Spent all day yesterday dealing with computer “issues”. Spent all day dealing with what should have been a very simple process of renewing a lease but proved a serious test of my patience. Ugh, paperwork. Ugh.

Yes, I’ve done some paintings but they’re left unfinished…

I made this one to practice hair/subtle shading on the face. Like I said, she’s unfinished… I just can’t for the life of me figure out what it is that she’s looking at.

Obviously her hair is left undone and I didn’t even begin to color her shirt, but I wanted to practice my drawing and I promised a daily painting, so… I figured it was better to post a work-in-progress than nothing at all.

Whew, I had a terrible scare today — I thought my tablet was broken (yikes!), but as it turns out I just had to reboot my computer and all was well. Whew.

Coffee and tea have ruled my life ever since I decided to tackle Zen Cart. With painting, writing, and programming, I’ve been glued to my favorite coffee mug. It’s just a permanent fixture in my hand these days. The fact that I live right down the road from the British Imports store that has the best tea ever doesn’t help matters. Sigh.

Speaking of the Zen Cart site (i.e. bane of my freaking existence)… ugh. It has been totally kicking my butt. It’s getting to the point that I’m second-guessing every single thing that I do and making/remaking graphics that just get thrown out later. I actually had a nightmare about a website (yeah, I know). Zen indeed.

This painting was SO much fun! It’s inspired me to go a completely different way with my not-yet-live e-commerce site which excites me like crazy. I’m so glad that I started a painting a day, and would suggest it to anyone.

Random thought of the day: I miss Girl Scout cookies! The kids next door should get involved so that I can indulge in some Thin Mints… mmm…

In today’s painting I was trying my best to make a line drawing of a rocky surface. I’ve got a long ways to go, but I like the way it looks, overall.

Ohmigosh, if you have the chance, go see Wall-E! I watched it tonight with the Boy and I have to say, I think it is the best animated movie that I’ve seen since Sleeping Beauty (which I was solidly obsessed with as a girl). SOOOOO cute.

The faceless woman is unrecognizable but at the same time ubiquitous. Though her dress is a rich blue and her fur muff adds a touch of luxury, we still feel empty as we look at her. She’s bound, constrained, trapped inside of a box who’s very color seems to steal attention from her.

Sometimes, this is exactly how I feel, like I’m just… floating. Dreamy, aimless, hoping to avoid getting stuck in the phone lines…

I just saw this ear cuff on Etsy and had to have it. Had to. The owner of the store (hi Tina!) found me very recently and was very sweet, so of course I visited her site and… you know those things you see and it strikes you and you must have it? Well.

Also, Valorie of Battlemaiden Studio has started an auction on her blog of a gorgeous original painting (!), the proceeds of which will go to the family of a friend who is undergoing surgery. What a wonderful, charitable thing to do.

… and I leave you with those warm fuzzies. *g*

Ok, let’s be real: who knows how long this will last, but I’ve decided to attempt a painting of some sort everyday. It won’t always be good — in fact sometimes I’m sure it will prove pretty horrid — and I might not always stick with it, but if I force myself to sketch something or paint something, then I’m sure I’ll improve a bit. Right? Well, we’ll see anyway.

Eyes. I haaaaate painting eyes. Sigh. And my faces tend to be very 2D because I don’t use enough contrasting colors. Oh, and lips! Ugh, bane of my existence, lips. I’ve never really attempted hair. As you can see below, I opt for the oh-just-make-it-black-I’ll-deal-with-it-later excuse.

Day1:

There it is. I have a million things I could say negatively, but I’m not going to say a single one. It is what it is and it’s done and I’m happy that it’s done.

So there.

Oh man. I think that a trip to my parents’ “resort” was just the ticket to rev up my inspiration engines. I’ve been writing and having super vivid dreams that leave me with an intense desire to create, be it a story or a drawing.

I got my tablet last week — YAY! — and have been playing and experimenting. I really have to get my bearings with it.

That is not, however, a problem that my mother has. I showed her the tablet and let her at it in Corel Painter and, yeah, she shamed the hell out of me. WTF?

This was made within the first 10 minutes that my Spicy Mom played with the tablet. Yeah, she’s shopping for her own now. Here are two more she made up the next day:

Abstract sea-horses and

Jumping dolphin. I wish I had her skills with color!

Here’s my first Work-in-Progress with the tablet:

There are a few problems - the Boy calls her “The Quirky Concussionist” because her eyebrow is “quirking” (intentional) and one of her pupils is larger than the other (not intentional), which led me to believe that my beloved WIP has a concussion — but overall I’m happy so far. This is about 5 hours in — I work slowly — and she’s still bald, but what the hell, it’s practice anyway.

I feel stuck, like a ship with no wind in its sails (think pirate ship, not those fancy cruiseliners we have today that just propel around… ahem.)

It feels like I’m frustrated, afraid, angry, and lost all at the same time, which is infuriated and exhausting… but how can I be exhausted when I don’t feel like I’m going anywhere??! It’s like every time that I try harder and attempt to just squeeze something out of myself, I get more and more frustrated because… there’s nothing there. My artistic life is like a dried up lime that I left sitting on the counter too long and now my margarita’s going to taste all wrong.

I make this great sketch only to ruin it with improper shading. I have to poke and prod an ebay vendor to ship my tablet. I get india ink under my fingernails and the cat has found a love affair with licking watercolors which leaves me wildly searching poison control and watching her poop for irregularities.

Okay, Universe, I get it! I’m human. Can I just have a little inspiration now, pretty please?

Posting has been a little erratic and I apologize. I’ve been pretty scatterbrained lately. The thing is, I’ve been challenging myself artistically and, well, I feel pretty intimidated by what all I’ve been taking on. I’ve been trying to heed Julia Cameron’s advice from The Artist’s Way: jump and the net will appear.

Things on the home front aren’t too shabby; Ninja Kitty has a respiratory infection from the shelter which apparently is super common. It makes her left eye itch and she has to get antibiotics 2x daily.

(Note the paint on the Boy’s work shirt? Yeah, oops.)

She takes it well, even though the vet tech assured us that, although the medicine she gets squirted down her throat smells like children’s toothpaste, it must taste terrible because they always try to spit it out.

Not very ladylike, eh? This is her second-favorite place to sleep, right in the middle of the living room floor.

This would be her first: on top of her feather boa while taking up 1/2 of the couch. Oh, so cute.

Also, the Boy got me the best Wii game ever (as I am so very not a video game person). It’s called Endless Ocean and it’s just that: you scuba-dive around looking at fish and plants. The sharks don’t bite, there’s no time limit, and there’s even a deep-sea area. That’s my kind of game!