I’m just receiving a request for a painting, paid in full. Inching closer…thanks for all the help!
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Not much time left…I’m at almost 1/3 of my Friday goal.
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Something critical has come up in the last couple of hours, and trouble has come knocking on my door (not my doing, but you can’t tell trouble to just go away).
If I can receive any help whatsoever by 9 am Pacific Time tomorrow, it would be greatly appreciated.
Two paintings and a deposit would get Trouble off my back for now. Three paintings would make Trouble go away and stop bothering me.
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Making a good start on this one as the paint dries on some others. It’s not a commission, so it’s up for grabs if you like it. I’ll post a follow-up before morning.
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I’d say I’m 3/4 finished at this point. I really dislike painting foliage, but it’s better to practice than avoid it. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
That’s Ruby in the background.
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So, here are a couple of progress shots for “blocking in” on a commission I’ve received. It looks quite crude and cartoonish at this point, but I assure you it will improve before I am finished.
I try to block in as much as possible to reduce the amount of changes I would need to make had I worked to completion on certain areas but left others blankly white, which might necessitate redoing those areas already completed to achieve harmony. You will notice when I am finished that the first colors I lay down with solvents are probably not accurate, but I feel like I’ve come close to what is needed before laying down the final coats. This also follows the “fat over lean” rule (painting with turps for the beginning, and leaving the layers rich with oil on the surface), so there won’t be as much crackling of the paint many years down the road as it dries.
Personally, I like working kind of ‘dry’ and like working with a ‘thirsty’ surface, because (to me at least) the subject won’t wind up looking smooth and plastic simply because of how the paint behaves on a surface that won’t absorb some of the liquids.
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A couple more hours’ work before I went to bed in the wee hours of the morning.
ETA: Her lips are going to be a hard problem. They are much brighter and pinker than I predict I can manage with either Cadmium Red or Alazarin Crimson. We shall see.
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The eyes are looking spot on though 
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Thank you. I have this weird superstition that until you get the eyes right, it’s not going to work out. I know that’s not true, but it’s hard to shake. 
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Okay, this is as far as I can get with this one. Let’s say 98%. The subject’s lower lip is such a hot pink I can’t achieve it until I can order some magenta.
ETA: @Kii , would you please inform us what they are wearing on their head? A French schoolgirl’s hat? A witch’s hat? I am very curious. 
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She’s wearing a blue sun bonnet that is waaay too big
She also thinks it looks cute 
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So here’s the part where I’m needing to beg again.
Food, medications (asthma, nasal polyps, acid reflux, chronic depression), cat food & kitty litter, outstanding debt, you name it. I have a $55 cellphone bill due tomorrow, and only $2 in my account. 
Monday morning is my deadline for at least $2500 I need to pay to kick the problem down the road until next month, which is why I need to make 5 commissions or 10 deposits immediately. Nobody has insisted on a Christmas delivery date, so if that incentive works I can say that I could reasonably complete five works for Christmas presents if they can order this weekend.
Folks can’t wait for November or December to order. That’s just a physical impossibility for me.
If anyone might be able to help boost my signal again, I just posted @Kii 's painting to my Instagram (lazypossum1). I need some rest, but when I wake I intend to make some video and set up a Tik-Tok account, too.
There are all kinds of possible applications folks might not have thought about. Album cover? T-shirts? The basis for a future mural?
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I can’t like this, life sucks 
. I wish I could do more commissions! The one you’ve done looks so fantastic, just like my girl! I’m astounded you captured so much of her personality when you don’t even know her
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I think the knack I have for this is possibly connected to facial pattern recognition. I’m terrible at memorization, but when I see someone I’ve seen before, the lightbulb goes on. Or when I have the opportunity to study someone as I do with a photograph.
If anything, perhaps spreading the word. I must charge what I charge because that is a week’s pay at minimum wage where I do business from in San Diego, and despite living with friends in TJ, I am the “big fish” who partially supports many of the folks in my Tijuana community.
I would certainly be willing to allow folks to pay in installments if that would make things easier, and with the knowledge that some folks must wait in line for weeks if I have enough orders, it would make payment easier for them. Sort of like layaway.
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So, I am still working on outstanding orders, but overnight I hope to have the hibiscus flowers finished so I can put it up for sale.
Some orders already on the list will include more human portraits, some pet portraits, and some horses, just for the love of horses.
So here’s an idea…
If I were to paint a celebrity who deserves recognition for just being an all-around good people (maybe sending that painting to their agent), who would folks pick? Tom Hanks? Lil Nas X? Lizzo?
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Keanu Reeves?
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Or Eugene Levy.
Where does Catherine O’Hara stand in the good person metric? She’s such a great actor.
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A quick update, after I have “oiled out” (refreshed) this latest painting. Because I tend to paint “dry”, I make sure to do this at least a couple of times during a painting to ensure sufficient evenness in oil across the piece and to see the colors fresh again and see that the values are proper before I add to/edit a piece. This time is before I finish up the hot pink in a couple of days.
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