There's a new kitten in the home

ATTENTION PET LOVERS

See my new page here

Rainy day today, painted a new dog portrait. I need new brushes bad.

Some work was getting done in my apartment yesterday so I settled in a spot to stay out of the way and played around with painting some small works (5"x 7")...........some pet portraits. I'm told the pet business is a big one and we all know I'm constantly looking for alternative ways to increase my income :-)
I think the shepherd could probably use a little more work...ok, and the cat too...lol, but what do you think?
Are there pet portraits in my future??

New Technique

Since doing this video about two years ago I'm doing sand a whole different way. A way I discovered in 'Painting The Secret World Of Nature' by John Agnew.
I've mentioned this book in the past and it bears mentioning again. Now I use the spatter technique to do my sand.
I lay down a base coat of a sandy tan color and then over that I spatter (using a toothbrush or stiff bristle brush) different colors...black, brown, off white, terra cotta etc. Check out his book for more detail.

Wanted you to see how the clients came up with the theme for their mural, so I took a wider shot.
While I was there I also got the opportunity to add the hardware to the barn doors in the farm mural (that I had forgotten to do) I did for the playroom.
So that's done. What's next?....not sure. No new mural projects on the schedule......that's not good. I just got this month's rent paid today, plus a late fee....two weeks late, and now I'm broke again. Safe to say next month's rent will be late as well. This can't go on.

I may continue to tweak during the afternoon, but this is pretty much the final. Installation tomorrow. The colors are not true....the water is not that color!...much deeper/duller.

A new update. Have to make some color and anatomical adjustments on the deer (funny how you don't see things til you take a photo) and there's about another 3 feet to the bottom. Should be finished today, most definitely by tomorrow....Sunday is installation day.

Update on the deer mural .....started working on the deer today.

MOVIE MONDAY: Tropical Mural Part 1

Today's the first chance I had to get back to the deer mural. Here's today's progress.

Finally got it started and here's todays progress.
Scary uh? Just laying down some background color..
Intensifying the color a bit. I used a sponge for this, I don't usually use sponges but thought it would be a quick way to get some texture in there for the foliage.
And starting to add in allllllllllll the trees.....this is going to take a while.

Got the deer sketched in and tomorrow starts the mural. The scene will be a fall forest with lots of the autumn foliage colors with a stream.

Frugal Friday...the art of living on the cheap

I can't believe how bad things are......well, I guess I can, I'm living it. I'm really looking forward to the time when the economy turns around and folks can once again afford the special things in life...like hiring a muralist :-( I can't imagine what else I can cut from my life to make it easier. Keeping an open mind I started looking for ideas online. Here are a few things I stumbled on. My favorite I think is this one.. zenhabits.net
Check out the 10 things you can do today to simplify your life, 50 tips for frugal living, there's lots of good stuff here.
You can check out freecycle.org, see if there's a group in your area, I love free stuff! And of course there's the old standby Craigslist's free listings.
Got the sofa on Craigslist, it wasn't free but it was only $75. and its a sofabed. The pillows all came from a thriftshop....the curtains were free from a house my friend just bought, they were left by the previous owner and she didn't want em. The coffee table was free...someone left an old ikea computer table in my apartment when I moved in, and I took it apart, cut it down and made the table. Still looking for a good deal on a 'grown ups' chair. You can find thriftshops in your area here.... thethriftshopper.com . You can even shop Goodwill online!
Check out mygrocerydeals.com for sale items in stores near you, they have links to coupon sites as well so you can save even more.
Well, that should keep you busy...if anyone has some good tips or sites to share feel free to leave them in the comments area. I've got to get started on a canvas mural. This is the sketch of the project.
The portrait is finished and will get shipped on Monday.

OK....I'm thinking this is done, a little work on the foliage and that's it......I think :-) lol