I still have some work to do! I created a transitional gif lining up Vermeer’s work with my work in progress photo so you can see what I’ll be tweaking. I will be painting in a little while, it’s storming right now and kinda gloomy out in the studio. This may take a few moments to load if you’re on dial up:

A week from today, Mark will be on probably his 5th layover on his way home!! I was talking to my girlfriend lastnight about how excited I am. My heart still skips and I still get “twitterpated” when I see him or hear his voice! (Twitterpated, is that from Bambi? Can anyone confirm that? LOL) I can close my eyes and picture myself at the airport watching him walk toward me. Awww you would think that after 15 years the weak kneed part of the relationship goes away, eh? I’m so grateful that is not the case for us, as I know it is for so many couples. I can see us 50 years from now, much like his Dad and Stepmom, we were just destined for eachother.

Have any of you seen Serendipity? Yea! We’re a lot like that! If you haven’t seen it, it’s an awesome lovey dovey movie with John Cusak. I highly recommend it!

This is probably going to be the coolest part for Mark, I’ve lost 47 pounds and I’m down 4 sizes since he last saw me in March. WOOOOOWIE! Of course he’s seen me, and pics and stuff, but I think it’ll be a lot different in person, yea?

All that being said, now I’ll ask you all to keep him in your prayers, that he remains focused on his job until he’s safe & secure in the air next week! Grazie, friends!

One of these days I’m gonna have to do a roll call, I know you’re reading this, so speak up! 😉

Have a great afternoon/evening, I will update again when I start painting!
xoxoxo

Heya! Sorry I had to take the cam down without warning this afternoon. I am determined to finish her face tonight, and you are welcome to watch!!!

Sooo, go on and click on that cam link right over there ————>
and don’t forget to zoom it to 200% to see the whole capture area! 😉

I have a beautiful photo that I took this morning that I will share when I finish up and post her progress pic tonight. Make sure if/when you come back, you scroll down right in this entry to see the images, I’ll add ’em right down here. 😀

ONE WEEK TO GO TIL MARK COMES HOME! Whoooooooowie! We are so excited to get to spend two whole weeks with him, I can’t even describe it! I’ve arranged the first night already, kinda honeymoon-ish. 😉 Jay and Caitlin are both thrilled of course, Jay keeps talking about sharing her birthday cake with Daddy and making him wear a hat and hold balloons. hehe! (Ready for that, hon?)

I’ll be back in a bit!
xoxoxo

And one more for my bestest bud who isn’t obsessive compulsive AT ALL. I swear.

She just loves my purdyful flowers. 🙂

As you can see, I still have plenty of work to do to get this “up to par”!

I will begin painting in just a few minutes, working on her facial features. Starting on her eyes, then finishing her forehead and temple area, then I will work her nose, cheeks, lips, chin, and finish up with the shadows on the side of her face, ear and neck.

There are some small areas that I plan on tweaking a little as well, so hopefully I can get all of this done before I leave to pick up Jay from school in a couple of hours!

The cam is on and pointed at the painting, I have set the view to “large”, which means when you click my webcam link (over there—>) that you will want to adjust the size by right clicking on the cam image and zooming until you can see her face, or my hand! LOL

See you soon!
xoxoxoxox

Here’s progress shot #5.

Her wrap, turban and cape are done. I started highlighting and deepening the skintones and will allow that to dry overnight, then really get into her facial details tomorrow while Miss J is at school. 🙂

I am going to start painting in a little while, I will set up the cam and turn it on in a minute.

This is a collage of the first 4 work in progress pics I’ve taken of this piece. You can click to view a larger image. I put it together so I could see the progression too, thought you might enjoy it!

Going to set up the cam!
xoxoxo

I am getting ready to paint! (Cam link)

The sale went well yesterday, I got rid of about half of what I took over there. YAY! I was beat though, what a long day! It felt like it was time to go to bed at 1 in the afternoon yesterday.

I will start painting in a very short while, just have a few things to take care of so I can dive in. I’ll go ahead and set up the cam and turn it on, and I’ll update right down here if anything else is happening, and post another WIP shot here tonight, too!

p.s. don’t forget, yahoo ID intricateartist will give you a larger, clearer view, and if you open it via the webpage you can view the large image if you right click and zoom to 200%. Ooh, yes, and if you have yahoo and add me, it may be a little before I can add you back. The computer is a room away from the studio. 🙂

6:07PM CST: Well it’s been really quiet today. I’m going to break for a couple of hours and start up again just after 8PM. I have a progress pic of it for now, I wanted to try to get a picture that has natural light so you can see the boldness of the colors. I finished her wrap, turban, and started in on her cape. I may make some revisions to everything before I start on her face, it depends on how I see her tomorrow.

Holy cannoli, what a day! I don’t think I’ve done that much math in my head since high school. LOL

I unloaded the garage and loaded up two trucks with stuff to add to the sale for tomorrow, WISH ME LUCK! And lots and lots of sized 14-22 women who love clothes. And expecting moms, and moms with infants. 😀 That will take care of everything and I won’t have to bring anything home! YAHOO!

I tell you what though, not painting today, I am getting the jitters. Even just thinking about not painting tomorrow is making me a little nauseous! I am so in love with my oils, and so excited to really excel and expand my compositions and gallery!!! I have so many ideas!

You know that painting from Vermeer has already taught me so much, looking at his palette, using only the colors he used (ok 2 extras ’cause I couldn’t figure out which was which on his palette description!). I was really intimidated by working this piece. I had it ready to start for a few days, and I was headed home one day and honestly started painting it in my head! I knew I was ready for it, now to finish it and to have a painting that is truly a tribute to Vermeer – I will be SOOO EXCITED!

Aaah. Ok folks sorry to ramble, just had to get that off my chest! Now please accept my apologies for my lack of cam painting today and tomorrow, I PROMISE I will paint Sunday, and I will finish this piece by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week! (Ok, Thursday or Friday. LOL)

I still have some eye candy for you! See how mean I am, make you read all that when all you really wanted was something easy on the eyes. Ok here you go! This is a flower in my in-law’s garden. Anyone know what it is? An African Daisy perhaps? The light was hitting it just right and it just caught my eye from the driveway. Aaah. Sniff. Enjoy. It’s my favorite color!

We’re heading out for the morning/afternoon, my mother-in-law is having a garage/moving sale so we’ll be helping her with it today!

I am trying to get a whole bunch of stuff done before Mark comes home on leave, so to help facilitate all of these projects, I just relisted a couple of paintings and a bunch of prints, 3 of them are Limited Editions! They are 3-Day listings, so they’ll be over by the end of the weekend! Here they are!

I’ll be back later today to paint… 🙂

xoxoxoxox

I’ll be starting up the cam in a few minutes to continue working on “Girl With A Pearl Earring”! You can watch thru Yahoo IM (my user ID is intricateartist), the image is much clearer/sharper thru IM. Of course this link still works, too! 🙂

Hey, I am going to set it as a “large image”. What this means is that on Yahoo you can see a larger view of my cam. Through the cam link, it will initially show a small portion of the larger image. If you right click and zoom to full screen, then hit your escape key, it should take the cam size to the larger view as well. Please let me know if that doesn’t work for you!

12:41 CST: I’m leaving the cam on, but I will be away for a little while!
1:40 CST: Going to start painting again in a couple of minutes 🙂
6:33 CST: I’ll be back at the easel just after 8 my time.

Here’s the work in progress shot for the day! The yellow headwrap is finished, I’ll work on her turban and coat/cape tomorrow, then I can concentrate on her face. Here’s the link to the original again so you can compare the hedwrap: Original Vermeer