I started watching a movie last night. I had the house to myself, and as much quiet/noise/light/dark/obscure music/air from the fan as I wanted. I had spent an hour prior to this salivating over a set of markers that I'd love to have, if they didn't cost something ridiculous like $299. But with the house to myself, I decided to pull out my 97 cent Wal-Mart markers with a black marker that barely works and draw in a sketchbook.

My first attempt was of Lindsay Lohan from the cover of Rolling Stone. It was a disaster, made worse by the fact that her skin was left as white as the page due to no tan markers among the Wal-Mart ten.

"This isn't working," I thought.

So prior to the movie, I tried drawing. Once the movie got boring, I decided to paint. I can do more with the few paints I have than the markers anyway. An hour into the movie, I pulled out my art box, grabbed the bag of paints that I bought (but haven't used) on campus during finals week for 75% off, and set up on the couch in the living room.

Only one problem. I had no canvas.

Actually, I had one. I had sketched out a painting in pencil on one, but never did anything with it. So I fumbled with the stack of paintings on my bookshelf including the one that was to be a birthday gift for someone, pulled off a big eraser from one of the many pencils I sharpened earlier that day, wore it down to the metal, and started painting.

I wanted to paint a person. A specific person. Only I couldn't find a great photo of them. I finally found one, from a magazine I had bought last week, so I set the magazine against the arm of the couch, and went to work.

I painted for about an hour. I left it sitting on the couch while I washed my supplies and hands. I then started dinner and was just about to walk back in to put them away, when I saw my parents arrive in the doorway. They were looking at the painting, and I scurried into my room to avoid the questions.

But it didn't work.

I didn't want to make a big deal over it. I'm weird about what I want people to make a big deal about. Birthdays. Gifts. Something that I said that was funny. So when I heard, "did you paint this?" and, "it's really good. Better than what I could do" I really just wanted to pretend I hadn't spent the last hour on it. I mean, it wasn't all that good anyway. I had ignored the great advice of my art teacher which is to set your painting down every twenty or so minutes to look at it from far away.

Had I done this and not painted the whole thing on my lap, I would have noticed that the eyes were lopsided. And that the nose was too far to one side. Thus far, I've fixed the eyes, and may fix the nose and other things like the neck and jacket in addition to adding a background, but I'd rather just buy a ton of canvas today and start something new. I'm feeling really bothered today, inspired maybe, so I plan on throwing something together in a good old fashioned "Ode To..."

I'm sure you're curious about what it looks like. I think I've made enough excuses about why it looks like it does and how I don't really like it, but I'll show it anyway. Hopefully, I'll produce something I like a little more this weekend. I don't have any exciting plans other than seeing a friend in concert and having coffee this afternoon. Besides, it gives me something better and more constructive to do other than playing NBA Live all summer. (Note: I actually finished the season and playoffs yesterday. Now I just need to find someone into basketball to discuss it with, because the playoffs were really bizarre and I want to share.)

8:43: I can't seem to upload the photo of the painting right now. Gotta love technical difficulties.

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