Stiff Upper Lip

If you want to feel inadequate, spend some time drawing with a six-year-old. While you labor over something Edward Hopper would have wadded up and thrown away, the child will toss off a series of pictures that could pass for early Jackson Pollocks.

At least, that's what happened to me. I closed my eyes and thought of England.

A New Assignment!

Down below is a picture of the corner of Broome Street and West Broadway on October 9th, 1935. Those buildings aren't there anymore and the cast-iron warehouse that replaced them is home to a Tommy Hilfiger store (I checked Google Maps). Charm-free booze cans like Lucky Strike and The Cupping Room are nearby. This is my new assignment.

The image is a cropped version of a famous picture by an even more famous photographer named Berenice Abbott. I know better than her (that was a joke) so I altered her composition.



Tourist trap bars that still manage to be charming:
Napoleon House
Vesuvio
King Cole Bar

Historical Update! The reason the Tommy Hilfiger building looks unfamiliar is because it is new (there used to be a parking garage on that corner). According to this New York Times article, it has only been there for three years, but it is supposed to look older.

Hit it and Quit

I once had a painting teacher who said "if you think your painting is overworked, work on it some more." Proving that even a raging asshole can offer useful advice. I went back and fixed the coffee, and I didn't have to re-paint the whole picture. A victory. First I scraped off the bumpy bits in the area where I was planning to paint -



Then, I tried to just fix the coffee residue parts, but that threw off all the other colors in the area. I tinkered some more -



And that was no good, so I re-painted everything inside the cup. iTunes played:

TI: Front Back
Sonic Youth: 100%
Funkadelic: Hit it and Quit

So I did.

I'll Probably Hate Myself in the Morning

I've decided this painting isn't finished. The coffee isn't right - the color is off, but the real problem is the brushwork - it doesn't give any information and it isn't interesting to look at. Two strikes. I know I'm going to regret it, but I'm going back to try and fix this part. But, you can't fix just one thing (or, I can't). A little change here throws something off over there, and before you know it, you've re-painted the whole picture.

I'm going to do it anyway.

Half Empty

Here's the half-empty cup picture. I've been working on it for about a week and I think it is finished. I've even acted on that notion by adding teeny details to the cup.

Before I had kids, I never spent a week working on the same picture - I painted in a mad rush. Now, I can plan. Planning hasn't made my paintings better, but you can manage different effects if the paint is dry when you go back.

What do you think, does it look done?

Start!

At the college I went to, we painted pictures instead of writing papers. Afterward I discovered about needing to make money. So, I went to law school and art-making got demoted to hobby. It never felt good, but about some things you have no choice.

Last month, a good friend mentioned wanting a painting for his kitchen - a half-empty cup of something (not half-full - I'm a lawyer). Because he is a very good friend, I decided to dust off the paints and make the picture for him. So far, I am enjoying doing it, and it is kind of freeing to paint something to someone else's specifications.

So, it gave me an idea - I could keep my painting chops in order by getting my friends to give me assignments! And, being no stranger to blogging, I could give myself further incentive to do the work by documenting the experiment here.

So, here we go.