The Things They Don't Teach You in School

Yikes! I haven't put anything up here in forever! Well, I guess it will take a couple of posts to update ya'll on what I've been up to. Mostly I have been doing school work, and in my free time I have been teaching myself Photoshop.

My first attempt was a little shaky. I think this took me a couple hours. (it's a self portrait. Yikes!) After a couple of discouraging months, I started painting from life again.




These were my first four attempts at painting other people from life. Kaitlyn Malone, Michael Montafi, and Joe Raffanti.

Doing portraits of friends turned out to be a wonderful little adventure, but complications arose when I started painting strangers from life. When I paint in a coffee shop, I have my Wacom tablet in my lap, I am usually squinting intensely, and if I am concentrating especially hard, i tend to lick my lips. I have been told the lip licking thing has something to do with poor exercise during my youth. Regardless of why I do it, I realize it must look rather creepy to see some random stranger, squinting in your direction, licking his lips, and doing something in his lap.

I was working on the book and the coffee cup when I looked up and saw she was staring straight at me with a look of disgust.

She hastily stood up and left.

I moved on to inanimate objects after that.