Making a living part 12

 

No rain for the early part of the day, so it seemed like I good day to go up to the Studio.  I wanted to test my new watercolors, and that would be best done up there, where I had some room to spread out, plus some scrap paper.

I had brought the rock/pop CD case with me, again with no plan for what to listen to.  When I got there I decided on the live double album from X, called Live at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.  I think this was also issued on vinyl as a two record set, and my CD version was thus missing a few songs that didn't fit.  I bought this disc back when I was a senior in college, but I had been listening to X for much longer, as they were an early presence on MTV (actually had a video for an early 80's track, which got you onto MTV back then), and later songs were a presence on New York radio in that era.  I remember a dj referring to them as "the best garage band in the world."  Perhaps they were.  Going back to the 70's they were at at the beginnings of the punk movement  (and respected for that), but like most southern California bands (based out of Los Angeles, so this appearance at the most famous venue in town was a kind of homecoming), they had a streak of country and western in them, which showed up in all their work, but especially on the songs they did as the Knitters, a side project that was very country.  (a few of those songs show up here)  This album opens with a song from their first album, the title cut from "Los Angeles", banned from radio for content, but a good rocking tune.  And in general, a good album to make art to.

My first task was to create a color sample sheet for all my new paints.  I used to have a bunch of these, but can't find them right now.  If I had such a thing (each paint, at both full strength and a wash, on print paper), I would have known for sure what colors I would need, or even if I had the old color catalogs from the company, but all I have right now is the website from the third party I got them from, so colors are just approximated.  I had a guess what it was, but with no paints to look at, it was just a guess, so I bought several different tubes, hoping one was the right one for coloring the boardwalk just like the version I had in a frame.  It does appear that I got the right one, but all the colors I bought are things I can use, so having the extra tubes is not a problem.  

So did I now use this color to do that large section of boardwalk, or my new purchases of yellow and orange to do some of those big pieces?  No, instead I decided to go with my usual practice of lightest colors first and put in some caucasian flesh tones.  I had a little bit of the premixed color left, not enough to do both proofs, but I could put some flesh down on the first proof as practice.  The shadowed areas could use a little more, so I'll be going back into that one.  As expected, I ran out of the premixed colors as I finished the first proof, but I know the formula well, and these were some of the colors I bought last week, so I'll be prepared for making more next week.  

The music ended, and I knew I had to stop at the store on my way home, so I decided to call it a day and head home.  But I had learned some things, and gotten a little bit done, so it was a successful day.