it's no longer the beginning (week VI)

It's done. I don't have to worry about it anymore.
It feels good to be free. I can run through the prairies without worry. I can watch TED Talks and not get traumatic flashbacks. I'm coming for you, James Veitch and Jon Ronson. I can burn my paints. Finally.
Anyways, let's talk about the Talk. I think it was okay. I'm just glad that it's over. I feel relieved more than anything. I don't remember a lot of my actually being onstage. It seemed to whiz by. I think I spoke quickly, blah blah, the typical self-hate stuff. I'm glad one or two people laughed at my jokes. I love all my fans.

me, insulting Jackson Pollock once again

I don't have a lot to say, surprisingly. Haha. I'm glad it's over. I'm definitely glad it's over. I'm clear, for now. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my year, surprisingly. Oh, jeez, I hope no future 9th/10th graders are reading this. Crap.
It's a fun experience, definitely. As Tim Urban masterfully put it, "It has always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk." This has basically been my mindset throughout the wonderful period of speech preparation. Once I was done with the Talk, I was free for spring break. I am now free for spring break.
I'd like to thank Amanda (S) for masterfully controlling my PowerPoint. Well, I actually couldn't really see my slides as I was presenting, out of fear. I'm sure she did a reasonable job ;^).
But, really, thanks Aboyda.
What else can I say? Throughout the past week I thought a lot of stuff about the TED Talk, but most of it won't be shared here, because I'm keeping this blog family friendly. Now that it's over, I feel empty. Not empty in an "I Have Nothing To Live For" way, but empty in a "Wow, I Don't Have To Feel Right Now" way. If that makes sense.
What makes sense is that the TED Talk is done, and this blog is done.
I'm getting a bit emotional about leaving my blog. I probably wont keep up with that. Just look at my old blog from 8th grade that I had to make for a writing class! Actually, I won't give the link, because it contains a lot of emo stuff that poorly reflects my character.

how did that go, Ellie? did you maintain it during high school?

I don't think the future of this blog is a great one. I like to have hope, so I'll hope I do something with it. Here's another highlight from the blog (where I talk a lot about high school);

I've gone through a lot of regrettable phases in my life which I still do not forgive myself for

Oh, me, you're still in a regrettable phase of your life that you still don't forgive yourself for.
God, I'm reading a lot of what I wrote, and it's not the best. I have a list of song recommendations. I have OK Go, Frank Sinatra, Phoenix, Johnny Mercer, and a lot of stuff that takes me back to a time. Let's stop lurking on my past.
Yeah. Now what? Goodbye? I'm sure there's quote about how awkward goodbyes are. I'll just end on something cheesy that we can all relate to.

Thanks for following the blog.
:^)

it's not really the beginning: help

if you're reading this, it's 8:46 PM on a Wednesday night (3/29/17) and I'm suffering because of the TED Talk

if you're still reading this, it's 2:07 PM on a Monday afternoon (4/3/17), and my talk is tomorrow. please help me.

if you're reading this again, i'm done the talk. it's been two days since it happened (4/4/17). today is 4/6/17. exciting stuff.

it's not really the beginning (video, week V)

I'm bad at making videos. I get uncomfortable. It's cool, though. Don't worry.
Anyways, the quality of this video went drastically downhill, and the recording isn't ideal in general. I'm sorry if my voice is kind of quiet. I mumble on occasion.

Yep, there it is. Thanks.

I'd like to thank Aunt Reen and Sandro Botticelli, my biggest inspirations.

In case that doesn't work, here's the link:

https://youtu.be/yzYgM_0tdFg 

even later into the beginning: a few issues

I asked Gary Boyler to be my interview, and he hasn't replied. On his blog, he says this:

It's been roughly two or three days. He hasn't gotten back to me. 

Don't worry, though, because I have another interview. I won't have to contact Monet or Botticelli through an Ouija board. Well, assuming Ouija boards are actually real. How cool would that be, though, if I did my interview with a ghost! 

Has anyone ever done that, or at least tried to do it? 

slightly later into the beginning: the survey

As you may or may not have known, I made a survey asking people what I should paint. This was so I could just get ideas and hopefully satisfy those who wanted to see me try something specific.

The idea was simple. Give the Google Form link to people. Advertise it a bit. Get ideas. Suffer a little less.

That was my first mistake.

Upon giving the survey to several people, I was glad to find that I collected about 140 responses within one/two days. Exciting!

And then I read the responses.

Here's some highlights;

thanks for the animal hybrids

This poll didn't help at all, but I guess I'll paint my dog. Thanks, guys.

slightly later in the beginning (week II)

Hi again.

Update:

They were all about marketing your art.
-
Anyways, let's talk about textures, or a few of the main ones I can actually try to accomplish.

We'll start this off easy and talk about impasto. It vaguely sounds like the punchline to the "what do you call fake pasta," joke. We could modify it, like, "what do you call a fake oil painting technique? an impasto," but that's only if you really don't like your friends.

It's basically when when you layer a lot of paint onto the canvas to get a nice ~3 dimensional effect~. Think of it like a bad John Green novel.

It's used a lot in expressionism, like the work of everyone's favorite, Vincent Van Gogh. Check out one of my favorite paintings by him (and one of my favorite paintings overall):

Starry Night Over the Rhone

 Frank Auerbach, (in my professionally unprofessional opinion), shows this the best in his paintings when he makes stuff like this.

Portrait of Catherine Lampert

It gives paintings more dimension and overall makes it more interesting to look at. Isn't it neat? Jackson Pollock also used impasto, apparently, but I don't really think it was purposeful. Not to mention his art looks like absolute vomit that was coated in asphalt and then someone else vomited on that after their dog took a s-

Okay, that's enough. 

Oil paint can be applied with anything, really, to achieve the impasto aesthetic. I have palette knives (thanks Kyle) that I can use. However, they are probably considered a weapon and I can't bring them into school. I could use brushes, but that would shove paint into them and I would rather not do that. It'd make it harder to clean, and eventually the brushes would harden and be unusable. 

Now let's talk about dabbing. Dabbing is really just putting paint down quickly and frequently to get a cool-looking effect I can't really explain. 

I made this test painting where I tried a mixture of impasto and dabbing. The dabbing makes it look like the painting is slightly raised, like grass on a putting green, y'know? There's not an abundance of information about this, only some great 2016 content. 

It can be applied simply, with a paintbrush and moving it up and down. Rapidly.

And then there's ala prima. It's a fun technique where wet paint is put onto wet paint to look really cool. It was used with artists like Paul Cezanne. It makes a nice messy effect that's good for blending paints together.

Mont Sainte-Victoire

It's a fun time. I'm excited to try out these effects, especially ala prima because it's fast and I enjoy doing it. I'm an impatient trash monster.

Ideally, I'd do this with a larger brush, to maximize fun. I guess. I don't know, it depends on the painting.

So, yeah. Love life. Love living. Thanks for following the updates.

My main source is Gary: http://garybolyer.com/2011/08/11/top-6-ways-to-create-texture-in-oil-painting/

But for extra stuff: http://painting.about.com/od/artglossarya/g/defallaprima.htm , http://emptyeasel.com/2007/07/26/what-is-impasto-thick-textured-paint/ , http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/painting/impasto-technique.htm

in the beginning: the great gary

Everything is going well.

Alright, maybe not. That's fine.

Upon researching 'oil painting texture techniques,' I was met with posts that simply described what texture was and how to see it, rather than how to do it. Finally, I met a blog run by this guy:

I finally found it. My holy grail. The Veronica Sawyer to my Heather Mcnamara. The Ford to my Arthur. I found Gary. It started off fine. I looked at his first example. "1) Impasto" (Bolyer 4). We're off to a great start! I know what impasto is, and that's an oil painting technique! What a great guy, that Gary-

And then Gary decided to betray me. However, this article seems informative, so I subscribed to my main man Gary's free email newsletter. I put in my email. This is so tedious. I don't even know what Gary's news is, but I can't wait to see the rest of this quality content-

if there is a heaven, I will not see Gary in it

I cried a bit, but I did it. I did it for Gary.

I'll keep this blog updated if Gary decides to get back to me with his free email newsletter.

Anyways, I got back on track. From this experience, I learned some nice texture-related stuff. Here's a list of the things I discovered:

1. Impasto
2. Scumbling
3. Ala Prima
4. Pulling
5. Dabbing (slow down, millennials)
6. Using other materials

Now, I'm 36% sure that Gary made up at least half of those things, but I'll leave him be. He is a professional (I think). After all, his website is what gave us articles, such as;

and don't forget,

The point of this update was to change a few things about my schedule. I've discovered that I could actually find everything I needed to know about oil painting in a matter of twenty minutes, so I don't think I really need an entire week. I'll just merge this week with next week as a miraculous week of trial and error (week 1) The original experimenting week that was week 2 is now going to be... conceptualizing. Brainstorming! Here's a new rundown:

Week 1. Researching/Trial and Error

- Look at tricks and different mediums you can add to oil paint. Try them out and see how well the thing works. Fix up small issues until you have a solid understanding of what you're going to get out of oil painting. 

Week 2. Brainstorming and Conceptualizing
- Figure out what exactly you're going to do. Take a sketchbook and plot out what you want to make and how you'll accomplish that. Figure out color schemes, symbols, etc.

Weeks 3-6. Get to Work
- Do the real paintings, ya dingus.