Love it!

The only good wasp is a dead wasp, or a beautifully drawn one. Nice work!

Amazing detail!

Thank you, all! :-) This one is right on track with (re-) discovering pathways to hone those skills and make work more portable. :-)

The longer I stare at the sketched and partially backgrounded next project, the better I realise it's a steep learning curve at the moment. Every painting just a tad bit more difficult, a notch more nuance and working my way through art history, especially techniques, light is truely my guide in this. I don't care for shape at the moment, it's all lights and also the absence of it. It's fun. It's science. It's peaceful. It takes up every second I am awake and in the middle of it.

Even friends are becoming part of the process. For the moment I am a pain in the ass to the photographers amongst them. Questions, but more for pictures that I can use for reference. Never saw so much happiness. I always say teasingly they finally found a use for photography. They still love me, so I guess it is so. Hahaha! :-P

I never felt more satisfied in working as with the things made the last year. And the canvas switch just encourages itself, I will not know when this stops. I hope it is not some temporal anomaly or, even worse, some mania. Craziness!! Muahahaha!! :-) True: I did not have too much of the coffee today. Still I feel like some little kid in a candystore, allowed to fetch whatever he likes. Not really free, to do whatever I like, to paint whatever I want. It's too early for that. The basics must be better first.

If I want to soar with eagles, I must not wobble with turkies. That was on a sticker in the pub I was a regular during my late teens, complete with Harley Davidson logo and obligatory and forementioned eagle. One of them. That's thirty years ago. Is it so? I guess, so, since challenges are way harder, just looking at painters throughout history. I started to get the upmost respect for old masters when I was asked to recreate a painting. I will talk about that one in a later post. :-) While I was working on that piece, got a true masterclass in light, colour and attitude. The last one is the biggest hurdle to take. Discipline is not my strongest characteristic. Never been in the army or something else where they use violent ways to train people. Been to some strict schools and mom could be strict, but hell, I was smart, so I didn't see punishment in the moments alone on my room or in a classroom. Meditation, drawing and reading. :-) And the coin drops...