GerAmyUm
The Book Wall
I have 20 more days to finish my GerAmyUm book. For inspiration and so I don't forget that yes, I am making progress, though at times it feels like very little progress, I strung up some wire across a wall and using clothes pins I attached each completed or semi-completed illustration. I don't know if this is right or wrong but it works for me. And I need any trick that works for me. Because this past weekend didn't work for me so well.I miss the beach and so I decided to decorate my bathroom using a beach theme of soft breezes, sea shells, gentle shades of blue- green, the color of sky and water .... ahhh ... that's what I was going for. So I thought I would paint the top half of my little bitty bathroom above the chair rail a gentle blue.
It's not gentle blue, it's, "WOW, that's blue!" And considering there's not another blue thing in my apartment that really smacks you upside the head. And when I look in the mirror the blue really accents the shadows under my eyes and makes me look pretty zombie like. It's not good. So for the week I will have to bear this color and next Saturday I plan to correct it. I just am so frustrated. How cold I be so off on color! Yoiks. Stay tuned for next weeks corrections.
The First Page of GerAmyUm
I've been working on this all day and am so excited to have the first page of "GerAmyUm - An Awful and Glorious Tale of Growing" finished. I've only painted this four, yes four times. My goal is to finish the illustrations of this book by the end of August. My perfectionism has really been a big problem when it comes to working on this. Sometimes what I'm painting doesn't seem good enough. But I've decided to try my best to work through it. It's hard. But finishing this 2 year old project is more important than perfecting it to incomplete bits.
Meet GerAmyUm
I'm half way through my summer art class at the Art Center. As with any class I've taken, I never quite know what to expect. However, what has been the most exciting and surprising is the other struggling artist/illustrator students in the class. They've been extremely helpful, honest and encouraging. So, some of my questions about the GerAmyUm book were put to rest with their input. For example, I was having a really hard time coming up with a face for GerAmyUm - I think because I really didn't want to put two dots and a smile in the middle of a geranium. My classmates told me they didn't feel one was necessary.
So, meet GerAmyUm...
I had hoped to finish the illustrations for the book by the end of summer... (what was I thinking!!!) and all the work I've done up to now seems to have produced nothing. But I have to remember, I needed these wrong paintings to realize what I don't want and what doesn't work. And, I'm that much closer to getting the look and feel of what I want. That's a HUGE part of the process - all the work that does NOT go into it. No sketching, erasing, painting is a waste. Art and growing are both glorious and painful... Someone made a comment the other day about how painting must be so relaxing. I thought about it for a second. Yes, there are moments. But all in all I don't do it to relax. I get a massage, take a nap, watch a movie - that's what I do to relax. I paint because I feel most alive when doing it - even if I get mad. And trust me plenty of arches papers has been thrown across the room like a Frisbee. I hope to post another painting for the book soon - but I've got alot of wrong painting to do first...
So, meet GerAmyUm...I had hoped to finish the illustrations for the book by the end of summer... (what was I thinking!!!) and all the work I've done up to now seems to have produced nothing. But I have to remember, I needed these wrong paintings to realize what I don't want and what doesn't work. And, I'm that much closer to getting the look and feel of what I want. That's a HUGE part of the process - all the work that does NOT go into it. No sketching, erasing, painting is a waste. Art and growing are both glorious and painful... Someone made a comment the other day about how painting must be so relaxing. I thought about it for a second. Yes, there are moments. But all in all I don't do it to relax. I get a massage, take a nap, watch a movie - that's what I do to relax. I paint because I feel most alive when doing it - even if I get mad. And trust me plenty of arches papers has been thrown across the room like a Frisbee. I hope to post another painting for the book soon - but I've got alot of wrong painting to do first...
The Weed
In my "GerAmyUm" story, she encounters a weed. A weed that grows fast and furious ... (dont' want to give the story away) I was delighted to find a weed growing in one of my potted Geraniums... Can you believe it? What are the odds, especially since my porch is on the second level. It grew sooooo fast. 
So from this I roughed out a "sketch" of GerAmyUm with her weedy neighbor. I'm not finished and still working - it's funny, even weeds look pretty in watercolor.
You can see how I have my work cut out in making this weedy neighbor look a little less pretty and alot more annoying and pesky. Strange, I'm missing the color "pesky" and "annoying" from my pallette. I'll have to go mix it up now...