Painting, Prints and Frustration

I finished up my goal for 7 paintings in a week, but it turned out to be more like 7 paintings in 9 days, but I finished.  I feel like it forced me to get better and I am starting to like the results a LOT better... here are my favorite ones I have done so far (they are all after the week of painting and, therefore, kind of the result of practicing)...

People have been asking about buying prints and I thought this would be a super easy way to sell some of my art without having to wait for someone who would want to spend the money on the original... (although The Little Blue Bird painting has already been sold, for $200 :) )  This has turned into a much more difficult endeavor than I originally thought it would be.  Every time I get the proof back, it just doesn't look right.  It's either washed out, too bright, the colors are off or you can see the brush strokes that I have worked so hard to blend.  I get all flustered at the printers, though, and with my anxiety I just panic and my brain goes blurry for a few moments, where I blurt out "It looks great!" and then go yell in the car, and over analyze what I will say the next time I have to go in and talk with them.  So, if anyone has any advice about getting prints made of your work while not spending a grip of money please pass that on to me!  

I think I am ready to get back to drawing and getting some more pieces done for the show next summer.  I am thinking about doing one more painting, but it will be nice to take a break from the watercolors for just a bit and work on something different... back to skulls!!  

A Little Change

Originally I was just going to post up little sketches I have done but I think I am going to change it up a little bit and do posts more based on what I have been working on throughout the week.

So, first off, I have an official opening date for my joint show with Kate Boyan (livingbeadwork.blogspot.com), called Birds, Bugs, & Bones.  It will be opening June 6th this summer up in Juneau and will run, for, most likely, 2 weeks.  I am so excited, but extremely nervous too, this will be my very first show... Aaaaa.  I have a couple small pieces finished already but I really need to get started on some larger ones.  I think one of my main hang-ups is that I have no where to store any large pieces right now.  I think I am going to need something like this:

They are a bit too expensive for me, so I am going to see if Joe might help me to build one, and then maybe I can get going on some bigger projects.

Here are a couple small pieces I have finished for the show...

Most of the work I do, and like doing, is black and grey pencil, but I have been wanting to play around with something new.  I traded some art with my dad for some art supplies, and one of the many goodies he sent to me was a brand new set of Dr. Ph. Martins water colors.

They are so amazing, but I need a lot of practice with them.  I have been playing around with them and really enjoying working with some color.  Hopefully I will be able to come up with a way to incorporate them into the show.

This week I have decided that I am going to try and get one painting done each day, three days so far :)

Tomorrow I'll hopefully have one more to show :)