Friday, August 27, 2010

Holy crap, it's finally finished!

I've finally finished the blimpy windmills:




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I'm very proud of this piece, it turned out very well, although I did violate the Keep It Simple, Stupid rule that many of us who make software for a living try to adhere to. I got carried away and added extra clouds, a village, and blimps to what was originally supposed to just be windmills in a landscape.

The reason for the KISS rule in software is that programmers have a general tendency to figure out the most complicated way to solve a problem first. Usually because we're trying to incorporate all the best ideas we know about, and because we're trying to anticipate requirements that may or may not ever come up. And also because we want to know that we're able to solve really complex problems.

99% of the time, however, the non-ideal simple solution will suffice, and the complicated one will often bog a project down and cause money to be lost.

In this case, though, the painting is a lot better for the extra elements. I probably won't be able to charge enough money on this one to cover the time it took to make it, but sometimes you have to push yourself, especially when it comes to making a piece that helps you to stand out in a crowd.

Ok, on to the next one! I'll post back here when I've uploaded a good photo of it to my website.



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Thursday, August 19, 2010

New sketches 'n' stuff

It feels like I've been away from the easel for too long, buy it's probably not been that long in actuality. Day jobs and babies can do that I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have a great job and even happier to have my very own little miss sunshine. Still, I do get antsy when I'm away from the easel for too long.

So I'm happy to be back at it and trying to focus on making a good show in November.

Here's a wall of sketches and the first one under way:








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Friday, August 6, 2010

If I've been a little quiet lately...

It's because I've been working on a commission and trying to figure out a good direction to go with my next set of paintings. These are the ones that are going to go to Arts on King in November, so I'd like make them into a coherent set if I can.

Here are some thumbnails that I do at the start of the process:







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