Yesterday felt like Saturday around here. No school, so I didn't have to drive anyone anywhere. I was at work well before lunch and in two and a half hours had whipped out over $150.00 worth of orders. I love it when it goes that well. I had to paint a dining room chair seat (to be upholstered). The design was a bouquet of peonies and the customer had chosen her threads so I had the entire pallet in front of me. Easy. Last year I was at the art store and they had a bucket of brushes they were selling for a buck a piece. They were white sable, which is the best bristle for needlepoint canvas, which eats brushes whole, so I grabbed a handful. One of them turned out to be about three times bigger than I normally use when I paint. Control issues. Anyway, I started using the big one when I had to do backgrounds. I love it. It holds it's point very well and I can load the thing up with so much paint it's insane. Thanks to this brush, my paint time for large pieces has been cut by two thirds. A big bouquet of peonies? Under an hour. In fact, I could've done two in under an hour and a half. I don't tell the customers that, of course. It's no ones business but mine if I've figured out a way to produce huge complicated canvases in no time at all. One customer asked me how I did it, as in what was my technique. I didn't really know what she was getting at, so I said "I start with the lightest color, squint a lot, and when it looks like a flower I stop." That's pretty much it.
Then I did a large Christmas stocking. No big areas of color, so the big brush didn't come into use but these things don't take me nearly as long as they used to. Part of the reason is I just don't sweat it like I did in the old days. It used to be that if I missed a color, I'd go back and remix. Now, if I discover something that should've been yellow after my yellow has dried, or been mixed into green, I just paint it whatever color I've got up and running. Unless I can't, of course. I mean, if it's a face, I wouldn't paint it green. Usually. Depends on whether or not I can get away with it. You'd be surprised how much you can get away with. I always am.
It was snowing later and kind of windy. I ran the day before and the wind was irritating. So I did pilates instead. I can do the whole routine now without falling over, which makes it a better workout, although not as much fun. Sometimes I pretend I can see a difference and that my abs really
are getting flatter. Most of the time I'm just satisfied that my core is getting stronger.
Last night, Josie and I were all exited to watch Beauty and the Beast, which had been her favorite movie when she was little and we had it on tape. Neither of us had seen it in years. So we popped it in and were horrified to see cartoon figures we'd never seen before! Turns out Netflix doesn't have Disney's Beauty and the Beast!! They will be getting some stupid Special Edition soon, but for now all they have is this...impostor! We sealed it right up and watched News Radio instead. Then I watched Lost. Zack has got me watching the new season. I'd really rather wait, but hey, if you're gonna have it on right in front of me.... Then I watched The Usual Suspects, which I hadn't seen since it first came out. Good flick. I actually think Kevin Spacey was better in L.A. Confidential. People say "ooh, he was crippled!" You know, when you make a movie, you only have to pretend you're crippled for about two minutes at a time. I pretend I'm crippled for about an hour every day after I work out. If I limp around the house yelling "Kaiser Solzay!" will somebody give me an Oscar? I didn't think so.
Time to get to work and see if I can beat yesterday's output.
