Blog #5: T minus 3 Days!

We are how approaching the final Ted Talk so fast, I'm getting motion sickness (does anyone have a vomit bag?) Taking an assessment of my skills that I've acquired and built upon for the last six weeks, I can confirm that I can sorta do glitter painting! WoO! Just not glitter speed painting. So, that's a bummer. But I'm used to failures at this point.

I mean all my timelapses and paintings reached about 40-60 minutes each, so I already suspected that I wouldn't be able to paint anything in less than 5 minutes. I still called it glitter speed painting, though, because that sounds cooler and less lame. So, for the rest of this blog post, whenever I call something 'glitter speed painting' it's short (or long) for 'glitter painting'. 

Now that the Ted Talk is becoming much more real, and less like a nightmare that only appears in the deep, dark depths of my sleep, I'm realizing that I need to choose a focus, and fast. Because so far, my paintings have been based on paintings that other people have made: easily recognizable famous figures, like Marilyn Monroe, Princess Leia, and my subject, Albert Einstein.

I need to try something new, more geared towards to myself and my own interests, because Albert Einstein, even though we are birthday twins, I don't feel like I'm expressing any of my creative interests when I draw or paint him. But it still wouldn't hurt to put him on the canvases I bought.

Yikes. I mean, it's alright. But my test on regular-sized cardstock turned out much better... In my opinion.

What I did wrong:

1. In general, I think his face shape is wrong. Either it was wrong in the cardstock photo or it's wrong here on canvas. There's something about the new one that feels too round to me.

2. His hair is just everywhere. My brush strokes were too thick, and couldn't paint fine hair.

3. Eyes, nose, mouth and other features are not well defined. This is a problem with any glitter painting.

4. I think a major problem that contributes to a lot of issues was the fact the paint kept drying. This is a similar problem that I faced when I was working with Elmer's glue. So frustrating, because I would then forget whether the line I'd be painting was supposed to be painted or not. In a bunch of these, I'd go over the person's eyebrow without realizing, and then I'd have to wait for that spot to dry.

But regardless, it was time to do the fun paintings. I did Allie next. And the pressure was on, because if I screwed her portrait up, she'll actually see it...

Timelapses are some of the most exhausting things to edit. The files are way too large to just email or transfer via phone cord, so I always just use a little phone editor to speed the videos up before transferring using the cord. So here are a few photos that show how I first tested a drawing of Allie on plain printer paper:

Also Allie if I screwed up your face I am so sorry please do not kill me I tried my best.

I redrew it on my black canvas.

Kinda creepy.

The most annoying thing about these canvases is that eraser marks don't really go away, they just leave an annoying light mark on the canvas. So I did not drew random lines along Allie's cheeks, nor does she have a second eyebrow above her left one, it's the eraser. 

I gotta say, I'm the most proud of this one of all the ones I did today, because of maybe the sheer amount of glitter (gave kinda a cool effect), and it looks kind of like her? It looks way better in person by the way, if you're in morning block, you'll see it come presentation time.

But of course, there's still a bunch of stuff I lacked.

Namely:

1. Again, not clearly defined eyes, nose, mouth, and other features. I am sensing a theme.

2. Some little spots the glitter didn't stick to, makes the painting look a little weird.

3. Smile is just creepy. I have no idea how to fix that.

4. The hair line seems a little bit muddled, should make that more precise.

Alright, we're busting through these now! If you checked out blog #3, you would know I was trying a full body painting to push the envelope a little bit. This is definitely the worst one, because this style of painting does not fair well with a full body where there's a little of teeny tiny details. But I still tried it with a picture of McPerlman. 

Photo courtesy of... Actually I forgot who sent me this. But it's pure gold.

Of course, I wanted to portray the photo in art form, but that did not pan out as I had planned. I just did the outline of the figure, since trying to do all the little details would literally make me lose all grip of reality and complete my descent into madness.

I'm actually a little bit disheartened by the final results, I felt like I put a lot of effort into the sketch on printer paper (see the video), and it turned out pretty decent. But then the real one that I have to present just looks sloppy. 

What I did wrong (besides everything):

1. The lines are too inconsistent and sloppy. Some are really thick, way too thick, and others are too wavy. Others are too thin.

2. Mr. McDaniels's shoes are just barely shoes. They're like incomprehensible blobs.

3. Proportions are off, as usual. 

But overall, since these are my final products, they show my progress through the weeks, from a person who can barely draw to a person who can draw. Can said person make a good glitter speed painting? That's questionable.

But the homestretch is here now, it's only a matter of days until I'll be on that dreaded stage, face bright red, stuttering in a fluster of nerves, talking about glitter speed painting when it's actually just glitter painting. Can't. Wait.

Katie, you're so melodramatic.