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arthouseflunkies

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Taking a break from soap to play around with some oil paint. First layer is done. Now to let it dry some before toning it properly. #gamblinoils #medusa #oilpainting #workinprogress

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Decided to try making cold process soap....and completely boo boo clustered my first ever batch. But I saved it! Well, maybe... I wanted to make a simple 2 lb batch. I prepped my lye water this morning and it was good, battle station set up with all pre prepped colors and fragrance, and I have read several books coupled with weeks of marathoned YouTube videos. I set a clean cup of water next to where I was working to put my stick blender in the water when I was done blending. I was ready.

I take a deep breath, grab my cup of lye water, pour it into my oils, and start blending. I was trying to be careful not to over mix, but I noticed nothing seemed to be happening. I took the blender out of the oils and went to grab the cup of water I put out. It wasn't there. I thought I left it by the sink, until I realized my CLEARLY MARKED lye water was still on the table....full of liquid. Yeah, my genius self had poured my plain cup of water into my oil mixture... (Insert chain of explicatives here.) Huge thanks to @katiewcarson and @theearlofsuds for making excellent videos, recommending a soap calc, and repeatedly telling my bone head to use recipe percentages, measuring by weight. A million times thank you!

As I followed their advice I was able to reverse engineer the god awful mess I made, figure out how much plain water I put in the oils, re calc it all, add extra water and lye to my existing solution, and add additional oils to make up the defecit. I ended up with a 6 lb batch to fix my bungle Doo Doo.
In the end I mixed to emulsion, split the monster into 3 batches, colored, blended, and added fragrance to get what you see here. I barely squeaked out the last batch without it being too hard to pour. As long as it runs through gel phase, doesn't crack, etc. I am golden!

I learned a lot today and I had a good time... laughing at myself. Tomorrow I am going to try that again. But without the extra shenanigans.... #soapmaking #coldprocesssoap
#royaltysoaps

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Last of the doodle pastels for the day. #carandache #portrait #oilpastel

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Since I have my pastels out, figured it could be good to get some work out of them before I put them away. #carandache #workinprogress #oilpastel #portrait

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Decided to dig out the old oil pastels and give them a whirl. #carandache #pastel #portraitdrawing

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Trying out stipple texture paper with a quick sketch. I don't know how I feel about it yet. Blends well, but I am not used to how charcoal moves on it. Still like my go to #generalspencils. As always they come through! Tried some other pencils that came in an unnamed art box. Yeah, not so much. #charcoaldrawing #sketch #beepaper

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Underpainting in acrylic is complete. Next step is oil paint. Decided to go the oil route for the sake of blending. Also for the subdued color and luminance. Finally getting her stupid arm closer to where it should be too. Shooting a video for this one, so I will shamelessly toot that horn when I post it. #acrylicpainting #workinprogress #underpainting #captainplanet #thepowerisyours

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Finished my next sketch. I can't decide if I should paint her in acrylic or oil paint. Acrylic would be fun and comic/cartoon like, but a fine oil classic look could be a fun juxtaposition too. Either way, I am determined to get her damn arm right. :) #thepowerisyours #goplanet #captainplanet #sketching #derwentpencils

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Fun acrylic practice piece. I tried to remember to take pics throughout the process. Scroll through to see all of the stages, ugly and all. As I work, I remind myself it is a process and to remain thoughtful as I paint. It will get better, even if it is slow. #acrylicpainting #lukasacrylics #portraitpainting

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Finished an #oilpainting for a friend. This is an oil over acrylic. I am determined to loosen up and I think this is a step in the right direction. #gamblinoils #petportrait

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Finally pulled this one out and finished it! Ran out of time yesterday to post it. This is oil paint on oil paper. I did a similar piece several years ago in ink, but I wanted to revisit the composition in oil. I think all artists have phases. The original was part of my comic art phase, which seems like centuries ago. I wanted to make the joker more of a dandy this go around. I truly tried to paint more loosely, but again my brush strokes just kind of disappeared. Lol! We will see on the next one if I can keep more of the expression in it. #gamblinoils #archespaper #oilpainting #batman #joker

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Acrylic sketch complete. Once it is dry completely, I will start in with the oil. Sometimes I like to use acrylic paint to begin the sketch, especially if I am not using a reference photo. I can quickly play around with proportions until it looks right, unlike oil that requires longer drying times. This sketch took a couple of hours of fiddling with acrylic paint. Oil paint would have taken several days or weeks. Maybe when I screw up less often I will sketch more in oil. ;) #acrylicpainting #portraitpainting #workinprogress #goldenacrylics

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Just a doodle today. Had to build some stuff at the house, so no time for painting. Found a great wildlife photog website and borrowed a pic of his as reference for this little guy. Thanks to @willbl for taking amazing photos and for doing some awesome work in wildlife conservation. His BeetleCam is a cool piece of tech too. If you want to see some top notch photos, check him out. #doodle #lyra #coloredpencil #mixedmedia #frog

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Work in progress. Finally started putting the oils over my acrylic base. Oil is slow, so this will take a while. Lol! #gamblinoils #oilpainting #workinprogress

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Broke out the old airbrush to play around. I know I said I was done with bubbles, but here's the thing. I have found that it can be much more fun sometimes to experiment with familiar concepts. I don't have to think so much about the composition, so I can concentrate on experimenting with other things like color, medium, etc. Not saying this is always my solution, but playing this way has it's own benefits too. :) #goldenacrylics #airbrush #painting #artexperiment

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Yeah. Art night is going super well so far... Didn't need any supplies out of that box... It's cool. ;) #catsareassholes #artnight

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Well it's Friday, which means it's art night. As soon as I pulled out my art supplies, I gained an assistant. It's the gift that keeps on giving. #catsareassholes #artnight #lovemenow

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A little tedious mixed media experiment again. Now I can go do something else. Itch has officially been scratched. Lol! #carandache #goldenacrylics #goldenqor #watercolor #coloredpencil #tedious #bubbles

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Sunday watercolor exercise. #carandache #coloredpencil #watercolorpainting #qor #mixedmedia #idontwanttoworktomorrow

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Work in progress....and progress... Scroll through to see where this piece started. I don't know how other artists work. But I generally tend to start with a pile of hot garbage. As I work through the piece, I refine as I go, changing my idea several times, working it until it starts to look how I feel it should. Sometimes a piece will take longer than others to start to come together. This is one of those. #goldenacrylics #artnouveau #painting #workinprogress

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