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04/04/2006: "I wish I was a mole in the ground"
I definitely have a love/hate relationship brewing with acrylics...I love how fast they dry, but I also hate that. For example, you can't leave a fresh pallette and a couple of loaded brushes sit while you IM your sister for awhile (Dirty!). Plus, I can't help feel that they (the one's I'm using) look a bit...plastic.
There's also the issue of smell. I love that they are non-toxic but I miss the smell of oil paint and all the trimmings; it just doesn't feel like "real" painting without that smell (and the inevitable headache and coughing that follow). But on the plus side, clean-up is a breeze...a clear, toxin-free breeze. I started a new painting on Sunday using modeling paste to build up a texture I then painted with said acrylics. I thought it would turn out better but I guess everything has a learning curve. I'm curious, from any painters out there...which do you use: oil or acrylic (or something else)?
A couple of interesting side bits. Yesterday was the start of the Alaska Folk Festival. I wanted to go but I left work early with a massive headache that lasted for hours. The festival is a lot of fun from everything I've heard though. Last week I learned the finger picking pattern for my first bluegrass song "I wish I was a Mole in the Ground" so I feel like that gives me more street cred now! (Any folk/bluegrass fans out there?)
I'm actually going to meet up with a professor from the U of Maine (a friend of a friend) who has been working on a documentary about the festival for 6 years now. I'm inspired to work on a film project I've had on the back burner, to create a time-lapse of a painting...starting with white canvas and going until it's finished. It will probably only be a minute or so, I'll post it! Anyway, I have to get ready for work...I bid you adieu