Getting Ready for 30 in 30

Preparation is Half the Battle

I'm in the preparation mode for the 30 paintings in 30 days

online art challenge in September by Leslie Saeta.

I did this in January and learned so much about painting,

about me,

on accomplishing a goal,

met so many great art friends,

and saw fabulous art every single day for an entire month,

I couldn't think of a down side,

so I'm at it again.

Only this time,

I'm doing a little more preparation besides getting a bunch of small panels and canvases ready.

Panels ready.

Some have been gessoed, some have been toned either with burnt sienna or gray.

Being a daily painter, usually means painting small.

And I did most days,

but I did do one 16" x 20" during the last challenge.

 Canvases, check!

This time however, I am doing a lot more planning and preparation.

First I downloaded about 50 photos of things I thought would make great art.

They are all in a file on my desktop.

Next I created a calendar for September and added my commitments for the month.

Busy Month!

Then I decided on themes for each week,

and next I plugged in the photos to use in those categories.

I took some of the photos I wanted to paint early and did some value drawings

and edited the photos in picasso and printed them in black and white as reference.

Autumn scene.

This is from a photo my daughter Kari took.

This is probably going to be a 16" x 20"

 

 Photos edited and printed to black and white for values.

Love the truck.

My drawing is pitiful and I'll have to work on that.

 This will be my first painting of the challenge.

This is a beautiful Jersey cow at last years Kentucky State Fair.

I taped the photo on the back of the panel it will be painted on.

Value drawing of the cow.

 

Truck looks like a 3 year old did it.

I know, I have to work on that.

When I paint the paintings, I will have my computer on my right with the color photo

and any drawings and the black and white photos on my left.

I haven't designated sizes to each painting yet,

I may let that be the spur of the moment decision, or not.

I'm also going to add dinner menus to my calendar so I don't have to think about 

what to fix for dinner all day.

My world goes much smoother and less expensive if I have a meal planner menu.

Since that works so well for meal planning,

that's why I decided to take that tack for planning my 30/30 attack.

The last time, I had to not only paint the paintings,

but,

do all the planning each day for the next day.

I'm trying to eliminate a little stress by planning now.

If I get into my studio and look at my calendar and whine,

"but I don't want to paint that truck today"

it's OK, I can plug in another painting,

but it's much easier with a workable plan.

Now, let's get down there and paint.

Oh wait,

It's not September 1st yet.