4/30 Blog #5: Frustrations

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog. Today, I'm going to talk about my painting experience this week. It was kind of a rough week for me, but after I watched some Bob Ross and listened to some Taylor Swift I was feeling good about myself. Lots happened this week so be prepared for a fairly hefty blog post. Don't worry I'll try to keep it as light and entertaining as possible, so stay with me here.

Unfortunately, we're not going to start with Bob Ross. I know, I'm sorry. We're starting with Mr. Will Kemp and some light and shading techniques. I learned how to paint a more depth and 3-D-like painting by using light, one light source more specifically. He taught me about the 3 parts of the object (light side, dark side, and cast shadow). You need to create a shadow line in the object, which is the line of transition between the light and dark sides. This is a lot more difficult than how it seems. You have to keep the two sides very different while maintaining a soft transition. It was very hard to make the dark side very dark, the light side very light, and make a soft transition between the 2. They're very contrasting colors, so it took some time. I watched a YouTube tutorial of him painting a realistic apple. Here it is alongside my painting:

Dangggg, that's one tuff looking apple. Get me my own art website or TV show😂. In all seriousness, though, I do think it's pretty nice. Sure the apple shape is a little funky, but that's not really the point of this practice. I needed to work with light and shading, and I think that my cast shadow, light side, and dark side are well done. I needed to practice this because I planned on painting the Kota the Friend album, "Lyrics to GO vol. 2". Quick description: literally just 10 brilliant, quick songs under 2 minutes. Yes, I would recommend it because Kota the Friend is a good rapper with some nice lyrics.

For some weird reason, I thought this would be fairly easy. It looks kind of simple, I mean just the sky, ocean, plants, table, and objects on the table. Ha yeah, no. I realized painting photos is much harder than any album I've done so far. It's a lot harder to mix paints into real colors from photos, like, I just couldn't get the table color right, and it was just a mess. Maybe I'm colorblind, idk. I can't tell if the darker part is brown or dark gray or if there's some green in there. I've got to either fix my eyes or learn how to mix those types of colors. Anyways, I didn't get too far before abandoning it. This was where I was at.

I was so frustrated with myself. Painting was supposed to relieve me of this stress, but it just gave me more instead. Once I felt this way, I had to look to my #1 stress reliever: Bob Ross.

This week's episode of "The Joy of Painting" taught me that almost any mistake on your canvas can be fixed. Just what I needed to hear. Bob Ross really comes in clutch with the therapy and counseling. Anyways, here is what he painted:

Good God that's pretty darn beautiful isn't it. Even Bob Ross makes a small mistake here and there, but he still ends with a masterpiece. Gee, that's pretty comforting, except for the fact that he's literally the painting GOAT and I've been painting for a few weeks🤷🤷. He inspired me to continue painting "Lyrics to GO vol. 2". After I abandoned it, though, I began painting an album I hadn't heard in years. Thanks to a recommendation from Lily, I revisited "1989" by Taylor Swift.

Listening to this album again really took me back to the good ol' days of being a 10-year-old (yes that counts as the good ol' days even though it's only 6 years ago). This album is pure pop, which differed from her country roots. I forgot how good some of the songs on this track were. "Blank Space", "Style", and "Shake it Off" are absolute bangers, and there are more like those. I didn't want to list 7-8 songs, so, yeah, just listen to the album if you haven't. You most likely have, considering Taylor Swift pretty much ran the world in 2014. Some of the less popular songs, though, are also very good. I had never heard of "This Love" or "How You Get the Girl", but they are delightful, too. Lily thought I wasn't a Swiftie, but I rocked with T. Swift hard during her peak.

Anyways, let's dive into my painting process. I was finally able to use my painter's tape, which was exciting. I taped out a box for the polaroid picture and painted it in with white and touches of yellow, khaki, and brown. I also wrote the "T.S." and "1989" because I didn't need to go too into detail with them because the writing is fairly messy on the album. Check it:

Next, it was time for the hard part. Her. If you look back at the album, there are many folds and light and dark areas, which is very, very fun. Also, the birds are complicated. Then we also have her face. WTF! Why did I choose to do this painting; it's pretty darn difficult. I don't have the skills for this. Ugh, whatever, I had to present you guys with something this week, so I continued. After much work, determination, and Taylor Swift music, I was able to complete this.

Man, everything was going great until the face. I miscalculated how high up the lips should be, and then it just went downhill from there. Overall, I'm happy with this painting. The shirt is pretty fire, but why does she have to be wearing that shirt? Why the birds? I think I did a good job with them, though. Especially some of the shading to make the wings seem behind the body. No matter how good the body and everything might be, I just can't with the face. Might have to fix it up later idk.

Although I wasn't able to achieve my goal of 2 albums this week, I learned a lot and faced my first true setbacks and frustrations. I was able to find a stress reliever, and I received some great advice. These two things I think are very important when angry or frustrated with something.

I'm happy I got the opportunity to listen to this iconic album once again, and if you've never heard any of the songs on this album, shame on you. I'm just playing, but seriously I would be surprised if you haven't. This album was painted because of a comment from Lily, so I'm open to some more suggestions.

I'll see you all next blog post, and I'll catch you later!

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik2gwIAgS1U

https://willkempartschool.com/how-to-acrylic-paint-light-and-shade-part-3/

[commented on Lily, Chloe, Clare]