5/7 Blog #6: Genius

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog. Today, I will be talking about my painting experience this week, which was probably the best week I've had so far. I took this week just to practice painting, so I didn't watch any videos or focus on any styles/techniques. Unfortunately, this means there will be no Bob Ross section this week😢. I get it if you stop reading the blog at this point because he is the highlight of my blog. I suggest you stay because I had a good week, and I'm excited to share what happened!

Based off of my blog title, you'd assume I was the genius, right? Yea, no. I'm no genius at painting. I'm getting better, but I am still a beginner, I'd say. So who is this "genius" and why did I name my blog this? Well, it's Kanye West. Whatever notions you may have of him, throw them all away because he is an absolute musical genius. His beats, samples, lyrics, and production are honestly unmatched. I listen to a decent amount of Kanye, but Brett Darnell put me on the brilliant album "Graduation" that made me a full-on Kanye fan. I think I dislike only 1 song on the whole album. The rest of the album is straight heat. It's got lots of upbeat songs, but it also has some more mellow and chill songs that are pretty deep. It might be one of my favorite rap albums of all time; I'm not sure. Top 5-10 maybe?

Right when Brett told me about this album, I was intrigued because the album cover was super cool. The color scheme and design convinced me to paint this album. Check it:

You guys are probably thinking, there ain't no way Michael can paint this. I thought this, too, at the beginning of the week, but I wanted to challenge myself. Also, I couldn't wait to paint it because it's a hot album cover. I started by creating the background. I blended a dark purple, a reddish-purple, and an orange-purple. It took some time to get the colors right, and I still was never able to actually get the colors down.

See, my colors are slightly darker than the album. I really think I'm color-blind smh. Anyways, it looked close enough for me to move onto my next step: the words. I truly think it's impossible to mix neon pink/hot pink with acrylic paints. At least with the ones I've got. I tried searching it up, but they all mixed some crazy weird paints, like bruh I only have a normal red, pink, and white, cmon. I had to settle for a plain pink, which is fine, I guess. Then, I did the clouds. These colors were also difficult to mix, but I made it the best I could.

My next step was the bear. Honestly, this part wasn't hard, just time-consuming. I also had to be dialed in while painting. There were lots of details that required my focus, and because of this, I was incredibly proud of my replication of the bear.

Wow. Isn't that amazing😍😍? It actually kinda looks like the one on the album cover, crazy right? So, I'm feeling good with finishing up the album, but it starts to go slightly downhill after this. The details in the spaceship, launcher, college (idk) are crazy. There are so many colors and it was a lot of work. Also, my cheap paint is pretty thin, so it took multiple layers to make sure the white didn't show up from underneath. The little animals were also pretty difficult to paint because I could barely see the details; I kind of just had to do whatever for some of it. Thank you Bob Ross for helping me with the fact that it doesn't need to be exact🙏🙏. Alright, the moment you guys been waiting for: the final product.

I knew this album was going to be a challenge, and I think it turned out pretty darn good. Sure the rings are a bit weird, and the colors are a little dull compared to the bright and popping colors Kanye did. The details were very good, and I got in almost all of them on the canvas. I did forget one of the critters, but it's ok four is enough.

This week was difficult, but painting is relaxing, so I didn't really dread working on the project. I also got to listen to a very delightful album. I think this was definitely the hardest album I've done so far (as it should be since I should be improving), and it is a tipping point in my project. I'm going to start my more difficult paintings, so stay tuned.

Keep the recommendations coming people. I really appreciate them. I'll try my best to paint them, but even if I can't, I will certainly listen to them. I'm excited to keep going, and I hope you stay with me through my journey. 

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

[commented on Anoosha, Jake, Alex]