It's a draw.

Started to get my motivation back this weekend, and went to Alia's place for a session with the live model on Saturday, here's what I came up with:

I've been having a hard time with shading recently... well, actually, all of my life, but I only just realized it last year when I was in a drawing class at Studio Escalier. I seem to get the value scale out of whack, and my figures then end up looking wrong, or hairy. Sigh. Alas, always a work in progress...

Dormant.

This week has been a not-great one, motivation is low and paint activity is slow. Sigh. I think a couple of things are getting to me, not the least of which is our current geographical limbo. Anyway, since I have little to report on the painting front other than ongoing struggles with portrait projects and my own work, I'll make this a "flashback" entry to a painting I did back in '06:

Botzaris, 2006, oil on panel, 20"x16" by me, Diane Feissel.

Phew x 2.

Ok, bullet dodged. Data is fine, hard drive recovered. Backup external hard drive on its way to me. Wallet is lighter after this computer debacle/escapade, but so it goes. Now I need to decide if I can afford another laptop... sigh.

In the meantime, hope everyone out there had a great 4th of July. Mine was spent cursing the trend of planned obsolescence in the field of electronics. Happy Independence Day!

Phew.

Okay, the painting got in (see my previous post). Phew.

And now for the other anxiety: my laptop died, and I'm now waiting to hear back whether or not a resurrection is possible. Stay tuned. Though blog posts may be less frequent until computing issues are resolved. Sigh.

A newer, cuter You.

Cross your fingers for me that this painting gets into the upcoming juried exhibition "Seeing Red" at Visual Art Exchange in downtown Raleigh:

meet your replacement (a newer, cuter You) 2009, oil on printed fabric, 24"x36", by me, Diane Feissel

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Anniversaire.

38 years ago today, I arrived. Just in time for dinner, so I'm told: 6:01pm. Never was big on mornings, so arriving in time for a meal and the rest of the evening/nighttime sounds about right.

For my birthday weekend, I indulged a painting itch: I've been wanting to try painting on mylar. Now, I had always thought mylar was a substance more of the metallic variety, like those helium balloons... but it turns out that it is actually more vellum-y, a thin, translucent plastic-y sheet with a silky smooth surface. Sounds cool, huh? SO my first attempt was just a motion sketch in oil (see below). So far? Meh - the surface isn't nearly as fun to paint on as I would have hoped... just slippery enough to make the paint slide a tad more than I'd like, but enough tooth to keep things a bit sticky. Hmm. Anyway, here's what I have so far:

R.I.P. oh strange noseless one.

Ok, all his personal peculiarities aside, it is very sad (though I guess on some level not too surprising) that Michael Jackson has passed. Talented but truly troubled, an altogether strange individual with a charmed yet deeply unfortunate childhood. Alas. In his honor, I post the following, a video of a live 100+person reenactment of the "Thriller" video in San Francisco's Dolores Park back in 2007... it's a good reminder of that which is awesome about Michael Jackson, and about San Francisco: