Treading Water

April 29th.  Checked Etsy, small 'artist trading cards'  really do get  sold.  Many of the artists who do my kind of thing have a limited success on Etsy, seems many only make a few sales.  Jesseca's right, I need to find a market that's hungry.  Better still if I can find a subject that I feel as passionate about as my buyers.  If I stick with pencil and do my best work I can ask a fair bit more - not that the color works I'm currently doing don't take a lot of time and  effort, but I'm new at them and don't feel I'm getting the most consistent, solid results.  Prints tend to go for a few dollars each, hardly enough to cover postage, but originals of  decent work can  run better.  Eh - provided someone buys.  Some of them just sit there.  Now, Jesseca's work always sells, her page clears at a good pace...but she has made her rep in a market that was unfulfilled when she began.   She does beautiful work that's  consistent, and she has her own distinctive voice.  https://www.etsy.com/shop/ladybuckthorn

Currently working another 2.5" x 3.5", a partial nude of Sharon Mitchell laying in bed (she's just waking up in the morning), working from a low-quality screencap from a  source of even poorer visual clarity.  Not sure if I can post here when done...I don't want to mark this blog as having adult content if it means I can't "share" the post.  Will have to see if I can mark individual posts as NSFW, though it really is an innocuous image.  Then again, I've yet to see if the picture will turn out well anyway.  I'm having to interpret some of the details, and that might result in something interesting. 

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After 10 PM, same day, had to stop a few hours ago.   Have been at it since morning with a few breaks, and was on the verge of a headache.  Mostly, I hit a point where instead of improving the picture i was starting to harm it.  Now there's at least one spot that may turn out muddied.  Unff.  It will look fixable in thee morning.  See, such a small size may make it seem easy or quick - it isn't.  This one is a challenge, so I know it's worth doing.

Wondering if Tetsuo: the Iron Man drawings would sell.  I'd have to emulate the same tones, it's pretty high-contrast and grainy.  Ink would be better but pencil is what I do.  I would totally do metrogirl.  Might not be much of an American market for Tsukamoto in general, but Tetsuo is still a cult hit.

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May 4th.  The past few days have felt unproductive.  Been working on applying for assistance, and watching a lot of instructional videos on YT about painting, sculpting, and molding & casting.  Some of them have been useful, learned some techniques to try but still feels like I've just spent two or three days being utterly unproductive, wasted time.  The image of Sharon Mitchell looks good from a  distance, meaning I've worked out the shapes and shading, but will need paint to smooth out the rough areas.  I've too little experience with paint to feel up to it yet, trying to psych myself up.  Should force myself to draw instead.  Feeling weary, a little depressed.      I'm getting by, I just don't see the point. 

Never recall much of dreams, most have not been bad though none have been good or happy either.  Neutral at best but for those that remind me of what I've lost.  There have been none of Dana in any fashion: not Dana herself, no proxies, no symbolism relating to her, no hypnagogia, no anything.  : ( 
On the upside I've lost twentyfive pounds since coming to NY.  Eating habits have changed radically.  Hope it continues.

Looking for an image to post...don't like to post without images, I feel like I owe that to anyone who looks in, kind of cheating people if I don't give them at least something to look at.  Sorry.  I can't produce new stuff that quickly.  Even when I was at school it took a while to do a drawing, and that was when I was at it constantly.   

Still don't have more of my supplies yet.  The next thing I want sent is my sculpting putties and clays.  On days where I can't get into the zone for drawing or painting, I could work on psychical objects.  That would help me to not feel like I'm in a slump, keep me at something. 

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The Mitchell image is not a failure in that it is turning into an education.  As an art project, if I were a teacher I'd give it a D as it stands currently.  Here's the problem:  the trouble spot now looks smooth but has so much paint on it that it hasn't the luminosity of the rest - acrylic opposed to watercolor.  Colors still muddy, unattractive to look at.  Time to let it dry thoroughly again before I try altering the colors...and I'll have to go over the rest with acrylic as well.  I would like to do this again in watercolor later, because I really loved that luminosity.  Oh, FFS, the entire reason I liked this image was the way light played in it!  some of it is overlit to the point the details are washed out, and some of it is in deep contrasty shadow...and her face and body are right in the middle, causing interesting shadow play on her shoulder and breast, and making her facial expression enigmatic...is she sad or happy?  I can't tell. 

I've learned a technique for keeping a moist pallette.  Practice is showing me how much and how little water to use.  Some of these cards are for watercolor, and some are for acrylics and oils.  I haven't dug into them yet.  Learning not to let the page buckle from moisture, that's another trick I'll need to know for salable work. 

Normally working on art would help lift me out of a low mood, but when my art is also in a funk it makes things worse.  Can't find the zone to draw, and the painting is trouble.