Changes

After a fair amount of struggle, I finished my newest commission! It's for a dear friend who's going to surprise her husband with it - can't wait to hear how he likes it!

But I don't mean to go and pretend I've been here all along. Obviously, I disappeared a bit from the blogging world. Again. The problem is Blogger became a pain in the you-know-what to use on my phone. Nearly every time I got halfway through writing a post, it just closed the app! Anyone else have that problem? It got so frustrating and frankly, if I can't post through my phone, the chances of me posting at all go way down. So I decided to give Instagram a chance since it's become such a big thing in the art world. It is so much easier, quicker, and currently more rewarding for me to do! I post progress shots, studio glimpses, inspiration sources, and finished paintings pretty much daily. With the limited time I have, it's definitely working best. And is the most fun! So while I do hope to return to blogging when I figure out how to solve the phone problem and magically make more time in my day, for now, if you want to follow what I'm up to with my art, please check me out on Instagram @alishabwhitmanart. Thanks!

Lilacs WIP

So after painting so frantically for that art festival, I understandably wanted a break. Then sadly I was suddenly out of the habit, and it is so much harder to get back going again! But I actually have three commissions right now (it's never happened all at once like this!) so I really needed to get working! I decided to start with this 11x14 painting that this guy commissioned me to do of his wife's favorite flowers. Then he can give her flowers that won't wilt! Ahhh so sweet (he did have to give her a call to ask what her favorite flower was ;) )! Unfortunately, lilacs come in bunches. Bunches and bunches of tightly-packed, delicate little flowers. I so wish her favorite flower was a lily right about now! But that's the thing with commissions. Sigh. I don't get to pick. On the other hand, there's a for-sure customer waiting when I'm done! So here's tonight's start:

Done!

*****OOPS! Forgot to post this after all that work!*****

Finished! Man, keeping white flowers white while adding shadow to them to give them depth is both scary and really cool. Basically scary before you started and while you're doing it and after you've started (if it's going poorly) and cool when it works! Ha. 

Now for the grand reveal to a hopefully happy customer tomorrow morning! 

Once a night owl, always a night owl

You know how great it would be to be one of those people that only need four or five hours of sleep a night? Alas, I am not one of them. Not even close. But what are you going to do when you don't get to start painting until after 9 PM and then you're on a roll and if you can just keep going, there will be no more of that darn greenery to paint tomorrow?

You stay up until it's done. 

And then tomorrow, you get to look at the painting with fresh eyes. And with the help of some chocolate and a lot of peanut butter, you might just get lucky and get it finished. I know, I know I'll regret staying up late but when you're on a roll, you're on a roll and it's really hard to restart dead inspiration. How does it work for you? Can you just turn your motivation/inspiration on and off at will? Or do you have to build up that momentum like me? And does it get harder or easier the longer the project goes on? For me it's much harder. I'll go ahead and blame my attention span on the quick convenience of iPhones and Google searches but I frankly cannot fathom how the old masters used to spend years and years on a painting or sculpture. Although I suppose if you had deadlines that stretched on for years, you probably would get a little more sleep.

Day 2

Unfortunately my youngest two have decided sleeping is overrated. They're seriously messing with my sanity and my painting time, which are sometimes related come to think of it.

Why do I mention it? It's my excuse for not getting more done but I think the red flowers might end up being my favorite!

P.S. That picture didn't look nearly so awful on my phone! Darn lighting. Sorry for the lack of professionalism but I'm tired and going to bed instead of going back upstairs to get a better picture. Good night!

So Many Flowers

So my aunt commissioned me to do a painting for her! That's good news of course, but I've been super intimidated to give it a start. She showed me pictures she'd taken of a street artist's work and they were gorgeous but very unlike my style. I haven't really had a clue where to start. When I do florals, I do them a la Georgia O'Keeffe, up close and intense. It's what I'm drawn to do and it's honestly what makes them different. I don't really know how to do a large, zoomed out painting that incorporates many different flowers with different colors and things going on. It's a challenge. But after pumping myself up with some good podcasts ("The Unmistakeable Creative" is really inspiring), I had to give it a go. So it has started slow, but I have started. I'm combining images from three different photos that my aunt took at her cousin's flower farm so that I can get better balance of color than any one possessed on it's own. So add that challenge to the table and here we go:

It looks a little better now that I've stepped away from the paper. Isn't that so often the case? Why don't I remember that when I'm in the middle of feeling like it's not going well? Instead I kept painting and eating inordinate amounts of guacamole right before bedtime, which in retrospect, wasn't really the best idea after all.