(no subject)

[phthalombrage]

Fell back asleep after the alarm today, so I was a half-hour late for work. It turned out to be no big deal anyway, because I got to leave about 15 minutes early, and suzy would have let me leave a full hour early, but I found anita, and she gave me a huge stack of expense paperwork to sift through and highlight. Don't have work on Monday, either, weird.

Work lag means I actually finished my backlog of MSC emails. I heard back from both the pgh and Nantes contacts for the exchange with Nantes. Sweet! I might get to go to France for a semester junior year! Also, pdesider is going to look at my typewriter next week, and I applied to some more part-time jobs so I can get up earlier or put in weekend or evening hours or something.

I learned this afternoon that the person I had previously thought of as "wandering old man who always has trouble with the coffee machine" is going to be my thermo professor next semester. Hmm.

Went to pillow project for breakdancing class. I was honestly not expecting a tall blond guy to teach it. Devin's a new apprentice to the company. One other apprentice, Jackie, Pearlann and I were the only other people there. Class was an hour, we talked for the half hour afterward. Then Devin offered to drive me home. I had him drop me off on Ellsworth, partly because I am overly wary of men (he's like 26 or 27), and then he went to the liquor store or something. But yeah, it's going to be a recurring thing in the summer, and maybe I'll get good enough to actually start going to iFS Steady Sessions on campus or something.

Also, damn you, csjackso, for going away. Not that you've ever expressed interest in swing dancing, but cmu ballroom club is having a swing workshop next wednesday and I'm too chicken to go by myself and meet new people. I also, keeping with the chicken motif, have eggs in my fridge now, so I could bake goods as a bribe encouragement. But it's okay because they have a second swing workshop the tuesday after and I can try to drag you along.

My roommates are raucously mixing margaritas, so I'm going to hang out in my room and paint until half price with hayley and question marks.

If you could help me figure out why I hate my painting and what to fix, apart from obvious things like the crooked left side of the doorway/suckass job in general on the dark teal molding that looks forest green in this thing, fuzzy leg outlines, and brown streak on the floor, that would be cool. I think it has part to do with the colors, which have photographed oddly due to lighting. The blues are more grey-green than blue in this image, and you can't see very fine gradations/nuances that do exist...

Comments

[joyful-vydra.livejournal.com]

Ah, so you've met Garrison. Also noticeable by his constant olfactory trail of cigarette smoke.

I will totally go to CMU ballroom with you next week if you want. I've been meaning to get back into that. If you're worried about going stag, don't--the guys there are frequently awkward but entirely harmless and sweet (in my experience).

[phthalombrage]

All right!

We'll see, though. I am probably more awkward than they are.

[litebrite3e8.livejournal.com]

I was going to offer to go because it looks fun but my parents are in town :(

[http://users.livejournal.com/_beta_orionis_/]

Above the knees the legs are so dramatically curved outwards that it looks sort of unnatural. They seem to bee curling out towards the foreground instead of continuing up towards the body. I think perhaps the framing of the original photo was just a little strange for a painting. Mayhaps the dress is a bit flat? (but that could be because of what's lost in photographing the canvas)

[phthalombrage]

They got that way when I was repainting the background wall different colors until I found one I liked. hehe.

And yeah, the fabric isn't done the best, although a lot of the skirt-color variance was lost in photographing the brown.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_beta_orionis_/]

Ah! That makes sense. I did forget to mention after all the (hopefully constructive) criticism that it is well painted! You continue to amaze me. :)

[chrsjxn.livejournal.com]

I agree with Rigel.

Legs are a bit awkward, the skirt looks flat.

Plus, I think, there's a bunch of weirdness built into the framing you chose for the painting. The person isn't obviously moving (legs parallel to each other, rather than in motion), but we've set up what seems to be a place they're going to (the bathroom, also kind of weird).

Also, with no feet, it's hard to judge the foreshortening. I can't shake the impression that that's just a very tiny toilet in that room. No obvious perspective points either, to give us an indication of distance.

I'm also not a tremendously skilled visual artist, so you don't have to take these comments as anything more than my opinion.

(Now I'll pretend this is poetry workshop and give comments about what sorts of changes you could try)

The hands and the legs aren't the same color, and I think it'd look better with legs the same color as the hands are now.

Sharpen the lines in the legs, that should help a lot.

Maybe a different color for the skirt? If we want the skirt to have more definition, it might help if it were less dark (though this may be an attribute of your picture of the painting, and not something in the painting itself).

The bathroom looks pretty solid now, possibly just because it's smaller and I can't see it as well. Just neaten that up and I think you can focus on the rest of the piece.

Actually, I think that last comment holds for the whole painting. Technically speaking, it looks like you just need to neaten things up and the painting would be fine. But that doesn't solve the awkwardness of the composition and the subject matter.

[phthalombrage]

Legs were paler and had less variation than hands, so they're like totally different things. I do plan to redo the coloring because there is too much grey in there.

The person is not going. The person is just standing there, emotionally held back. The skirt has to be dark. The painting is supposed to be awkward. There is awkward tension with the bathroom. There is a plastic bag on top of the toilet. I need to paint more decay. Thank god it's not sexual tension.

I mean, I don't know how far away she is, either... but it's a people toilet.

I know it's raw and gross, but I was losing interest and was using lj to get me to do something about that.

Basically I will repaint most things, but am fairly happy with the hands and parts of the bathroom.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_beta_orionis_/]

I never took into consideration that you may have intended for it to convey a sense of awkwardness. In that case, it does it very well.

I must disagree with Chris on several points.

The difference in leg and hand skin tones totally makes sense and I wouldn't suggest changing them at all, or much if you decide to. The difference occurs naturally for many people[pant-covered legs/sun exposed hands]. As you pointed out, I got the feeling they were meant to be very separate, like two different things.

Skirt should definitely stay brown.

I also don't see the perspective as much of an issue. It doesn't really detract, but rather adds an interesting question for the viewer to ponder. And adds to the awkward effect.

I think that "neatening things up" takes away part of what's so essential to your painting style, so don't worry about it. It's really not gross.

[chrsjxn.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm so glad you're using my real name. </sarcasm>

[phthalombrage]

You may have graduated, but you'll always be csjackso to me. I know how much you cherish that appellation and couldn't bear to deny you the joy.

[chrsjxn.livejournal.com]

As long as you don't get upset when people call me Chris, like my mother does.