day sixty-one

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

you hear stories of people passing out apples instead of candy for Halloween... even though i've never encountered that personally, i do think it's terribly lame to pass out anything but candy.

on that note, here's another apple! this one's by itself today, & i didn't spend much time on it.

9x12" watercolor

day sixty

for the 60th day, your gift will not only be a painting, but will also be a picture of me from tonight! i went to a "halloween" party where nobody dressed up.......... except for me. i expected this turn out, but i was determined to dress up as something this year since i didn't last year! this isn't an accurate photo of my costume because i actually wore a black wig. after everyone left, i had the privilege to wear this special wig named "Gina." she belongs to a friend & makes many appearances.

meow!

9x12" watercolor

day fifty-nine

oh, sweet followers, we have yet another painting of apples!  i'm sorry you have to look at the same thing day after day, but i'm really enjoying painting the apples right now. drawing from life is so much easier & freer (creatively). plus, nobody has sent me photos... i'm not made of pictures, people!

now, i didn't spend much time on this one, around 30 minutes... and it was actually more difficult to paint this in b&w instead of color. color's just prettier, anyway! :)

9x12" watercolor.

day fifty-eight

hello my sweet friends,
another painting of the bowl of apples... plus, one i ate right before i painted them! i tried something new tonight by not sketching them in pencil first. instead, i sketched everything out with paint. i thought it would be quicker, but i don't think it was. i spent over an hour on it.

by the way, for the past 8 or so days, i've taken a picture of the paintings with my phone... not too bad, eh?

9x12" watercolor.

day fifty-seven

two hours later with a very full bladder, i find myself finished with this painting. i have also found that painting from life makes me waaaay perfectionistic. i began the sketching for today's painting around 11:40 and told myself that i would spend no more than an hour painting tonight. however, i was focused and not paying attention to time... just highlights and shadows and shades of red. i became entranced more than ever in my work.  alas, the hour has come to brush my teeth and jump into bed.

apples again!
ps. i love that the part i spent the least amount of time on (the table cloth) turned out the best!

9x12" watercolor

day fifty-six

tonight took me longer than expected- 1.5 hours.  i used the same bowl of apples, minus an apple i ate today. i also painted from a different perspective and changed up the composition.

9x12" watercolor

day fifty-five

hey hey heyyyy! today is brought to you by the number 5 and the letter A.

it is day 55.

and A is for APPLES! this is not only my favorite fruit (i eat at least one a day), but it is a very popular fruit for the fall. the taste of apple cider and clothes smelling of campfires are two things i really love during this season! on that note, i committed a painting-a-day first: a still-life! i went back to school tonight by setting up a still life of a bowl of apples with folds of fabric underneath, as well as a spotlight. i didn't however, compose this still-life well on the actual painting. i meant to put more focus on the apples and not the folds of fabric... oops!  & this one took me a little over an hour.

9x12" watercolor

day fifty-four

eeeeeeeee!!!!  needless to say, i love my nephew- and love being an aunt! on that note, here's another goodie of my sweet neph-neph. (as if he doesn't have enough pictures of him already!)

here he is playing my mom's piano. i wish my mom would play it more often! :)

9x12" watercolor.

day fifty-three

so far, i've had a wonderful weekend celebrating the my cousin Todd getting married to Ellyne! it was beautiful and special having so much of my family together. i'm looking forward to Thanksgiving now!

on another side note, i want to marry the lead singer from the band, Kings of Leon-- mostly for his voice. he serenaded me while i painted tonight. :)

on this painting, i only worked for less than 30 minutes. i was a bit tired when i began painting, so i rushed through it, and now i'm not sleepy, but i am tired of painting. haha...  when you see this, you might be thinking "but Tiffany, you already painted yourself this week. that's a bit vain..."  and my response to that observation would be, "dear friend, i knew i wouldn't spend much time on the painting, so if it was not so great, i'd rather it be of me than anyone else."

day 53 is of me doing a favorite pasttime of mine: making good espresso. i often miss being a barista- good espresso, unlimited coffee, great people, 50 quick conversations a day! i mean, if that doesn't sound like a great gig for me, i'm not sure what does!!

9x12" watercolor.

day fifty-two

"real quick-like" is a phrase my high school volleyball coach used to say. no reason to post that- it just came to me. :)

here's the setting of day 51: my family outside at my Uncle EH & Aunt Cindy's farm house on Mother's Day a few years back. Jacob & TJ playing baseball. Shaul on the trampoline. Ranier in the background. enjoy!

watercolor.

day fifty-one

hiiiii!  if you've ever lived with me, you might know that i'm a bit of a pack-rat... especially when it comes to any art supplies- or potential art supplies (i currently have 2 wire screens that i plan to use one day)! so it goes without saying that when i was pillaging through one of my art bins tonight, i ran across a empty pad of good paper!  i think i'm in the mood for a watercolor tonight!

that paragraph was written before i began the painting... so what i'm posting is clearly unfinished, but i still kinda like it in its raw stage. i was literally falling asleep while painting it (sitting down). if you don't believe i can do that, just ask my old roomie who found me asleep in bed, upright, with my computer in my lap. once i've hit a wall, it's tough for me to push past it. now, this painting is the beginnings of a photo i took while at Camp Meeting a few years ago. it's a complicated tradition to describe, but you can read about it here. this is of the last day of the 2 weeks, when lots of kids & adults participate in a water fight.

day fifty

let's just say that this is a monumental day for me! if you know me even a little, you know that being this disciplined is really tough for me. i'm just thankful i've stuck with the project for 50 days!

today, i was inspired by an artist who influenced the art world in remarkable ways. there's a portrait of Pablo Picasso that i posed like, & then i painted the picture i took of myself. here's to you, Picasso, you're definitely one of my art heroes! (this sounds weird, i know, but tonight i wish i had more wrinkles to paint- my face looks kinda plain.)

i also did something i haven't done yet: painted over a previous painting. you can see a little of it in the top right corner, but eventually it will all be covered up. i simply did not like it so it seemed dumb to keep it. additionally, day 50 took me over 2 hours to complete.

22x28" acrylic on wood

Picasso

day forty-nine

i'm thinking that tomorrow needs to be a big 50th painting celebration! not really a party- rather a really thoughtful or good painting. we'll see. :)

for today, we have an image of 3 of my cousins jumping on the trampoline at my aunt's house.

7 x 8.5" acrylic on paper

day forty-eight

again, i spent quite some time looking for a picture to paint. then, i spent time looking for my paints. i've been painting with watercolors for a while now, so my acrylics were MIA.

this is from a photo i took in Spain... Nerja was our favorite beach in Spain, and on one of our visits, we saw these men moving their boat along the sand into the ocean. it was a slow process: a guy would put a 2x4 under the boat's front, then they would move it a couple feet. and repeat probably 15 times because they only had three 2x4's! it was not planned out very well. :)

4x7" acrylic on paper

day forty-seven

so, this weekend has been full of joy... one joyous moment happened tonight with the union of 2 lives- Kate & John.  here's a little picture of them i liked. :)

note to self: trying to water color faces in detail on a small painting is near impossible.

6.5 x 4.25" watercolor

day forty-six

wow- it has been a lively weekend... sorry for the late posts!

i spent well over an hour looking for something to paint.... when really i wasn't lacking inspiration, but rather motivation. i'm tired.

the painting for today is from s.africa... a little orphaned girl playing with one of my friends. i love that my friend is running so fast just to keep this little girl spinning and happy. my only regret is that i couldn't spend more time on the painting!

also, although the photo isn't poor quality, i did take this picture with my phone because i left my camera in a friend's car!

8.5 x 6.5 watercolor

day forty-five

hello! this is a quickie... it's my great-grandmother with my nephew... not quite finished, but i'm done with it! i have people coming over in 15 minutes, so i had to stop. :)

day forty-four

hello my faithful followers! thank you sooo much for checking out my blog.

tonight, i bring you a woman very dear to my heart: my great-grandmother.  we affectionately call her NanNan, and she's the sweetest, most tender-hearted, praying woman i've ever met.  she's definitely one of my heroes.

the photo was taken last Christmas, as the family was hanging out after opening gifts. the painting took me a little over an hour, and it's my smallest one to date.

3x4" watercolor

day forty-three

hello hello. wednesday means it's closer to the weekend than not! let's just say that i'm really excited about this weekend, because i have something really special to do each day. this also means that painting will be a little difficult and i will have to plan my time well.

this little painting took me around an hour to complete and i really enjoyed it. it's from the same sweet family as days 37 & 38. this is the two boys fishing with their grandfather.

5.8 x 8.3" watercolor

day forty-two

so, i did this one quickly... like 30 minutes quickly.  so it's pretty rough and loose, but i did it-- hooray!

i need some sleep, so the explanation i'm giving tonight is that this is my nephew (once again) with my Mamaw sliding him down this old blue (probably fiberglass) water slide they have at their house.

Ibid.

day forty-one

hello there!

today's painting is of one of my dearest friends. she just moved out to Pasadena & is sorely missed on the east coast!! this is one of my favorite photos of her- it's from july 4th a year ago.

here's to you, cara! (sorry i messed up your mouth... i just couldn't fix it)

Ibid.

day forty

what i sang while beginning to paint tonight:
  
But I don't feel like paintin'
No sir, no paintin' today.

Don't feel like paintin', paintin'
Even if i find nothin' better to do
Don't feel like paintin', paintin'...

(adapted from Scissor Sisters' I Don't Feel Like Dancin'... i don't really recommend this music video but the song isn't so bad... haha!)

this is (by far) my favorite watercolor thus far... the subject matter is all right, but i not only really enjoyed it, i felt comfortable with watercolors!! it's only a matter of time before i don't consider myself a beginner in this medium, and won't that be a wonderful day! by then, i'm sure you all will be tired of water colors. (sorry)

the painting is from a photo i took during my travels in Europe... i think it is from a train in Italy, but i don't remember. this guy made me laugh, because he sat up straight looking out the window the entire time-- in his cute bowtie all proper. and i was the creeper with the camera in my lap trying to take pictures discreetly.

Ibid.

day thirty-nine

good day, my friends.

this post is pretty much for me. i doubt i'd ever sell it, because it is my favorite picture of me with my nephew so far. so, i had to paint it. now, i painted part of this a few days ago with just my nephew swinging, but i naturally like this one better. :)

hope you all have a wonderful sunday, & thank you for looking!

Ibid.

day thirty-eight

a little friday night late post... i gotta have a life, right? :)

i'm sleepy, so i'll cut to the chase. this is the same little girl from day 37, standing with her brother. it was such a sweet picture, i couldn't pass up painting it. being around them, it's quite obvious how much she adores him!

Ibid.

day thirty-seven

hey hey!

so i am a little late tonight, because i was babysitting for some friends... and, i am heeding their advice here. it's their daughter! :)

i knew i wouldn't have time to paint the rest of the kiddos in this picture, so i started with the smallest, & abstracted the photo quite a bit.

Ibid.

day thirty-six

G' day, mates!


say hello to watercolors again! on this one, i used more layering, & i like this technique more. it just takes more patience on my part, which can be difficult.

moving on to more interesting info, i've taken up the hobby of spray painting things white. i'm especially liking the "flat" white spray paint, although it's hard to clean. i think what i like most is the immediacy of spray paint. for the most part, i don't have to sand or prime anything, it dries quickly, & there's no clean-up (brushes, rags, etc)-- can't beat that! :)

{btw, if you didn't see Glee, it was a spiritual one, & didn't show Christianity in a negative light.}

same as day 35.

day thirty-five

all right, let's face it: my pictures of the paintings are awful!  just a warning: looks may be deceiving.

since i've gotten such positive feedback on the watercolors, i figured i'd continue with them & try to master this medium. i figure that by day 100, i should be 10% there. :)

this is a stock photo i found online and have painted... i didn't change too much about it, and it took me around an hour to complete.  well, i hope your week has been wonderful so far!

5.8 x 8.3" watercolor

day thirty-four

hi friends!!

in college, i always wondered why people would paint something you could just take a picture of & then photoshop? however, now i see why. painting people the way you see them is a beautiful thing. i still prefer to paint in a more abstract way, even though my painting-a-days suggest otherwise.

so, tonight, we have a little boy with a kite, taken from a couple photos. it's one of the smallest paintings i've done to date, and it didn't take me long to paint-- but the planning took an hour! maybe watching TV didn't help my timing either. :)

5.5x6" watercolor on watercolor paper

day thirty-three

for those of you who didn't know already, thirty-three is the numerical equivalent of AMEN:

1+13+5+14=33

so, it is clearly a super number. haha...

today's post is brought to you by my nephew (again). my mom and i took him to the park, & i was pushing him in the swing while she took the picture. one thing you should know about my mother is that she likes loves to take pictures. i mean, she only has 86 facebook photo albums (& has only been on facebook for a little over a year!)

anyways, here's my cute little neph-neph!

8.5x5.5" watercolor on watercolor paper

day thirty-two

today was a pretty busy day for me. the new mint museum uptown was buzzing and the social network was a great movie.

so i started this painting tonight... and then decided to not finish. (i am tired.) it's from a photo, same girl as day ten. i spent about 30 minutes on it. :)

by the way, thanks so much for sharing this experience with me... some of you follow it every day, and it means so much to me!

14x12" acrylic on wood

day thirty-one

i drove all the way out to Denver (of the east) tonight and spent time with my momma. i also looked through one of our family's 50 photo albums.... one from 1984-5! this painting is from a photo i found in the album-- it's my older sister & cousin swinging. there were so many sweet pictures to choose from, but i chose this one because swings seem to go along with many of my other paintings (kites, movement, childlike freedom...).

8x6" acrylic on wood

day thirty

hello there! although this is my latest post, i only spent about 1-1.5 hours on it. i don't know about you guys, but i'm really digging the small paintings with figures as subjects. i've never really painted on such a small scale before. in school, they were constantly telling you to draw big! paint big! ... bigger! and it's actually more comfortable for me to paint large scale, but these tiny ones are adorable.

this painting is of my older sister, me, & our cousin at another cousin's wedding.

7x7" acrylic on wood