closing in on a finish......an even dozen ( maybe a few more days)

well first off it's friday evening as i type this...bernie is home!!! yeah!
he's in the shower
i got beef cubes in wine in the oven..... he didn't tell me he was going to come home until late so he isn't getting a fabulous dinner like i would have done


the roads here are clear but the snow out back is pretty packed down....so technically i guess i walked on water today!

i am getting to the last 1/3 of this drawing, and i made the decision to just go with any image that presents itself so one leaf will look like it's touching water! we'll see how that develops as that's what i saw and put in at this moment.

i am thinking of the color work again...... in addition to the overlays for the black and whites...

i think that possibly egg tempera would be a compatible with my style technique....it takes forever however, months and months... hmm maybe even several lifetimes... i'll never get done with this project at this rate
i am sitting here at 3am stoking the stove, bernie is upstairs snoring. i am actually up because i was thinking of this drawing you folks so kindly are following......and pondering the feasibility of egg tempera,....... i have GOT to be out of my mind......seriously, as it's a very slow and tedious method that produces amazing luminous glowing color......... but do i really want luminous and glowing......as normally my work is about how i see lights and shadows. while i love brilliant saturated color...... (the brighter the better preferably in rainbows) what i do is more like a walk through a dark woods with sunlight only occasionally breaking through the leaves ( i spent and still spend a LOT of time in the woods-only now i own the woods i spend time in)
so the upshot is.....it's almost 3:30am now and i am up thinking of egg tempera- i mean i have the chickens and all......... i don't have the pigments or the grounds or the mullers....or all the other supplies..i don't technically know HOW to do egg tempera, although i figure....it's paint right? technically demanding stuff is apparently what i live for....remember i do porcelain work too.......
it's historical and unchanged...........takes forever........ what's not to love?
oye
i have got to be out of my mind
i may actually do this!
nice huh? what with the water colors that cost a kidney on their way here even as i type....i am about to retire them before i use them to look into egg tempera?

ok i got to use the water colors first....... then see about the egg tempera..... which is totally archival, lasts forever, is ecologically sound, and with some modification of the palette would totally fit my drawing style and the way i see light..... much better then watercolors or oils (i am not crazy about acrylics....i do like oils and i do like water colors)
maybe i will just invest in a very limited palette of pigments and a few tiny grounds and just do a couple of small egg tempera's just for a test.......
i may not like it at all
right?
(someone help convince me here cause a lot of the people doing egg tempera also do it over 23 karat gold leafing...... and i am not a rich woman)
however it will last hundreds of years........so after the book is finished i could sell the originals with a clear conscience

maybe these late night obsessions are not a good thing?

i will say this......... it was a good decision last year to come full circle for me.... over the years i had channeled this into the porcelain dolls (although they aren't toys we don't know what else to call them other then dolls) i was a bit burnt out from working in advertizing and commercial art departments.... but i think this is the right time to be drawing seriously again for me
i have learned so much over the years, without realizing it... i needed the time out from the drawing board and drafting table.
i realize that although what i have been doing isn't a super huge amount...i have been steady with this project and it's been developing in a way i think it should.
from 'just fun'.......
to 'wait i have a few of these now'!!!
through to 'i can do this better'
and now it's 'that was very good, now how about this same idea in color, or in black and white'

this current monsters in the leaves is the 4th or 5th with this idea......each one different....
a what if it was looser, or more defined......or in color.....or in black and white..
and what if this happened...
i am actually having a really good time with this and i am thinking that it shows
but now i have to redo the others
hahahahahaha
oh man........
maybe life at it's very best is really about having fun?