The Belly of the Whale (Patreon)

The Frame came today! I put the painting in it to make sure it would fit. It does. And it's cool to get an idea of what it will look like when It's finally done. 

I call this part of the process "making the rounds." Because I just keep bouncing around from area to area going over everything. Bringing out the highlights, knocking back the shadows. 

At this point I start to get way more confidence about painting. I feel comfortable painting over entire areas and then redoing it. 

In Joseph Campbell's terms I think I'm in the Belly of the whale. It's too late to start over, I'm unsure if it's even possible to finish before the deadline. all I can do is paint my way out. 

But I'm very happy with what I'm doing.

I look at it and see enough good in it to keep me satisfied with what I'm doing, and enough to improve that I'm excited to get back to work on it. 

I've added a lot of darker paint in the background and that makes it hard to take pictures of because of the glare. 

Happy January 8th Everybody:

I dreamed about sharks last night. I was looking for them in the ocean. I put a bunch of dead fish in a cage and put it in the water. But no sharks came. Then a bunch of people showed up and started playing and splashing around in the water. 

I swam out to remove the cage of dead fish from the water so the people wouldn't be in danger. The water was super clear. I could see the floor of the ocean was littered with luxury items. Fancy watches and jewelry and stuff.

Instead of removing the cage of fish I went down and collected some of that stuff. I was looking for something unique to give to my friend for her wedding. I found what appeared to be ancient totem like thing.

As I was bringing it back to the shore there were two sharks stuck on the beach struggling to get back to the water. 

They were in bad shape. Huge chunks missing from their bodies. Blood everywhere. I wanted to help them but they were massive, and thrashing around too much. 

They started rolling themselves back towards the water. As soon as they got in the water they started eating each other. 

I worked on the cave paintings for a few hours this morning. I listened to Chopin preludes and a Great Courses lecture about ancient Mesoamerica. 

I ate an egg salad sandwich. 

The coffee tasted really watery to me. So I drove to Starbucks and got a black coffee to see if it was me or the coffee maker. 

It was the coffee maker. 

Have Fun

Goodnight Sweeties