So, I was up til 4:30 working on today’s auction item. Sometimes things turn out, and sometimes they really just don’t. Last night was one of the latters.

I started off really excited about Moby Dick vs. Tiny Tim. But in my head, it was an acrylic painting. And those always take me a really long time. So, I looked through some little pre-stretched canvases I had stockpiled in the corner cabinet and found some mini minis – I think they’re 4″x4″. I figured at that size, a few brush strokes would make up each layer and I could zip zip through it. Well, not so fast. It still takes me a really long time. I started at around 10:30 and figured I’d be done by 1 or so.

Yeah. Not so much – I’m still not done, so it won’t post for auction this week, but hopefully next week I’ll have it done.

Here are some progress shots, if you’re at all interested:

First step is just blocking in the color. I’m not actually a very good acrylic painter (I’m even worse with oils) in part because I’m impatient, but also in part because I don’t actually know what I’m doing. So for all you artists out there, if I’m making egregious errors, this is just the way I do it. I’m happy to get pointers if you have them.

Second step is putting down thin layers of paint to build up my darks:

I always make my underlayers in weird colors that have little relevance to the colors it will actually be when it’s done. Actually, the relevance is that I usually pick something that is complementary to what I think the final is going to be. I was once told that this helps make the final color pop a little more. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but that’s how I do it now. Sometimes I think it works, and other times I think I pretty much just cover it completely up. So who knows.

Third step is pulling up the lights while layering down the darks. When I say “third step” I actually mean “25th step” because there are so many thin layers at this point. And each dark layer that I paint over the whole thing, I have to wait for it to dry, then put on another layer of just the lights. So, at this point, I’ve probably got about 9 or 10 layers built up:

But I’ve still got a long ways to go, I think. I kind of enjoy the tedium, but it’s also good for me to have something to do while I wait for the paint to dry, because otherwise I start back in on it too soon and then things get all lumpy and weird because the paintbrush starts picking up the tacky paint instead of putting the new paint down.

Sorry, this must be dullsville to all you folks who want pictures of babies. You’ll just have to wait till Matthew gets back for all that nonsense.

So, while I was waiting for Moby vs. Tiny to dry, I figured I’d better just knock out a quickie for the auction. The third most popular suggestion in Prompt Robbi was “umbrella hats”. So I gave it a whirl:

NO.

NAH.

I liked this one better, but who wants a drawing of an old hippie with an umbrella hat on? Other than me, of course.

Then I found some correction tape on my desk, and thought maybe I could try something abstract with it.

I found it pretty uninspiring, though it sure was fun to put the correction tape all over everything.

So I went back to the Prompt Robbi suggestion box and found the next most popular item, “Final Flight of the Space Shuttle Program.” I like this one because it is for sure something I would never, ever, EVER think to draw on my own.

I did a little doodle of it

which I liked, what with all the factories and clouds and whatnot. But then I decided that if it really was the “final flight” then it would be fun to suggest that no one was left. Like, that the people had to take their own car and leave it at the launch pad. And then I drew the stupid car too big.

So I had to start all over again. This time I actually checked to see what a space shuttle looks like (not much like a rocket ship at all, it turns out. More like a plane, stuck to a big weiner). The scanner made it look all wrinkly, but in real life you don’t really see those wrinkles. I just didn’t have the energy to try to photoshop it right.

So, that’s it. This week’s auction, “Final Flight.” I hope you like it, after all that rigamarole. Hopefully Moby vs. Tiny will be ready for next week’s auction, but don’t count on it. You might get stuck with one of the sucky umbrella hat illustrations instead.