking my head.
It was really fun painting today, and I was really excited to just be out there. The only disappointment was that nobody new came by to talk to me, but on the upside I worked diligently til about 4pm. I needed to move the scaffolding over to work on a different area, but i thought of alicia's advice earlier that day, and opted to go home and avoid pushing myself too hard while I'm still recovering. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and get started again!!!