University of Wales, Aberystwyth

 hello!

hhmmm.. ok, i did some dissertation work over the weekend, up to 2290 words, just the same amount again.

was up working on the first skull painting last night, it looks good. it was quite easy, actually, only took a couple of hours (it’s acrylic). it occured to me that the skulls are the only paintings which have any chance of actually selling at the degree show, because i can’t imagine anyone wanting a portrait of someone they don’t know on their wall, unless its a dealer or something, but even so, they aren’t very saleable. maybe i’ll get some commissions from people who want to be flattered. great.

we where given a pricing guide by the school of art. all work is to be priced according to size, which seems completely obsurd to me. on that scale my skulls are up to £110, which is great, but my portraits are up to £160, which is not so great, considering the art school takes 35%.  so thats means, even if i priced them above what the art school recomends, at say, £200, i still only get £130. i know i’m unknown, etc, etc, but i do have dignity and a sence of what my work is worth.

 went into the art school today, put another layer on both the portraits, and finished helen’s, i think. (!) i changed the colour on mine, as i was looking a lot greener than the average person, if you know what i mean.

ok, i think thats it for today, i’m going to miss doing this blog when its all over. its a chance to have a bit of a rant and get it al of my chest, all those ideas which otherwise float about in a disconnected fashion.

 made the canvases, and primed them. just at the library, doing research for dissertation.

actually, i’m doing no such thing. i’m writing this and generally procrastinating until the inevitable moment when i actually have to do the essay. dum de dum… wonder whats on the telly tonight… the apprentice was good yesterday.

 oh  for goodness sake emily go and do some work….

 just noticed: olivias’s right hand side eye is loking the wrong way a bit. hehe!

i thought i’d finished hwlwn today, i’d even signed it, but now i’m not entirely sure. think her forehead could do with some very faint lines or something, it looks a bit plastic at the moment. just found that i don’t have another tutorial until after my degree show, which is seriously unhelpful!

tommorow i’m picking up the canvas’s for the skull paintings, or the base for them anyway, i’ve got to put the beading on, strech and prime them myself. all the hard work, and nobody notices! they would notice if it was put together poorly though.

worked on both paintings today, it seems to be a pattern that one goes smoother than the other, at the moment the one of olivia is going very smoothly, mine is going to be a bit more uphill, i think. anyway, they are both wet at the moment so i need to give them a couple of days to dry, so i can get on with the skulls and my dissertation. the dissertation is mindnumbingly boring. i hate analising myself.

did some extra work on olivias face, just putting in the shadows and making sure everything is in the right place. did some more work on mine, too. i bought some new paints and brushes today, for the first tine in months. the smallest round brush i had wasn’t small enough so i’ve bought a 000 for the eyelashes and a small flat one, too, just for detail. also bought a tube of terre verte, as the sap green which i use in skin tones all the time is a bit yellowey, and a tube of raw umber, as burnt umber is a bit red based and looks too reddy brwon in the hair.

ooh, i nearly finished helen! i did alter the nose, it still isn’t quite right, needs to twist a bit round to the left. i always look at it in real life and it looks fine, then i take a photo and it looks all wrong…

oh yes, bit of a disaster with the background on olivia’s one, couldn’t work out what colour to do the sky, so did it one shade of blue, changed my mind, then changed it to light naples yellow, so it went green (obviously).. sort of scrubbed it out until next time1 need to make a decision soon though, because whatever colour it is it will have a lot of white in it, so will take a while to dry, so i won’t be able to do the hair until it is.. so it has a knockon effect, basically. don’t panic, don’t panic…