Until my painting of Marvin the Martian a few days ago, I went nearly two weeks without painting (argh!) — quite an interruption in this almost daily schedule I’m trying to keep to.
We went to Oregon for a week, which was wonderful! We went for my brother’s wedding and then traveled around just a bit down the coast: walked for hours on beaches in Cannon Beach and Newport, and from the balcony of our hotel room in Newport, we watched whales surfacing off in the distance under a sunset. We saw a lot of art in Eugene and Portland and ate too much pretty good food.
It was also the first time we took an airplane in 6 years. We are trying to reduce our carbon footprint, and so have been traveling by train since 2005, but as much as we prefer train travel, it just didn’t make sense for this trip. The plane trips were not as bad as I feared; no crashes, no trouble with the TSA, no lost luggage, and only one really late flight (storms in Denver), though we did have to forfeit a bottle of water and a Leatherman. The clouds were awesome, which I really enjoyed (I take lots of photos of clouds from planes whenever I do fly).
I also came down with the worst case of allergies I’ve ever had, which I’m finally almost over after two weeks.
Plus, I got an illustration gig while I was vacationing that required me to spend two 14-hour days upon our return drawing illustrations for a book publishing company in London (and two days in recovery from staying up late drawing with a mouse!).
So, I’m feeling the interruption, but trying to get back into the swing of things. For this painting, I decided to paint something soft. This is a small stuffed Bugs Bunny toy. I used only 4 colors in this painting: white, cadmium red, thalo turquoise, and—just for the eyes—black. I attempted to use very few, yet descriptive, brushstrokes; standing as far away from the easel as possible while still allowing my hand and brush to reach the canvas. I think I succeeded in not overworking it, but did I underwork it? I’m not totally sure.
