lizzconley.blogspot.com

2010-09-05T22:58:00.001-05:00

i can't believe it's september and i've posted a whopping 3 drawings to flickr in 2010. and 2 of them are unfinished pen drawings of someone else's photographs, so they barely count. what's worse is that i think i've posted everything i've drawn. and i haven't painted shit. dry spell i guess. i hate dry spells. they are the reason i will never do this for a living. i would describe the "regular" me as kinda moody, but the "artist" me is definitely bipolar. so far i've spent 2010 stuck in my lethargic, depressed phase and i'm looking forward to the inevitable mania.
wish it'd get here sooner.

2010-04-19T20:10:00.002-05:00

bought a slide projector at an estate sale recently. can't say that i've ever wondered if my nose would look good at this scale, but at least now i know for sure.

2010-02-09T22:36:00.002-06:00

this photo was taken exactly 29 years ago. in the photo taken right after this i'm scowling in my sleep. proof that i was tired and grouchy from birth.

2010-02-07T19:39:00.003-06:00

my horoscope today is annoyingly pessimistic:

"you're obviously incapable of being happy in a relationship so just avoid them all together."
thanks a lot Rick, real supportive.

2009-12-07T17:58:00.003-06:00

graphic design nerds are the best kind of nerds

2009-11-02T23:43:00.004-06:00

a while back i bought a package of markers with seriously annoying names. but i made a little discovery hiding amongst the cutesy colors: Fandango Pink is just a fancy name for magenta, Hot Aqua is really cyan, Blazed Yellow is just plain old yellow, and Tuxedo Black is, well, black. add some mylar to the mix and what do you have? why, a completely masochistic art project! super fun times!

i drew all those freaking dots by hand (masochism, remember?) with each color on a separate sheet of mylar and then stacked them up with a little spacer between each layer. the layers only line up if you look at it dead center, from an angle the registration doesn't quite line up. makes it kinda hard to take a photo of, but in person it give it a cool 3D effect.

2009-09-02T23:45:00.004-05:00

i've been wanting to incorporate a playing card into a drawing for a while now. in a normal card the images on each end of the card are identical, but i love the idea of them being the same but different. originally i imagined this as being the same person on both ends of the card, a sort of exploration into the duality of human nature. but the structure lends itself well to identical twins too. permanently linked and yet obviously distinct.

the whole drawing is only about 5x7 inches. i don't like the texture of this new cardstock (the surface doesn't hold up well after many waxy burnished layers) and it's terribly hard to draw a face at this size, but i still think you get the idea. if not, go educate yourself.

2009-08-27T23:59:00.003-05:00

i really wanted to post something but the drawing i'm working on right now is not done yet. maybe tomorrow... i hope so! it's been fun/awkward/challenging and i'm ready to enjoy the final piece. i generally don't title things, but this one makes me think, "antici........pation!"

but i did do something "productive" this week. I have this old wooden trunk that was given to me for a birthday or xmas when i was about 10. i wish i had pictures of what it looked like when i got it. let me just say that it was purchased at a truck stop (not kidding) and that "country" and "whimsical" would not be inappropriate adjectives. it was absolutely hideous. i got rid of little patchwork bears and bunnies painted on the outside a loooong time ago but never got around to doing something with the inside, besides ripping out the quilted blue fabric & white lace that it was lined with. So i finally decided to finish it off with a lining. I cut myself a little lino-stamp and went to town on a big sheet of brown craft paper. Here's how it turned out:

not too shabby!

2009-07-30T00:21:00.005-05:00

the deadline to enter Gamblin's torrit gray competition is fast approaching... will i manage to scrape something together in time?!?

actually, i shouldn't say 'scrape something together.' I listen to my headphones all day at work and this week i've been listening to a book on tape about procrastination. the author points out that one of the reasons that people procrastinate is to set themselves up with a safety net against potential failure or criticism. this way if your final product is less than perfect, you can blame the lack of time and not yourself. and if it's a success you give yourself an extra little ego boost because you can say to yourself, "if people think this thing i threw together at the last minute is good, they'd be blown away by what i can really do." this is also the reason that projects go unfinished, can't be a failure if it's not even done.

i absolutely do this. with everything, every time.

i'm not done listening to this book yet. i haven't gotten to the chapter where they tell you how to solve this problem... otherwise, this tube of torrit gray may go to waste.

2009-07-19T20:58:00.002-05:00

i posted something a while back about checking out painting books from the library and have since gotten a request to be more specific. so. my library's art section is not very big but something is better than nothing, right? i try and avoid the generic 'how to oil paint' books that are ridiculously basic (i only need to learn what a filbert brush is once and i already know what happens when you mix red and yellow). there are also a bunch of catalog-type books that have lots of good images, but lack any sort of explanations regarding process or technique. i tend to grab books on portraiture or figures and since i'm after tips on technique i try to make sure the demos are in oil. below are the books that i have bothered to check out. i think these were all published in the 80s and early 90s and it definitely shows, but once you get past the dated hair and clothes, the techniques are still perfectly relevant. all 4 of these books have good step-by-step photos and explanations.
"Portraits in Oil the Van Wyk Way" by Helen Van Wyk
"Ramon Kelley Paints Portraits and Figures" by Ramon Kelley & Mary Carroll Nelson
"Portraits from Life in 29 Steps" by John Howard Sanden
"Painting Expressive Portraits in Oil" by Paul Leveille
(i also scan or take photos of the books before i return them so that i can refer back to them whenever i need to without having to re-check them out.)

hope this helps. :)

2009-06-27T22:39:00.004-05:00

i found a loophole (don't you love loopholes?) to my art-selling problem. I have the option of donating the piece for the silent auction they're having at the show. if the piece sells, i get half. if it doesn't sell i get it back. my problem is solved and i've donated to a worthy cause at the same time! how come life doesn't always work out like this? it would be so much more convenient.

wish i could say i had some new art to post. let me see if i can scrounge something up... nope, i got nothing.

2009-06-15T17:55:00.005-05:00

this is going to be in an art show in August, which sounds like a bigger deal than it really is. now i have to decide if this is for sale or not and if it is, the price. i don't have a problem with selling it, but putting a price on something makes me feel very self-conscious. i have a really hard time judging the 'value' of something i've made. i look at it and i see a old scrap of cardstock that's been colored on, i see the parts that i wasn't satisfied with. oh well, i'll probably sell it anyway. i'll wait until the last minute and then pull some number out of my ass. i'm sure it'll be underpriced, but at least it might sell that way. of course, they also want to know if there are more for sale, how people can contact me, my website... just the thought of having to price other art also makes me want to mark it 'not for sale.'

i'm being a lazy and childish twat right now and i'm perfectly aware of that. i think all the time how great it would be to just make art for a living and not have a day job (these are day dreams, okay? they're not supposed to be realistic), and here i am being all weird about selling one little drawing.

ugh... why did i even post this

2009-03-31T20:56:00.002-05:00

i've put myself on art house-arrest. or maybe it's art-house arrest... either way, i'm locked up and not coming out until some things get finished. i've got 6 (6!!) paintings going and 2 big drawings. that's way too much unfinished work sitting around. and i just keep buying art supplies! my local art shop obviously bought way too many canvases last fall and now they're always on sale (and we're talking nice big canvases for dirt cheap here, like buy-1-get-4-free cheap). which obviously means that i have to keep buying them. i just counted 20 stretched canvases in the hall closet, plus 2 more that i bought yesterday. add to that the 21 small unstretched ones i've already primed and my house arrest is starting to feel like a life sentence! also, i think it's very sneaky of them to have the canvas on sale and never the paint.

so i'll see you all around xmas time. if i make any progress you (and flickr) will be the first to know.

2009-03-24T00:21:00.000-05:00

Look! it's not me!!

drawing other people is fun.

2009-03-07T04:09:00.003-06:00

i didn't really have anything to post, but i felt that i should post something since it's been a while...

i obviously have too much free time since i drew my own halftone. seriously, who does that?

they're supposed to be the windows to the soul, right? this could be cool if i hadn't drawn it on a painted page in my moleskine. the texture is not working well with the colored pencils.

some big drawing of someone i don't know. i'm learning that i have a really short attention span for art. if i don't finish it in one sitting there's a good possibility that it will never get finished. i have proof of this theory. lots of proof. this whole blog might be proof.

2009-02-10T21:30:00.005-06:00

i feel like i should explain this somehow. but i'm not sure i need to and i'm not sure i can.

i'm still working on this. the hand seems really big to me, but if you look at the original photo it's quite accurate. i think since the fingers really pop and the shadow under the hand has gotten a bit lighter, it's lost it's anchor to the body and seems more prominent than before. the colors in this photo are a little wonky too. i tried to correct them a little bit, the yellow tones on the arm and hip don't looks as harsh in person. the wrist and arm need to be brighter, the light hitting the hip much brighter. bringing those areas forward should help with the hand too. right now the hand has life and everything else is kinda flat.

2009-01-25T13:17:00.004-06:00

i've been painting like mad this week. i've started 3 self-portraits with one more canvas ready to be prepped. they are all still very rough, but turning out much better than i expected (or am used to). i wasn't going to post anything, but i just can't hold it in. this is the newest and roughest of the three so far. 12x16", oil on canvas.

i like the other two even better, but i'm going to wait and post them when they're finished.

2008-12-11T22:29:00.003-06:00

working on another selfportrait. i'm starting to feel a bit narcissistic.

i'm actually quite pleased with the way this is turning out. not my exact likeness, but close enough.

2008-12-02T22:09:00.006-06:00

sometimes i think it would be cool to do a giant self portrait that was made up of these little 5" square drawings...but who has that kind of time?

2008-11-23T01:38:00.002-06:00

such a sweet face! don't let the spiked collar fool you, she was a total pansy.

i love seeing how a drawing progresses. i documented the stages of this drawing and posted them at my flickr page in the comments for this photo in case anyone else is curious to see the process.

2008-11-11T19:20:00.002-06:00

this is how i looked today.
part of my 'squares' project, more at http://flickr.com/photos/lizzconley/

Prop 8

2008-11-10T20:45:00.002-06:00

Fill this out, mail it/fax it/email it in.

A church should not (will not!) have this kind of influence on the legislative process. There is supposed to be a separation of church and state in this country and this is an obvious crossing of that line. The religious beliefs of one group should not effect the civil rights of another, ever!

Tax Exept PDF

more info at:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Prop_8_Supporters__Tax-Exempt_Status_Questioned_Los_Angeles.html

http://lds501c3.wordpress.com/

2008-10-19T22:07:00.004-05:00

my approach to painting has always been much like my approach to drawing. i'm not sure the technique is all that great for either medium, but it certainly wasn't working with paint. i tend to start in one area, usually the eyes, and then when i'm done there i just keep expanding to the rest of the face. this is why my proportions are generally out of whack (see previous post). normally i have an okay eye for color but, again, my approach tended to work better with pencil than with paint. with colored pencils i put down the light colors first and then build in the darks. and since no pencil is exactly the right color there is lots of layering and tweaking of the colors that i've already put down. using this same technique with paint makes a hideous mess and always ends in disappointment (again, previous post). i decided that since my approaches weren't giving me the results i wanted, maybe i should try someone else's technique. i checked out a couple of books from the library and i can already tell that they are really going to help.
this quick little self-portrait, even though it looks like crap and still needed a lot of work when i stopped working on it, has taught me so much! it felt so strange to approach a canvas in a whole new way and there were a couple of moments when i nearly gave up and wiped it all off. but i toughed it out and i think i might have actually learned something.

getting really tired of drawing my own face!

2008-10-05T21:48:00.002-05:00

this is not a flattering picture of me. for some reason lately whenever i draw a face i make the eyes too small. i did that here. it makes me look a little cross-eyed and my nose looks enormous. oh well.
this is huge too. 2x2 feet. what the hell am i going to do with a huge, unflattering picture of myself?

2008-09-25T21:53:00.002-05:00

I really need to work on drawing from life and not photos. The most cooperative subject I can find is, unfortunately, me. The dog has no patience these days!
I'm so tired of drawing these stupid glasses, the second lens is always a bit out of whack...

2008-09-21T19:01:00.004-05:00

these were fun, but make me feel a bit stalker-ish... so this may be the end of the Tegan & Sara drawings, at least for a while.

2008-08-28T22:02:00.005-05:00

I decided to try a color portrait in oils because the black and white stuff was getting a little tiresome. I'm still working on it so this isn't a very close shot, but it gives a sense of it's scale. I guess I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm a bit sad that it's not my photo and was used without permission so I can't exactly do anything with it, but I intended to hang it in my apartment and I think it'll look pretty good on the wall.

Original here: flickr.com/photos/rooze/2668704754/
Finished here: flickr.com/photos/lizzconley/2833006612

2008-08-09T21:27:00.000-05:00

another black and white in oils. now, if i could only do this in color....

2008-08-04T23:49:00.005-05:00

I've been messing around with doing some black & white paintings lately. These are all on 2x2' plywood panels in oil paint. Of the 3, the first is the most 'complete' but I'm sad that it's lost a lot of the texture that is still really visible in the last one. I'm really liking the hands but I think the body has gotten way too smooth.

I have yards and yards of an old canvas drop cloth from a screenprinting class I took in college and I've slowly been cutting away at it and painting on little scraps of dyed and wrinkled canvas. This weekend I painted a bunch of tiny 2x2" squares on a section of the canvas and then filled the squares in with tiny oil paintings. I'm not sure I really ended up with anything great, but I had a lot of fun and feel excited to do some more. I really want to get to a point where I'm feeling more comfortable with painting in oils. I also want to spend some real time practicing skin tones in paint. That's a place that I've always felt very unsteady.

2008-06-30T22:14:00.003-05:00

A couple of recent commissioned portraits.

and a quick self-portrait from an old photo of me.

2008-06-22T20:30:00.005-05:00

i never post anything these days.
here's a bit of what i've been up to...

a portrait i did as a father's day gift:

there's a mother's day version in color, but i think i like this version better.

some quick sketches from my sketchbook:

begonia:

been painting lately

2008-01-13T00:25:00.001-06:00

a couple of recent thingies...

2007-12-10T22:05:00.005-06:00

sometimes i doodle

2007-09-24T23:12:00.000-05:00

sometimes i glue stuff

2007-09-02T20:48:00.000-05:00