Sorta had some... creative indigestion the last week and a half - butt looks like the ice is thawing. Thanks for everyone's patience.
Instead of the usual talking about what and how I paint, i though today I'd what thoughts pop into my head during my usual daily routine.
MORNING:
3:30 am ~ wake up, look at clock, still not 4 yet. Getting up earlier than 3 usually makes me feel like i was up all night. Why so early? Had insomnia for years, the two low budget movies I made cured it. Hauling my butt up at 4am, almost ALWAYS means my heat hits the pillow like a baby that night.
I dreamed something about a roof shingle.
3:46: Still not 4 yet. Try not to check my clock. Think of other stuff. Various deadlines, juggled in my head. Some late. Some not. Remember a painting i wanted to start this morning, using a roof shingle I found while walking our dog yesterday. It's lying i my studio. Visualize what i might be able to look forward to today, and what i'm dreading finishing. Feel guilty about not posting on the blog.
3:54:am: ~ Lie in bed, watching the clock for the next six minutes, waiting for 4am so i can officially get up. Stupid because i'm awake anyway. Decide not to beat myself up about being late on the blog.
4:00 am ~ Okay - NOW... i can get up! Tip tow down the hall past the dog so i don't wake him up, slip into my studio and flips on the lights, since 'it's dark outside still. Love working mornings, no distractions and there's a peaceful quiet, perfect for whatever floats to the surface.
4:03 am ~ always save any really creative ideas for this time of day, later it goes, the less creative it usually gets. It took me three minutes to muse over this trivial idea. I see the Shingle in my studio, lying on the floor. Inspired. Determined to post on the blog today, with a new painting.
4:05 am ~ Breaking out the pens and brushes now. I like the grainy texture on the shingle, decide to use it in a painting, see if i can match the colors/textures with paint and sand and pumice.
4:10 am ~ Several other jobs call to me, but i figure if i can get this Nola painting done in an hour, won't feel too guilty. I decide the back of the shingle has this soft feathery texture, and it's MORE interesting than the shingle's top side. So i glue that front down to the canvas.
430 am ~ I mix up a combo of Acrylic, glue and detergent in a cup.. have to work fast before the glue dries.. kinda pointless because acrylic is like glue and hardens too, but i love the weird surreal textures glue makes, (esp. with bits of other debris trapped in it.)
4:45 am ~ Am having fun now. decide to add a few different nola faces on this page, very random and raw looking, the dirtier the better.
5:01 am ~ More faces. Their all over the place now. I cut out and down a bit of bristol board now, and ink and color Nola's face right over the back of the shingle. My hand starts to itch a little, must be tired.
5:25 am ~ going past my deadline now to finish in an hour.. hand feels like splinters. - then it DAWNS on me what this weird texture on the back of the shingle is, it's Fiberglass!!!!! Holly crap. I rolled around in some of that as a kid, took forever to get the hundreds of glass splinters out of my skin - Yikes!
5:30 am ~ I quietly ( so as not to awake wife and dog) wash, soak actually, my hand on warm water, trying to work out the splinters on the kitchen sink, cursing my idiocy for not realizing it was fiberglass!
5:43 am ~ amazingly, my hand didn't get too many stickers on it, just the palm side. Back to the studio. Now what do i do? rip it out of the backboard i glued it on? I actually glued it onto the cover of one of my big brown sketchbooks, so it'll get all over my table every time i open it. Double crap!
5:50 am ~ Sneak the sketchbook out into the shed and use a hack saw (as QUIETLY as possible) to cut the sketchbook cover off the book itself. Lucky it comes off pretty easily. I think of what a weird funny little story this might make for the blog, but right now, it doesn't seem so funny.
6:00 am ~ already lost an hour on the fiberglas-hacksaw fiasco, I decide Screw IT, i'll just KEEP the shingle in the panting. Won't scan it for fear the glass fibers might scratch the scanner surface. Just snap a photo of it, that'll do.
6:00 am, editors at DC are getting into work now by 9, or checking their emails/text. I get a few, one editor is happy with a short 5 pager I did. Still have not looked at the printed Batman Hatter book DC sent me a comp copy of. I cringe at any printed work i do. So there it sits.
I have an hour till my wife gets up at 7 and we start breakfast, get the dog up. Meanwhile, from 6-7 i get some pages done for various companies.. I think back on how many fans I inspire or disappoint, or both? Maybe both at the same time? This idea cracks me up. I start a painting of nola's mother and father, Nola's mother's tummy pregnant with Nola.
Seems a nice gentle thing to draw between vampires, super heros and zombies. Which are cool too. Both side of my brain enjoy feminine softy fuzzies, and little boy gross-out, power fantasy stuff.
I get four more pages done, finish the nola painting, pencil Nola's parents, and start a...
Tree painting for an upcoming IDW project. It's almost 7:00 am.
My wife opens the studio door and our little dog jumps on my lap. Thus ends my morning... and time for breakfast. After that i'll dig into these post comments and see what's up!
