Friday, January 31, 2014

Andalusian Painting and Concept photo for next donated portrait:

God it's annoying posting on this blogspot.  I love the blog, don't get me wrong, but it's just all the technical bugs that keep happening. And I don't know who to write to to report this problem. I don't even know if it's on my computer's end or if this is happening to others using this blogspot site.  I prefer to get online through AOL. But when I go to select a photo from my hard drive and post it in a message.  It just sits there.  It wont upload. It just sits there processing the photo like it's sending it to the blog but it just freezes that way.  It WAS working for a while then all of a sudden it's been acting like that.  Then, I was having a problem with the screen resolution. I couldn't see the icons to upload images or center the paragraph. They would double up on themselves and I couldn't get to them.  So I would have to literally take my mouse and grab the side of the screen and push it inward causing the icons to bunch up in a smaller table area.  Then select what I wanted.  So, now since the pictures wouldn't upload the easy way, (I was resorting to uploading them to photobucket, THEN pasting the url to this blog-Translation =pain in the ass)  So now I'm loggin into this thing using Internet Explorer (which I hate using) But for some odd reason I can get the images to upload from my browser using IE.  Go figure.  BUT I still have to push the screen inward and I have to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to go up and down if I need to move my cursor back a few words to edit. Because guess what! I can't just use my mouse to place my cursor point anywhere in the paragraph.  I have to use the arrows because touching the screen with the mouse does nothing.  This is a pain in the ass. And I've been through google's help options... Nothing. It always says Error On page at the bottom of my screen whenever I log in here too..  So I'm thinking this is a google thing.  I finally get used to having a blog and figure out how to set it up and use it...and it turns out I will probably have to get a different one.  One that WORKS! 
Ok, rant over....  

Anyway, I'm done with the Andalusian painting. It looks pretty much  like the photo I went by but it's a little different. I added the front fence and changed the background a little.  The camera I'm using is getting a horrible glare from the matt spray I sealed it in, and it's also so hard to photograph canvas because the resolution is so big on the camera it picks up the little texture of the canvas, and when I reduce the image down to a normal size, it gets all these wavy tv screen looking texture to it distorting the picture.  I'm going to see if my brother will take a picture of it with his smart phone and I'll see if I can use that.  That's the image I was using of the shepherd in here.  One he took with the Iphone. The pictures I took didn't look at smooth. Anyway, the painting looks better from further away. My paintins always do. Especially the background because it's supposed to be hazy from being further away, so up close the thing looks sloppy to me.   I was told most paintings do look sloppy up close. I don't know.  Anywayyyy.
This is the picture I just took of it before my camera batteries went dead.  I'll take a better shot tomorrow.
And this is the concept art for the Dalmation I'm doing next month for the local Fire Department. I took a photo of a dog I found online, then a photo of a firetruck I found online, then removed the boots and stuff that was in front of the truck, and added the dog.  Then found another image of a helmet online, then added that, then I found another dalmation I liked way better but it was in the wrong position, so I just took that picture of that one's spot pattern I liked and added more spots to the dog I am using.  I gave the laying down dalmation the spots from the standing one I liked better.  The laying down one was too white anyway. So I edited the tint and the contrast and duplicated the road under the dog and added shadow and highlight and ....anyway. I created the image I wanted , so now all I have to do is get it printed out at Walmart, and paint it on a canvas.

Hey check this out.. lol  Wanna see the dog before I added more spots?

I liked this one's face better... I mostly used this as a guide and improvised. Anyway, I think it's going to look nice. I'll post pictures of it in here from start to finish.  From drawing to finished painting. So stay tuned.


Thursday, January 30, 2014

New Andalusian Portrait:

Finally got around to working on the Andy painting. 


Sunday, January 26, 2014

Gave it to a cop!:

Well, I did it!  I wanted to mail the German Shepherd portrait to the Police Station mostly because I get so intimidated by people in person, and number two, I get embarrassed so easily, and number three, I HATE compliments.  Anytime someone compliments me on my art, I get really uncomfortable.  A compliment on anything really.  I'm just not good at recieving compliments or thank you's or anything like that.  I like doing stuff for people all the time but I'm never very good at being on the recieving end of it. I never have been.  When people write them to me it's easier, because I just say the same thing back. "Thanks ...that was so nice of you thanks again."  But if I'm in front of someone and I'm on the spot.  Forget it.  I start having an anxiety attack.  I guess I'm just not used to recieving compliments.  Growing up I remember I made hamburgers for the family once.  I was like 12. In our house it was normal for me to cook.  I had a southern mom.  Anyway,  my dad told my mother after dinner the hamburgers were good but he didn't wanna tell "her" that, because "she'll" get a swollen head."  I was always HER and SHE to him. It's funny...I wasn't aware of how much pride a 12 yr old could take in making a good hamburger, or that it could lead to massive ego trips..lol  

Oh Well if you knew my father, you'd know his idea of a thank you, or a compliment was like farmer Hogget on BABE saying..."That'll do pig...That'll do."  It was always easier pulling teeth.  I guess when people were brought up with a really low self esteem, compliments tend to make them feel extremely uncomfotable because it's unfamiliar territory.   Anyway, my friends kept telling me I should take it down there and that alone was freaking me out.  I didn't paint it to get anything in return. I  just did it because I wanted to.  So the idea of walking in there and making a big deal out of it like I was presenting someone with a six foot check in front of a onslought of cameras made me sick to my stomach. I just didn't wanna do it. I'd rather do it and remain anonymous. 
So after leaving my neighbor's house whom attached the frame to the canvas for me, I said "Screw it.  I'll just go down there and maybe I could walk in and leave it next to a counter or something then just leave."  (I swear this is me thinking) lol  Oh, my God, I didn't mention a week ago when I actually called the police department about it..  lmao.
This is cute!  Check this. (I ramble-so I'll get back to the trip down there in a sec..)
Anyway, when I was planning to mail it I needed an address to the Police Station itself. I didn't even know where the cops go...you know.  punch in...to roost. I didn't even know which building I was looking for.   Whatever. I needed a mailing address.  So I figured, do the common sence thing and get the phone book.  I called the non emergency number and a cop answered the phone..  (Now, before I say anything else you have to know I have a thing for cops...in general.)  Yep.  I watch the show COPS religiously.  It calms me down right now.  People who know me know my anxiety disorders are crazy, and it really makes me weird.  I have to do something or watch something or listen to something constantly or I get really panic stricken.  I watch movies over and over again. I like familiarity and take comfort in a non changing routine.  I also hate change unless I'm the one that's ready for it. I also suffer from extreme seperation anxiety also.  So I am relaxed and comforted in things repeating all the time, like movies, or shows, or music.  With movies, I set them on repeat in the dvd player.  I feel comfortable watching a movie like Bewitched, or Ocean's Thirteen, or ELF, or whatever I'm currently watching in the rotation right now, and I play it nonstop in my machine for like three weeks straight.  24 hours a day. When I'm not at home, it's playing for the dogs so they don't get lonely.  My Ipod is set to repeat song, so every song I listen to repeats over non stop and I listen to the same song like 100 times in a row, til I change it to something else, then that repeats.  When I find a show I'm into, I get calm and content and don't have anxiety attacks.  Like, I went through a long phase watching The Cosby Show.  Now, it's COPS.  So I watch it over and over again. Which is great because the Spike Channel reruns COPS nearly every other day for several hours at a time and then every night the CMT channel runs Cops Reloaded for a couple hours. If I don't get to watch it, I feel like I'm stressing out for some reason. I just start getting upset and don't know why.  
Hey, I never said I wasn't weird.
But anyway, all Cops are almost like celebrities to me pretty much, so I get so flustered and start geeking when I see police cars on the road around anywhere, I will damn near wreck my own car paying more attention to the cop cars than my own.  Not to mention nearly 85 to 90% of all male cops are absolutely adorable!  And I love shiney stuff, so the uniform just does it too.   My license plate even has a form of spelling that says Hi Officer.  lol  You wouldn't believe how many times I've been at a traffic light with a cop behind me with his sunglasses on looking like the Terminator with no expression whatsoever on his face, then suddenly glances down at my plates and pop out laughing shaking his head. 
So anyway, I looked in the phone book and found the non emergency number and called it.  I spoke to a guy and I told him while stammering and probably sounding like I was tweaking off about a pound of crystal meth, that I needed the address to the police station and that I had a package to send them.  He pauses for a second and says, "what sort of....package?" So now I'm really nervous. I'm thinking, holy crap they think I'm gonna blow them up.  So my next instinct was to blurt out... "Don't worry..It's not a bomb!". Because I really didn't wanna tell them what I was doing. I wanted to just send them the painting Secret Santa style and just not even take credit for it.  Just send it to them and have them be like, I wonder who gave us this.  So now I have to tell him.  I painted a portrait and I just wanted to send it to the police department.  So he says, hang on, and transfers the call and a woman now answers.  So I tell her, the same thing.  I needed to know the address of the police station.  So she tells me the address but what she's giving me is in Pittsylvania County. I'm thinking why in the hell is the police station so freakin far away? I'm in Lynchburg. ?????  So I ask her "Why is it so far?"  And she has no idea.  I said, "I called the number in my phone book, and read it back to her."  And she says, "Well, that's the Campbell County number". And I said, "well I'm supposed to be calling Lynchburg City, and I get Campbell County and a guy transfered me to Pittsylvania County?  I was talking to a guy...."  She goes, "Yes, that's my partner, he's sitting right next to me.",  So now I say, "Wait a minute...I'm confused.. I don't understand.  How is he in Campbell County and you're in Pittsylvania County and you're sitting next to each other???"  And she's now laughing and then I say,... "Honest I'm not drunk...." 
So this just keeps getting better and better.
So she says, "I don't know what happened but I'm going to give you the number for the Lynchburg Dispatch".  So I'm like, "Is that OK for me to be calling them.  It's not an emergency, and I don't wanna be interupting anybody at this hour?" It was like 9PM.  She said, "No, that's the number and it's open 24/7.  That's who you call."  So now, I'm like bouncing off the walls nervous, and I call that number and get another guy, whom I could just TELL by his voice that he was cute.   So I explain that I wanted to send a package and I was going to mail it but not right this minute because I had to wait til I got my check next month and I had to leave him with my name and he put a note on somebodie's desk that a package was arriving from me and to keep an eye out for it.  So as I'm telling my brothers about this who are absolutely cracking up at me. Bryan says, "So over the span of about ten minutes you've managed while studdering and stammering to tell these people, you have a ...package to send them, it's not a bomb, you're not drunk, and you get a check every month.....all the while the theme song to COPS is playing on the tv in the background?  
Yeah, they're gonna knock down your door in about 45 mins".  I said, "Well when you say it like that I look like a damn lunatic! Thank you very much!"
So after googling the address and looking at the earth picture of the roads how to get there. Like two miles from my house. And psyching myself up, I still decided I'd mail it.. But after I went and got some frame brackets to attach the frame to the canvas and stopped at my neighbor's on the way home to get him to put the screws in....I left their house and instead of going home, just said "screw it. I'll go."  I looked like Cameron on Ferris Bueller's Day Off debating on whether to pick him up.  "I'll Go, I'll Go, I'll Go, ...Shit. I'll Go!"  
So I wait til 9 O'clock at night and it's got to be the coldest night of the month. Plus the police station is downtown near the river and it's like 10 degrees colder and the wind is blowing.  I parked behind the building and I'm carrying the canvas, walked out the parking garage, and have no idea what to do.  The place looks like a ghost town. I'm thinking crap. I've got to walk all the way back up the hill and halfway down the street in this and take it to the front of the place.  I think I'll get back in my car...pull up front and risk the damn parking ticket.   Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening and about 30 feet away a single cop walks out a back door and is heading to the back lot.  I must have looked lost because he looked over at me and I said "excuse me".  He walks up and says "Yes?"  Oh Yeah,  he was cute too.  Must have been all of 24 years old.  A child!  lol  So like an idiot, I blurt out, "I'm looking for the Police Department".  Now, mind you, I'm standing literally right in the middle of the damn thing or behind it.  He says "yeah, it's right up there and to the right".  I'm like ..."All the way that way or up to the...I was just here to drop this off and I parked in the thing back there and I..." 
Yeah, that's how it starts....I get completely flustered. That's what happens when I get panicy.. I look like a deer in headlights and start stammering and fidgeting with my hands and go completely stupid. So he asked what I had, and I told him it was a painting I had to drop off here.  He said, "Oh, ok well, That's the way...up there and to the right.... This is the back door and you can't go in that way." Then he says,  "Who are you looking for?"  I said, "Um I don't know?".  He says, "Who is it for?"  I said, "Uh Nobody." 
Then he says, "Did somebody order it?"  I said, "No. I was just giving it to the Police Department" So I just handed it to him, stepped back and said,  "Um, well...Could you..if you're not in a hurry.. and looked at the back door." And he immediately said, "Yeah, I can take it in for you if you want."  To which I said, "Oh YES. That would be a lot better, cuz I just really didn't wanna go in there.  I just get really nervous.and I just wanted to drop it off."  And I must have looked like I was completely freaking out, plus it's freezing cold with the wind blowing, because he looked alittle confused and then says awkwardly, "It's not stolen is it?"   My eyes must have blown up like saucers, "I said,  No! I painted it... I swear! I just painted it...I just finished it...Loyd even screwed the frame on just a few minutes ago."  He was like, "lol Oh  ok....I had to ask. lol"  So I told him it was just something I painted and "I was just going to just send it to the police department and called them a few days ago and told them and they gave me an address but I just dropped it by anyway, but they said they put a note on some desk to expect it from me, and they wrote down my name."  So he's like  "Oh, so they know you're sending it?". I was like, "Sorta."   And so he looks at it and says it's really nice and asked me how long it took me to paint it, and I just blurted out "Two weeks". Kind of like Ralphie blurting out "...Football" to the mall Santa on A Christmas Story. It actually took less than a week to do. So now, I've on record freakin lied to a cop.  A cute one no less. Great, that's a damn felony!  I swear my nerves were totally shot to shit.   Then on top of everything else,  he insists on getting my name and address and phone number to give to the Chief so they can either call me or send a letter.  I said,  "Oh No No...  That's not necessary! He doesn't have to send me anything!"  I'm still thinking I should call them back and tell them it only took a few days and not two weeks.  I don't know why I said that.  I don't even remember those words coming out of my mouth, I heard them. I just don't remember saying them.
 
So that was the jest of it.  I ran back to my car and got the hell outa there before anyone else could come out of the building and talk to me. So now I have no idea what these people are thinking. I hope they don't think it's stolen.  My initials are on it and if they wrote my name down they can see the letters match so I hope they don't think it's stolen and instead just realize it was given to them by a complete idiot that paints and loves Cops..  I had another idea also.  I'm thinking about maybe doing a Dalmation portrait for the Fire Department next.  I'm probably going to need Valium though.




Thursday, January 23, 2014

Found a Frame!:

This is crazy.  I found a frame for the German Shepherd painting. Actually I already had it.  I just didn't know it would work.  See, my neighbor moved out like two years ago and he left a bunch of stuff behind. The cleanout crew that came over to ready it for the bank to sell cleaned out what was left. We helped them.  There were two huge identical safari tiger prints framed and a couple other framed art left behind too.  I took the tigers and two other framed pieces of art.  There was a duck picture also in a frame whom I gave to a friend and neighbor.  Anyway, that friend was supposed to take the tigers too but didn't.  His son liked tigers but we never gave him one of the tigers yet. So they've been sitting behind my sofa for the longest time.  I kept thinking they were not big enough so I never checked.  Well, yesterday, I pulled one out and measured it and it was exactly one inch bigger than the shepherd's canvas all over which would put the center about right. I grabbed it and took it to my brother's house and set the German Shepherd in the center on top of the glass.....LIKE A GLOVE!  So I had to pop the staples out the back and remove the tiger print and the matt around it, removed the glass and cleaned that with vinegar.  I slipped the shepherd painting behind it and it fits perfectly in the frame. Couldn't ask for a better fit.  I put the glass back to see if it would work with the glass in it, and it's still fitting.  I'm going to go to Michael's craft store tomorrow and get some of those uneven frame brackets that screw the canvas to the frame itself on the back, and a hanger attachment for it.  They run about $1.99 for 8 brackets. The hanger clip is probably another $2.  The only thing I don't like about the frame is it's a wooden frame coated in a varnish but it has some sort of a lighter dull paint antiqued on it and everwhere there is a crevice, it's showing up a dull lighter color in it.  Almost like it's dirty and dusty.  I kept cleaning it and cleaning it and the dust in the edges wasn't coming up.  Then I realised it's a painted on effect of some sort.  So I think what I'm going to do is take the frame back to my house and put some stripper on it and strip the thing as much as possible.  Then restain it.  If it doesn't work or look right,  Hell, I've got another tiger print in another identical frame I can use as a backup, plus I can also always just paint the whole frame black. But anyway, I found a frame and it didn't cost nothing.  Lucky me.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Ebay Blocked Bidders:

Some valuable information for Ebay sellers out there.  Here is a list of bidders to block.  Each of these people has in some way, shape, or form screwed someone in the hobby over in Ebay.  Some of these names may no longer be active accounts but some still are.  many are people that have bid on and won items with zero feedback and never sent payment for the won items. Others have been caught bidding on mass quantities of items for the fun of it with out ever intended to buy a thing.  Some are people who have been known for buying winning and doing chargebacks through paypal.  Just a list of people to avoid.  Most I've had personal dealings with myself but others have been passed along to myself by my peers in the hobby warning me of their unfortunate dealings with them.  Whenever there is someone in the hobby that wins auctions and doesn't pay, we hang on to that info and share it with others and add those names to our blocked bidder lists so those people can not bid on any auctions we may have up.   So copy and paste the list of names just as it's pasted below and put it in your ebay blocked bidder list.  If you have trouble finding your blocked bidder list (as with all things Ebay it's like hunting for a needle in a haystack looking for links with them)  Just type Ebay blocked bidder list in the search field in Google and it'll pull it right up.  Then add these names with a comma in between each of them.  It's easier just to copy and paste the list as it is:

**gold_vicky**, amal2014, babykat80, bluepapillon68, csilles2010, fullmoontack, javedjessica, jumpthesun, no-brakes-uk, olivia462012, olivia46b2012, snatcher68, stephfoss, summer_fairy69, youngeniusb

Pass this list to your friends in the hobby and warn others to avoid these pain in the neck people that strive to make things difficult for anyone trying to use Ebay.

The Ultimate SIMPLE Softest Cookie recipe:

Softest SIMPLE Cookie Recipe Ever!

All you need:

Any boxed cake mix (lemon, Strawberry, or the Key Lime limited edition is good)
1 Egg (slightly beaten in a bowl)
1 regular 8 oz size tub of Cool Whip
some powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat Oven to 350

Combine the bag of cake mix, in a bowl. Add one slightly beaten egg, and a tub of cool whip. That's it!  Spray a cookie sheet with PAM and take a spoonful of dough and what I do is just dip the top of the spoonful into powdered sugar and carefully rake it off the spoon with a butter knife onto the sheet and bake for 10 minutes. You can also just drop the spoonfulls of dough into the sugar and roll them in it that way but it makes them so sugary and chalky all over they make a mess when you store them.  I like just the top in the powdered sugar.  Anyway, when they bake the suface will crackle and the lemon ones show yellow cracks on the white sugary top.  They almost look like they're covered in snow. They're light and chewy and almost have the consistancy of Little Debbie cookies.   This Christmas we made, Lemon, Butter Pecan, Red Velvet (AWESOME bright red with the white sugar on top for Christmas), Chocolate, Strawberry, Key Lime, and Pumpkin.  You can also take yellow butter cake mix and add chocolate chips for soft chocolate chip cookies.  Carrot cake or Spice cake mix with raisons or butterscotch chips.  Endless possibilities.  And all you need is cake mix, cool whip, and an egg.  Powdered sugar optional.  But the lemon ones are the bomb. Everyone loves the lemon ones.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

German Shepherd is Finished!:

Finally.....I think.  I may still fiddle with it.  lol  Anyway,  I called Michael's Craft Store tonight just to inquire on maybe having a custom frame made for it.  GUESS NOT! lol  They said with the 50% off sale going on and on top of that an additional $25.00 off the total for a frame for a canvas 22 x 28 would be about $113.00..  Cha CHING!  lol
Yeah, I think I'm going to take door number two.  A frame on the floor that size that's about $59.00.  I may have to wait til that's not on sale and see if it's cheaper still with my 40% off coupon I have.   I still may just do what i'm known for doing and go to the local Goodwill and see if i can't find some framed art there for around $14.00 and just use that frame.  My brother said, don't bother with a frame, just let the police department do it.  but I don't know.  If I give it to them without a frame and looking neat it would be so incomplete. So I'll do something for a frame.  I'm going to miss looking at this dog painting.  I never take time to paint stuff for me.
 

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Shepherd painting still more progress:

I still don't like the hind leg area yet.  It's hazy and faded because it's in the background but the colors I've got look too much like a water color still.  I need to fuzz and haze it up a lot more I think. I really need to blend it and soften it more.  My brother said the badge should be gold but i don't know...  I like it silver.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Awesome Instant cake in one minute recipe:

This works!  This is a recipe for a 1 minute single serve cake.
All you need is:

1 box of any flavor of cake mix, (I used devil's food chocolate)
1 box of Angel Food cake mix  (1 of the two MUST be Angel Food cake)
 That's it.  Mix the two boxes of Cake mix together in an air-tight storage container and store it forever like that. Just make sure they're mixed evenly.  Then whenever you want a single cupcake sized piece of cake, just Add 3 Tablespoons of the mix to 2 Tablespoons of water in a regular coffee mug, and microwave for 1 minute.  Just ONE MINUTE.  You've got cooked cake.
The best thing to do is to dump two of the cakes in a bowl and top while hot with hot fudge ice cream topping and presto, you've got a molten lava fudge cake.  You can top with ice cream or anything.   Instant cake, whenever you want it.  You don't have to bake an entire cake, you don't have to waste an entire cake .
3 Tablespoons Mix
2 Tablespoons Water
Mix in a coffee cup
Microwave 1 Min.

CAKE!

New Painting Project:

I've been working on a new portrait.  My plan is to send it to the local Police Department K9 Division.  I wonder if they'll hang it in one of their offices?? 
That would be awesome!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Justice up for Offers:

Opening Offer $200.00
Contact Luvjeordie for offers.

Also, did some paintings for Christmas presents.
I think I would like to get into doing more pet portraits.  It's fun.
A Dogo Argentino 
Boston Terrier