Berry Flavoring

I used to have a massive sweet tooth. I still do, but it's under control since my sugar fast in January. (By "sugar fast", I mean that I spent a week taking the NYT Challenge as a light suggestion.)

When in college, I would buy little tubs of meringue from Trader Joe's and eat them straight, several in a row. With my high tolerance, I would not get sugar headaches until meringue number 5 or 6. (And by that point, I had basically turned into a meringue.)

Even now, I maintain a small, child-like delight for Peeps and other artificial things. ...including black cherry MiO for seltzer, a close cousin of cherry cough syrup.

On that note, I would very much like to try whatever Italian soda I've invented here.

This painting took around three hours, which is incredibly fast for me. The process flowed well. I experimented with a few techniques and practiced layering "mountains". I have also been obsessed with this grape-y purple recently, and love how the colors turned out.

These smaller 5x7-inch panels have been very inspiring to use. My next project involves several of these panels, so it may be a while before I post another acrylic painting, assuming I pursue that idea.

Addendum #1: Paint Mop

I despise wasting paint. But when I cut back, I severely undershoot and end up not mixing enough for what I need. It is impossible to get the exact right amount out – that is a known rule of the universe.

For creativity's sake, it is better to overshoot. So with all the excess paint, I've decided to repurpose them to create non-serious paintings.

On blank canvas, I'll partition areas for every color of the rainbow. Then I'll add to the painting bit by bit with whatever I have leftover at the end of every paint session.

I am thrilled with this solution. I will feel less bad about extra paint and it's a good way to do more abstract paintings.

Moonbeams

My new painting, "Moonbeams", is an easygoing project.

Since I learn something new from each painting, today's lesson is that shadows and highlights aren't the chore I thought they were. As an unexpected benefit, shading also helps me agonize less over getting the exact right colors since you have more chances to balance everything out.

Speaking of chores, the biggest one is usually the background. Canvas absorbs a tremendous amount of paint and little patches of translucency has become the bane of my existence. I have to squeeze flat my precious paint tubes to get enough paint for full opacity, and I wince every time!

(I have since bought an economy-sized jar of white, and devised a solution to combat the scarcity mindset. More on that in the next post.)

Moving on to discuss this piece, I am particularly drawn to the straw grass and the shooting stars. They really help convey the vibe of a calm, soothing night in a not-so-distant land. The large, fluffy creature is also terribly cute.

My only complaint is that somehow, the painting feels a little pedestrian. That is to say, it is not as obscure nor a mishmash of concepts as most of my other pieces. A real departure from my style... hah! I love it.

P.S. Comparing to the original sketch, I forgot to put a swing under the lower branch. Is it better without it?

Pet Projects

After a short break from painting, I got back into my painting happy place. I used a smaller canvas, which seems to be easier to paint. This one feels like a classic Faith piece, with the boxes, the animals and the list-like variety of elements.

The design was inspired by my favorite beach towel, and my recent (2-year) infatuation with cheetah-print clothing.

I love this painting. I like having an element of interactiveness, as people can identify the animal patterns and decide on their favorite. If they are so inclined.

Note that none of the animals here overlap with my animal pinball painting. Because we Never Repeat.

As bonus materials, here are two other small panels that I've held onto for several weeks. Both were quick and simple, but rather symbolic, capturing a key lesson from therapy and a tribute to the BLM demonstrations.

Mid-May 2020

Mid-June 2020

Repetition, repetition

Every night, my family congregates after dinner to watch Murdoch detective mysteries, while I paint and listen. Now, the theme music acts like a Pavlovian trigger for me to set up my station and begin my nightly paint session.

For a couple episodes, I gave my full attention to the show and found myself hiding under a loosely-stitched knit blanket for most of the episode, watching through the holes. The full power of the suspense was killing me. So apparently I can only watch Murdoch when multi-tasking with art. Good implications for my art skills, and finding the time to hone them.

In exploring different kinds of art, I picked up hand lettering recently, in my third attempt over the years. Calligraphy practice is very repetitive, so Murdoch is a perfect pairing. (Progress comes surprisingly quickly once you invest the time.) Now that I have crossed the barrier past shaky lines and mediocrity, I have been writing everywhere, whenever I can.

More hand lettering designs to come as I assemble my colored marker collection.

High Expectations

Little me learned to play Canon in D during piano lessons, when my short legs dangled past the edge of the bench just barely. It is one of those songs that makes you want to cry.

I regretted to discover that it is a wedding song, which makes it overplayed. But if I ever throw a big party, I still plan to hire a quartet + pianist to play this and I will select the rendition myself.

The core idea to paint Canon in D has seen more iterations than any other idea I've had. I tried everything. Umbrella with raindrops, Four seasons, Raindrops with a kite, a Jumping fox.

Ultimately, I wanted to paint more rainbows, so I settled on the idea below.

Well. I have to admit I was initially disappointed with this painting and how it diverged from my vision of sophistication. In trying to use more vibrant colors, I have yet again created a painting for a toddler's room.

Although I like to create variety, I realize I may want to home in on a more consistent style to refine my eye. The baggage of my original vision notwithstanding, this painting is happy and cute. It is the aesthetic of my childhood and perfect wallpaper for a baby room if I sell it on etsy.

Note the cameo by Woodstock from Charlie Brown

New technique: Using glazing liquid, which creates a smooth sky gradient and the translucent glow of the sun.

A Thousand Flowers

Some people get a sense of satisfaction from solving puzzles. If a puzzle takes too long, I'm perfectly fine with going straight to the internet to find the answer.

Last night, my sister started a puzzle-type video game. She spent an hour clicking around a small chamber, figuring out the rules. I would go bonkers with impatience.

I prefer constrained puzzles where you know the rules and use them creatively. Sudoku, zebra puzzles, syllogisms. Playing Mastermind is my hidden talent.

I view it as: when I look up the answer to unconstrained puzzles, I am simply learning the rules for next time.

On a tenuously related note, our painting today is a garden maze.

Designing and engineering the maze was a big highlight of the process. The painting process itself was quite repetitive. The tricky part was that I couldn't tell if it was good until every section was filled out. Thusly, I had to redo a couple sections repeatedly, though it was worth it in the end.

My mom suggested to add a Pac-Man chomping through the maze. Cute idea, but rejected!

Inspired by a rainbow flower wall that I found in New York City.

If anyone is confused, the grassy green path is the maze and the colorful flowers are hedges. The bottom strip is a watering pool.

Flower inspirations (left to right):
Cherry Blossom, Sweet Pea, Ranunculus, Gerbera Daisy, generic field flower, Pansy, Morning Glory

Animal Motion Machine

Brainstorming for this project kept me up way past my bedtime for a couple nights. In the make-believe world of this painting, live spherical animals continuously roll through a ball run for perpetual fun.

Animals follow a specially-engineered path:
1. Vacuum tube sucks animal to the top

2. Swinging flap holds animal back until the next one bumps them through, thus regulating the pace between animals

3. Animals roll down paths on both sides, ideally at the same speed

4. Animal crosses sides through the drop turnstile, to enjoy both sides alternatingly

5. Bottom platform releases two animals when all six spots are filled, ensuring symmetrical release and throttled pacing

I chose 18 animals from a huge list, looking for variety in color, interesting traits and balanced representation of different ecosystems (safari, forest, sea). It was awesome to include more eclectic animals, like a peacock (which looks more like a robin with a headdress, as you will see).

Row 1: Panda, Hedgehog, Rhino, Giraffe

Row 2: Elephant, Lion, Koala, Alligator

Row 3: Manta Ray, Peacock, Walrus, Dino Egg

Row 4: Whale, Tiger, Bunny

Row 5: Jellyfish, Raccoon, Sheep

Some standouts:

- Best execution: Bunny

- Best idea: Dino egg

- Family's favorite animals: Koala, Lion, Elephant

- My real-life favorite animals: Hedgehog, Manta Ray

This painting took on a baby-nursery vibe, which was not intentional. I'm scared of bold colors, so everything went overly soft. Regardless, coming up with this concept was really fun and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Looking for Variety

Last year, I took a three-month sabbatical to travel, bouncing between city vs. nature destinations, nicer places vs. less nice places, traveling with people vs. traveling alone. The itinerary optimized on having variation, which is my MO.

This is a complete sidebar: In India, people say that foreigners get scammed into paying high prices. The bottom line is that you need to know the standard price to haggle properly, and it's actually quite easy to figure out. Let's say you want to buy a single clementine. Just take 1/7th of the US price as the approximate benchmark for what you should pay. (Per my experience in specific cities.) Clementines are around 50 cents in the US, so haggle towards 5-10 cents in the rupee equivalent. This rule of thumb works for every day goods. For products that only foreigners or rich people buy, like perhaps a Snickers bar, market price seems closer to 1/3 of US price. This is a ballpark guideline that worked for me. Most importantly when haggling, you must be willing to walk away, and if they call you back, you know that you haven't gone too low.

Back to the main point on needing variation, I always feel like I'm missing something if I'm not mixing it up. I made a quick piece to experiment with different art styles, on the subject of planets.

Order of planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Color Play

It is so satisfying to create colors. You just mix, mix, mix until you achieve the shade you have in mind.

Watching Bob Ross mix colors, he would just "dab a little of this, then dab a little of that". Well, my paint sessions are much less efficient, time-wise:
- 30% (time) Mix colors
- 5% Spritz to keep palette wet

- 40% Paint
- 5% Wait for painting to dry
- 20% Scrub off mistakes

For the sake of efficiency, it is very important that I avoid remixing colors. So, I bought a massive pile of tiny resealable containers to store mixed colors. Now I can store to my heart's content.

Onto the art of the day: I had rainbow colors left over from another painting. It took 45 minutes to mix 9 colors. I couldn't let the colors go to waste, so I made these super quick rainbow panels!

Oh look, a handy dandy color wheel for reference on color theory.

Word Art

Between the more labor-intensive paintings, it's nice to intersperse simpler ones that refresh the creative juices.

The center element of this painting is inspired by Braille. The border is lined with song lyrics. Braille and lyrics are two unrelated ideas smashed into one painting.

Today I Learned: Braille has a short-form that contracts common strings like "th" or "people" into single symbols. Thus, the online translator caveated that truly accurate short-form Braille ("Grade 2") has to be translated by hand.

I actually love how this painting turned out, as I think it looks nice from afar and up close. Super fun!

By the way, this is my second attempt at painting on wood and it worked much better this time.

I hope this painting is not cultural appropriation to the community of people who are blind. I wouldn't think so, but I hope not. The painting is in fact completely flat.