I used to hate the idea of using pre-stretched canvas. "It's a necessary evil," I told myself, even while fearing that people would look down on me as an artist.
I live in an apartment; I have a bunch of unsold paintings hanging in random places from when my boyfriend went on an art-hanging rampage (I was away), and I just don't have the space or the capacity to bother with rolls of canvas right now. I know it's better in many ways, but it's not better for me. However, buying canvas, especially in odd sizes such as the 3x9 projects I'm working on, can be annoying. Even art stores have customers in them who might pick up a canvas and 'dent' it, stretching out a piece and distorting it. A canvas is like a notebook. It should be treated with respect, because you're going to fill it with valuable content. Shipping artwork is also difficult because even the best intentions in packing can go awry. Thankfully, it's easy to fix these problems with a spray bottle of water, a towel or paper towel, and patience. It might take a few rounds, but if your canvas gets a weird dent--not a hole--you can fix it by spraying with water, wiping off the excess water, and waiting for it to dry back into shape. The same is true if you're fixing the distortion that a hole has caused in your canvas. I always get frustrated by how slow the process takes. I've been wrangling my 3x9 canvases all morning because the stretcher bars are so large relative to the 'open space' where the back of the canvas is exposed. You may have to wet the canvas behind where the bar is by putting your fingers underneath the bar and spreading the water in there. Of course, improper ventilation means that you should use artificial airflow to get in there and dry it faster, or make sure that you're not in a humid climate. You may actually have to stretch out other parts of the canvas in the process of getting the entire back to tighten. Anyway, that's why I'm sitting here, annoyed at imperfections that realistically, I'm the only one who will notice, waving around canvases like they're glowsticks and I'm the last idiot at a rave.
0 Comments
So, I'm having fun. I bought the game. I bought a whole bunch of quality of life stuff. PVPing the other day invoked memories of vintage Swtor PVP. The world looks fantastic; my characters look fantastic. I've drawn in by the story, even though the hokey cutscene 'stage' method of delivery is jarring. I've been streaming just doing things on Twitch. Last night, my guildies and I finally did some dungeons besides the nightmare-fuel Wintersday dungeon (also, Arenanet has some balls for putting out such a crazy holiday event). My reaction is, meh.
Levelling and exploring has been fun for me, which is different. I'll admit that I'm impatiently rushing Ajantis to 80, but I'm also taking the time to fully explore zones, thanks to level sync and the knowledge that you still gain experience after level 80. The dungeons we did--Ascalonian Catacombs, Caudecus's Manor--we did in story mode, so I know there's more to come. We also had level 80s in our party, so the syncing system did give us--especially me, since my character was the lowest level--some challenges. But in general, I can understand why people said that Guild Wars had PVE problems. It didn't feel like a face-stomp the way that swtor or wow dungeoning would feel if a high-level character was there, but it did feel incomplete, as though some essential element of PVE was absent, and therefore the challenges in the dungeon had to come from somewhere else. I know that that is precisely the case, and I'm not asking for the game to be something it's not. I just hope that Guild Wars 2 will have enough content I enjoy to keep me logging in even after the new shininess has worn off. Besides, you know, agonizing over dyeing my gear. I did this last night and I'm happy with the initial results. Although I think there are some areas that I'll want to go back over once it dries, it really captured the cool vs. warm feel that I wanted. It looks like some of the small paintings I've done recently, such as Florida Vacation. Now I have to wait 5-7 days for it to dry. I layered the paint on somewhat more thickly than anticipated in some spots, and the weather in Boulder has been slightly more humid as of late.
This painting is based on this schematic, which I wrote about in a previous post. |
Archives
June 2020
Topics
All
|