Our Painting I oil paintings were graded this week. I only got a B on project 1, a brown shoe (see above). Mr. Adams gave some pointers to improve it. I followed them, so should get upped to an A. The painting still needs more work on the funky insole. I'm a bit sick of it though.. I don't think it's possible to look at a dusty old shoe for more than a week without wanting to chunk it or dump paint on it. Who on earth would want a shoe hanging on their wall? Think I'll let it sit for a while and come back to it.

My Painting I Project II piece is a paperclip. We were supposed to come up with still lives. Since I got tired of the shoe in the first week, I decided to do something I couldn't get sick of - a light blue paperclip. It's on a nice purple construction paper background with a strong light, so has really cool shadows. The purples and blues are putting me in a much better mood than the browns, blacks, and mud tones of the shoe did. I decided to use a really big rectangular canvas and only show part of the clip. This painting is certainly going way more quickly than the old shoe painting. There is still a little bit of work to do, but not much.  

The only bad thing about my paperclip is that my hands will almost certainly have a blue tinge until it's finished. I need to remember to bring good soap to class. I keep forgetting it. Today I had to drive home with paper towels on my hands so I wouldn't get light blue fingerprints on the steering wheel. It was a bit tricky transferring the paper towels to shift gears, but I managed! I might as well go ahead and find blue nail polish that coordinates with my paint.

I'm glad I decided to branch out my senior year. I'm really getting into all of this painting. It's a good break. I'm planning to join Art Club. I've been interested in joining for ages, but have always thought I was too busy with other campus obligations. This year, there are ideas for a trip to the Frist in Nashville, an Empty Bowls dinner, weekly movie nights, and sale of artwork to earn money for museum trips. I can't wait!