iseecerulean

Honestly, I don't know what I was so worked up about.  The unfinished landscape was relaxing and enjoyable.  The abstract was more challenging; I painted a few but nothing worked...then I realized the artist wasn't painting yet, he was still drawing.

I am concerned, though, that the drawing is too....I can't find the right word...compact, small, dense...that there isn't enough white space between the lines, so that viewed from further than a couple of inches away it's going to look like a smear.  Husband agrees with that, he said it looks like a fingerprint. 

Then I thought, maybe that's how it should be seen from further away, then will come into focus, so to speak, when looked at through the window.

Sigh.  Now that I've loaded photos I have the answer.  I need a new sketch.

Here's a close up, so you don't have to squint...

I also painted the messy artist's easel and dirtied up her drop cloth.  I didn't want to go overboard on the drop cloth...she's not a slapdash painter, just too busy to be bothered with straightening up.

You've noticed the sconce is done....

Boy, was I glad I used matboard strips for the exterior siding, instead of wood strips.  I had to remove a section of three of them to install the wiring and battery concealment contraption.

Today I have to make a new sketch, glue the remaining items in place, glue the cement blocks together, and fuss with the candles in the chandeliers.  I also have to clean my house, it's a pig sty, and I have guests coming to visit tomorrow morning.

Did you know that one piece of spaghetti yields fifteen drawing pencils?

Did you also know that if you have a candle that has burned down so far you can't reach the wick with a match, that you can use a piece of lit spaghetti to reach it?

I took the almost finished studio to the office with me on Monday for critiques and suggestions.  I like to get the eyes of non-miniaturists on projects as well; they tend to see it not as a miniature, per se, but as a place.  Shutters and a cupola were suggested, but I had already thought of and decided against those early on.  A roller shade on the side of the porch opposite the chairs is a smart idea I hadn't thought of, and is under consideration.  More than one of my coworkers said I need a light fixture hanging in the porch, and that the studio needs to be lit.  I agreed those to be actionable items I need to address.

Also noted....the red paintbrush on the floor sticking up from the folds of the dropcloth wouldn't be sticking up like that, it would have fallen flat, in between the the folds...so I pulled it out.  And...my trailer fork is a bit long, isn't it?  That can't be changed, but it doesn't look ridiculously long, so it's fine.

Something else I discovered, while picking the piece up off my desk at the end of the day, is that the tacky glue stuck one row of cement blocks to the base, and the other to the bottom of the house, but did not hold the two layers of blocks to each other.  In hindsight, I should have known that, since I had to buy special glue to adhere the stones on the Cedar Kitchen.  I viewed the mishap as fortuitous, since it means I can flip the house upside down again without the base board in the way.

Flip it upside down I did, to install a chandelier in the porch.  I had an antique, pewter, non-electrified, one in my stash, that I got off ebay a while ago.  It's perfect for this space.

The candles need to be cut down, don't they?  Half that height, do you think?

The pewter is so pliable it bends when I so much as look at it funny, so I used the two holes in the base plate of the hanging rod to nail it into place, instead of gluing it into place.  I figured if I broke it during installation and had to take it down it was better to leave behind two tiny holes than a yucky glue glob.  I used my vise, gently, to straighten the hanging rod before I even started, it was all wiggly looking.

At this point, the only option I have to light the interior of the studio is to pop a light through the back wall.  I have LEDs in my stash, but I had to make a fixture.  When I sat down at my piled-up filth of a work table the end of the plastic tube I cut off during the bird feeder construction was in view, so I grabbed it, cut a strip of vellum to line it with, and used a paper punch to put a hole in the side to feed the LEDs through.  Easiest sconce ever.  I may dress it up with a metal looking rim on top and bottom, and/or a base plate...haven't decided yet.

I built a wooden box to hang on the exterior of the wall, over the trailer hitch, to house the wires and battery.  So that it looks purposeful, I made a quick louvered vent looking thing to put on it, from a scrap piece of clapboard siding.

While the paint was drying I measured, marked, and drilled a quarter inch hole in the wall.  There's no going back now.

I still have not started on the paintings.  It's been raining and I haven't been able to get outside to sketch any of the landscapes where I want to take the studio to photograph it.

I know I want a landscape and an abstract, but my mind is blank beyond that.  When I sit down at my easel to paint (which I haven't done in years) I've already had the painting finished in my brain first.  I have not, since I was a student, sat in front of an empty canvas and had to come up with something.  Susan suggested I have Husband and Daughter do some sketches for me.  I know Daughter won't, but Husband might, except Husband is feeling a bit under the weather.  I do, though, have finished pieces they've both done hanging on my walls, so I'll plagiarize those, I think.

Here are two of Husband's...I'm leaning toward reproducing his self portrait...

The other, if I can't manage a landscape, or run out of time, will be Daughter's study of apples, since I want the paintings on the easels to be in-progress and Daughter never finished this....

I will most likely, since I have the originals, take them out of their frames to have them copied, shrunk, and printed.  That will be an incredible time saver.  I can, at that point, either lightly paint over them (after sealing them), or use them as is.

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I went into my studio Saturday morning, and didn't come out until Sunday night.  Well, except for the necessities...I had to eat, sleep and pee.

My studio is trashed.  I went through my stash at least a half dozen times, and never put a box back on the shelf, I keep pushing forward on the build.

I wanted to finish, but only almost did.  That's okay, it means I have to paint two pictures and make some sketches during the week so that I can photograph next weekend.  I do have to photograph next weekend, because the weekend after is predicted to be full fall color. 

Oh!  I have to put paint stains on the dropcloth, too.  Don't let me forget.

While I'm on an aside...a big thank you to my best friend, text messaging, and instant feedback.  :)

After I'm done with photographs I need to make Susan's Halloween present, then back to passionflowers.  Shannon laser cut some pieces for me that I'm dying to try out.

I took absolutely zero pictures along the way this weekend, and made a couple of things from scratch (a journal and a birdfeeder).  If you want a tutorial on something I can make another, though neither was difficult and both have been done by others already, I'm sure.

Ready for bad background sneak peeks?

The only thing left to do is paint something for the empty easels.

It's been a very busy week or two here, I haven't spent much time in my studio.  I did get a bit done, in stolen minutes here and there.

I've got the artist's set-ups on my worktable.  I made jars of dirty brushes for the messy artist, which involved sanding down toothpicks to a smaller diameter, coloring them with sharpies, and inserting them into a glue/paint mixture inside a jar and can.  I saved most of Mike's pretty brushes for the clean artist, that way I only had to worry about making the handle end and not the brush end.

You'll notice that my second easel arrived.  I know I went on and on about the first one,  but this one is even more spectacular.

The first one is on the left, the second on the right.

The first easel had one adjustment...the stop that holds the top of the canvas in place can be slid up and down.   The second easel has three adjustments....

Ahhhh.....I'm in love....

Another new arrival...a shipment from Fabulously Flawed Miniatures...an afghan and pillow for the porch. 

I've already starched the afghan into place and removed some stuffing from the pillow.  I also starched a sweater into place on the back of the messy artist's chair.  I also accidentally broke the rockers off the wicker rocking chair :(

I've already made up my mind, based on the pics, but I want to hear your thoughts.  These are just quick put-togethers, neither is a detailed finished look, it's done just enough to get my ideas on paper, so to speak.

Concept One:  Everything in black and white (basically), with the only color being a brightly painted picture on the easel.

Concept Two:  A tidy artist and a messy artist sharing the same space.  You have to imagine there is a second easel in front of the white chair.   

I love you guys. I got helpful suggestions via comments and email that have enabled me to greatly improve the passionflowers.

First suggestion...eyelash yarn, but it's probably too big.  I thought so too, but I had some in my stash, so why not find out. 

No, that doesn't work.  But, it made me think of false eyelashes, and there is a dollar store a block over, so, again, why not find out.

It looks really cool from the top, but too bulky from the side.  I'd have to cut the eyelashes off and glue them on individually, which I may do for a specimen flower.  

I also tried another suggestion with this one, which was to build the flower on a ball headed pin instead of using a bead.  Good idea, and it looks nice, but it's not as functional.

Next idea...and this one was a winner....use unraveled grosgrain ribbon for the corona.  Genius!

I also used smaller beads for the ovary and did a better job cutting the center of the stigma smaller.  These are much more to scale...look at them in comparison.

The ribbon will be more time consuming, of course, than the punched paper, but the payoff is worth it.  The petal count is off too, but nobody will notice, these look so much more realistic.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.  I'm so lucky to have you all.   I can't wait to see what Shannon is mailing me.  :)