Making a Living part 8

 

I decided to go into the Studio today and work on my current coloring job, as I may be busy tomorrow taking my mother to a very long doctor appointment.  Plus, a chance to investigate some other colors.  One thing I hadn't tried out yet was a plastic container with a clear plastic lid, containing 18 pans of watercolors, the kind of thing where you wet a brush and rub it in to make the paint.  Every kid has used one like this, and more than a few of my college students showed up with similar kits for their intro class (I allowed it, as regular watercolors can work the same way).  What I didn't know was exactly what colors could be found in this set, since I forgot to take it out when I last checked my supply, and it's not at all labeled with what's in it, plus it was out in my car and I didn't feel like going out there to get it.  It must have been a gift, but now if the colors worked out, it would be put to use.

The rain had stopped by the early afternoon, so I had a quick lunch at home, made sure that untried color set was in my car, and took off.  At the Studio, I noted that Molly had moved a screen from one part of the room to another, so she had been there again.  (her work was still hanging in the elevator hallway and the chalkboard was now very full, but those aren't my problem to deal with)  I looked at my new set of watercolors.  Not much to go on there.  First of all, not a real red in the set.  An orangey red, but not good middle red.  So I won't be doing those today and I would still need to order one.  The orange was a little light, but might work.  There was a light teal blue-green that could have some uses.  That white would definitely be useful, but not needed yet.  Probably the brown (will compare that to proof I have at home, see what it could be) and maybe one of the yellows will be useful as well.  Got some water.

For music I had brought my blues/jazz set and selected my home burned copy of Gil Scott-Heron, mostly because this had been a question the other night on an episode of Jeopardy.   (the clue asked what Scott-Heron had said would not be televised, and I knew it was the Revolution, his most famous song and the title of the album)  You can read more about the record and the man back on this blog back on September, 2021.  That disc lasts about an hour, which gave me that much time to work today. 

I put the teal to use in a prominent t-shirt, and it did well in a few small spots.  The orange wasn't quite as intense as what I had before, so it was good enough for some things I needed (pizza slice, small t-shirt, Irish flag design, balloon game sign, and a balloon) but an experiment showed it won't do for the large rooftop pizza sign, so I guess I will need a real orange after all.  I had carefully observed a boardwalk fireworks display as part of my research, and noted that the exploding overhead fireworks were surrounded by a ring of smoke clouds the fireworks had generated.  Against the night sky, these showed up as mere hints of colors, partly reflecting the colors of the yellow and orange fireworks, so I had painted those clouds with a combination on orange, deep red, and indigo.  Could I match that with what I had?  Tried on isolated piece, and it looked good enough to me, so next time I'll try to whole set of both rings.  (could take more than an hour just doing those)

So in the end, the experiments were successful, as even when I learned what I had wouldn't suffice,  I had learned something, and I was able to advance the coloring a bit in general.  

As a bonus, I stopped by the office on my way out and found Nichole (saw her car in the lot and hoped she would be there) and got some information on the upcoming classes, as well as the check for my cut of the first round of classes.  Not a lot of money, but every little bit helps.