What To Do in a Blackout

 Dear Gentle Reader,

When the power goes out and you are tired of speculating the reason, the sun is sinking low and soon you will be in utter darkness apart from the flashlight your husband is wielding as he gathers generator stuffs.  And  when you want to stay out of the way of said husband as he is doing other things you know not what because you have heard crabby escape from his mouth (rightly so), what is the best course of action?  You catch up on a bit of painting and portrait making! My GOD it was hot in that studio!

Enter the CreativeBug Portrait Challenge days 20-22. I watched the videos the day before, but I think I had a pretty good memory about rules and tools.  I would have liked to have reviewed what she shaded with the ink. Such is life.

Day 20.  Squirreled up face first with a ball point pen and then shaded in with watercolors.  As I said I did it in the very near dark.  I also used the remnants from the medical tray.  So colors were not exactly what I wanted, but I didn't sweat it.  Mostly I could not see to dig out paint. We need more flashlights in the house.  What about candles?  My asthma was bugging me for some reason.  Those were out unless it HAD to happen. Anyhoo, here he is.  First portrait I have done where his face to too long and thin!  Yay.  The pendulum will eventually settle in the middle.  I enjoyed his face. Oh haha, I see I chopped off his stylish bouffant.  There is one. My gosh the lip and shading under the nose. Pretty good for painting in the dark!  I didn't have to squint to see the shadows! I had to hold it up near my face.  We had the shades drawn to hold back the heat.

 

Day 21: Next day. There is light again.  And, more importantly, AC. I had two ink wells I thought.  Silver and blue.  It turns out I had india ink, but forgot until I am sitting here now typing away.  I wonder where it is.

Frankly painting this nice lady was not too enjoyable.  Maybe  I am overly tired.  Maybe I have other things on my mind.  Maybe I did not enjoy the photo.  Maybe I am weird. Maybe I don't enjoy painting with the inks on crap watercolor.  One false move and it looks bad bad bad.

So you paint on first with the lesser deep color all the shaded area and the features. Then you go back with the darker color.  I was thinking that she did not go back and darker highlight the cheeks.  I did.  Mistake. She looks graver than the photo. Downright grim. 

 

Day 22:  I think this was supposed to be india ink?  Can't remember.  He got drawn and water colored with a mystery black watercolor.  Yes, I feel like I phoned this one in.  AND I lost the photo.  Could I tear up the already scattered house to find it?  Could I have gone thru the trash I tossed because I thought the heat might have made more smelly?  Yes, I could have.  But I still like him.  He was not quite right angle wise and he is squatty. Still he looks OK.

 

The next three installments I swear I'll spend ample time with lest my degeneracy flourish and the whole project is for not.  I expect greatish things from myself next week!

Bonus Bear Experiment:

I was playing around with using colors not the colors of bears.  Do I love it?  No.  Do I hate it? No.  It is something I want to explore more later... with dogs. Of course.