I couldn’t wait for all the paint to dry before putting Ch. 2 of The Adventures of Infinity and Negativa on my gallery wall. I now feel that I’m on a roll that I don’t want to end. After getting over the hump (or more truthfully, getting over myself), I can honestly say that I’m ready to charge into the third painting with all the confidence of a novice who knows that the only way to improve is to pick up the paintbrush and paint.
What I like about this second painting is that the background actually recedes and sets up the characters, including the cement truck, which appear to leap off the canvas–more so than the first painting. With the first painting, both the background and the characters have equal value and so the characters don’t stand out as much.
I still struggle with painting things in their correct size, but I’m pleased that the twins look more alike than in the first painting. Also learned my lesson by not complicating the scene with a lot of details, given my abilities and timeline. Ideally, I’ll finish the series at the same time that the final manuscript is completed.
This the first time that I’ve collaborated with myself and it’s a cool experience so far. I’ve toyed with the idea of how to maintain the daily discipline of working on a canvas when I come home after work. What I’ve come up with so far is canvas prepping, which translates into me looking up images on-line to create the composition, sectioning off canvases with tape to create the story board and sketching. All of those things are necessary, but don’t involve me setting up my paints on the balcony. That way, I can continue advancing the canvases instead of working on them just two days a week.
The manuscript is coming along. I like the work I’m doing and make several revelations regarding the plot and characters every week. I truly enjoy being able to research through reading. Even though I have a daily habit of reading at night when school is in session, I’d really like to get the entire roughdraft completed before school starts. With each canvas, I edit that part of the story to match.