Organize Thyself

I've actually taken some time to paint the last couple of months. Sometimes I even have to schedule it into my evening or weekend to make it happen - I'm a natural born procrastinator, so it's easy for me to be in La-La-Land and suddenly the day is over, and I have nothing to show for it. I literally have to schedule out each hour of my evening sometimes to motivate myself. I follow it somewhat loosely, but it actually works for me. I even schedule in no-brainer items because I find it helps give me a better idea of how much time I actually have to work with. I pad the schedule a lot, but this gives me more flexibility.

An example of one evening for me:

5:15-5:30: feed cats (no-brainer number 1)
5:30-6:00: exercise
6:00-6:30: eat (no-brainer number 2)
6:30-7:30: work on blog project
7:30-9:00: paint
9:00-10:00: watch Dexter (no-brainer number 3)
10:00-10:30: read book club selection

This seriously helps me! Granted, not everyone needs a list to motivate themselves or accomplish anything, but this is the best way I've found to hold myself accountable and actually cover a lot of bases that I'd otherwise put off for months.

Whichever way you slice it, it's allowed me to create this new painting I'm working on.

I had this idea in my head for awhile, of sort of a blended linear background with a representation of a tree, with circular leaves.

It started out with a mix of yellow-orange and blue lines, but then it evolved into a wood pattern. (I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos - I hope to invest in a better camera soon).

Then I started working on the tree. I had a picture in my head, but the image in my head always turns out differently than what I produce.

I decided my green circle leaves needed branches and a trunk so I had fun bringing them together using a Pitt artist pen.



I wanted more definition to the leaves, so I added some darker green highlights. I also added a little light blue to the the black trunk to soften it a bit.



I added a dark, dark, greenish blue to ground the tree and covered up the big knothole I'd created originally in the background. But the new color addition looked too dark and boring, so I started to mimic the circles in the tree leaves, swirling my paintbrush to create a circular pattern in the grass, showing through the yellow-orange underneath.



And here's how it all comes together so far.



It's definitely not a finished piece. I am only just getting back into this thing called painting again, so stay tuned for the further evolution of this little tree.