Lazy Day, 8/31/2025
August 31st, 2025
I’m going to try and keep this one short and sweet because I am feeling super lazy today. I had too much caffeine yesterday and didn’t get a good night of sleep. Also, my parents + siblings were in town so we went on a long walking tour of Manhattan. A lof of fun, but very exhausting… my legs are aching today for sure. Anyway, as much as I felt compelled to melt into the couch this morning and just read/watch TV all day, I still made it into the studio, and I managed to put in a good four hours. Most of it just consisted of fidgeting around and wasting time but hey, at least I got some paint on a canvas. All that little stuff really does accumulate.
First, I worked on the screenplay for 15 minutes like always. I’ve come to the end of the story I’ve already written in the comics version Frog Ephemera, so when I come back to it tomorrow I wont’ be translating anymore– I’ll have to start making new things up. Scary + exciting! It is also exciting that I was able to get a 15 page script out of what I’ve already written. I’ve really enjoyed revisiting that old work and am anxious to learn what direction it will take me in next.
Next I set myself up to paint + started trying to figure out how to make the staircase in this painting look right:
I really could use a better working knowledge of some basic perspective rules, but I childishly find it so boring to practice + learn about. I am impatient and like to get straight into the colors. I know setting up basic perspective before diving into colors will l save me time in the end. Soon I’ll have to get over it. I did use a ruler when re-arranging this composition, so that’s a start.
I’m not mad at the way this painting is turning out but I’m starting to get frustrated with the properties of the surface. I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been wanting to try priming new canvasses with oil ground rather than acrylic gesso, because I hate the way the gesso soaks up the paint and reduces its vibrancy. Yesterday, as a part of that long family walking tour through Manhattan, we stopped at the Met. Since i have been feeling frustrated with the quality of this specific painting’s surface, I tried paying close attention to the surface qualities of paintings in the Met which looked particularly vibrant. Most of them were really smooth. There were some incredibly luminous paintings from the renaissance era which had been done on copper. One thing you can’t really learn by looking at pictures at the Met is how the canvasses/panels were primed. Certainly not with acrylic gesso. We’ll have to see how the oil ground works out.
I fussed around with this painting off and on for my entire four hours at the studio today, frequently taking breaks to step away and walk Karla, eat a snack, go to the bathroom, etc. I was really killing a lot of time. During one of those off times I managed to finish stretching another canvas– I believe 32” x 20”. I did a little composition sketch a few weeks ago of a guy on a diving board which I want to use as a starting point for this canvas.
Another thing I fussed around with today was rearranging the wall. I took down all my finished/nearly finished paintings and hung up the blank/in-progress canvasses I have going. I read in The Painter’s Eye recently that many painters keep their studio walls blank so as not to dirupt their visual sense. I don’t think I can manage to keep a blank wall but I do think recent pieces are starting to move into a new phase of work, so I wanted to sort of put away the older stuff for a little while. I tend to compare a lot as I work, so taking down the old stuff will cut back on distractions and let the new work flourish in whatever its new direction may be. Or so is my logic.
Aaaand that was the day. Not too exciting, but not the worst. I’m glad I came in even though I didn’t feel like it. Now I can chill guilt-free.
To recap:
Wrote for 15 minutes. Translated all of existing Frog Ephemera story into screenplay format.
Worked on painting of red house, tried figuring out staircase perspective. Used a ruler to do so.
Finished stretching 32” x 20” canvas for diving board painting.
Rearranged wall above desk
More tomorrow.
–Finn
