Painting gypsy

The introduction

Hello everyone, hope you’re having a good day!

Today I want to tell you about my friend’s birthday. Well, actually, not about her birthday, but how I was getting ready for it and what was my present to her, which is exactly why I’m writing, because it’s kind of a hilarious story and that gift is still with me after all this time, so, I guess that would be interesting and funny article. And if she sees this, she will laugh at that situation, too, I think.

So, it was in December, 2015. Such a long time ago, huh? But, notice here, that I’ve told you, that this gift is still with me. And you will probably ask, why is that!

Well, I’ll tell you that circumstances were like that and everything happened somehow like that. I was really looking forward to her birthday, so I had all these things planned about her birthday present and stuff like that, you know. Although, I thought kind of much about it, but then I remembered that once she told me she would really like to have a gypsy painted for her in a red dress dancing or something like that and then she had some picture of that kind of thing uploaded on Facebook and, well, I saw it and it was really pretty, so I decided to paint a picture for her on canvas with oils, because that’s what I do in my free time _ I paint with oils and try to make them good and learn few things on each painting process and stuff like that, you know. So, everything was set, I just needed to decide the size and buy it and all the other things I had already had. They have these small canvases in the frame atelier, something like 27x14 cm size and they are really cute, so I bought one of them.

You know, I wanted this painting to be great and kind of special, so I really put some effort in painting it. And it needed some time for the paint to get dry, so that I would paint another layer to it and so on and so forth, you know the oil paints don’t dry very soon. It needed something like a day to get kind of dry,because I put kind of thick layers to it, you know. I wanted the painting to look alive with the help of thick and flat surfaces on the canvas and kind of get an impression of 3 dimension, so, I tried my best in that.

Process of painting

So, the beginning was to create the background, which should have been white and it was not that difficult, of course, but the drying time was that mattered, because as I’ve said, drying is the longest part of the painting, I guess. So, I had to wait for some time until it got completely dry so that I could paint on it, because the canvas was small and I needed the exact lines so that the silhouette of the woman would be exact and not some kind of crappy, you know. And that’s the hard part of small canvas paintings, if you want to know the truth, if you want to paint something exact or something like that, because you need small strokes and they should be exact and you need to have enough amount of paint on your brush and the brush needs to be small, too, and it should be kind of wet and oily so that you can make those exact strokes, and, you know, those small details matter the most when painting like that and it needs much attention and everything.

So, it was winter and everything was dull and stuff like that, of course you get that thing. The day was short and one needed light to do something good. I really wanted to make my painting great, because it’s other thing, when you paint something for yourself and it’s another, when you do something for someone, especially for their birthday or something like that, you know. So I really did my best, I guess, in painting that canvas with that girl dancing with fans and stuff. I had to be pretty exact, as every little detail was visible in that small canvas. And on the large canvases, it’s very different. There you can do much more things and not really worry about the details, because they don’t really matter when you look at the painting from some steps away. The whole picture makes some details not very visible and that’s just great, if you ask me. Well, in my case, it was not that and I needed to be sure, that I wouldn’t make some mistakes. I mean, I could always correct them, that’s the perks of oil painting, but I had to know where I had mistakes to correct them, of course. And it was necessary to see every detail and control every brush stroke, so that I would know my painting as my “five fingers”_ they say that, you know, if you haven’t heard, now you will know, I guess.

Well, I had all the measures taken and decided the whole picture, where everything would be and stuff like that, and I also had decided all the colours and how they would be spread on the canvas. All I had to do was to paint. And that painting process shouldn’t need much time, because I didn’t really have much time until Nino’s birthday. So, I started my painting! I was pretty determined to finish it sooner, but you can’t really help yourself, when you don’t really have a mood for painting and that’s what happens sometimes and it’s pretty frustrating and I just don’t really like painting because of the needs or something like that, I mean, painting because you feel obliged to paint, or because you want to finish the painting, but you are not really in the mood of painting. That’s a terrible feeling, if you ask me. I get that sometimes. There are some paintings I would like to have finished, but they are just like that and unfinished, and when I look at them, I just want to finish them, but I’m not in the mood of painting them. Perhaps, if I just stand up and go there and start painting them, then the muse will come and I will be in a mood, I don’t really know, but for now, it’s just like that and I can’t help it. So, those paintings are waiting for me to go and finish them in some time, I guess, and, well, they will be finished somehow some time later.

Now, the thing was that, when you want to have exact brush strokes, you have to have your brush wet and that is not something easy, because if your brush is wet, then you’re using more oil and more oil means more time for drying and that was not good for me as I wanted my painting to dry sooner, you know that. But that’s how it’s done, so I just tried not to take much oil with my brush. The black parts were more difficult, because then I had to wait for them to dry and then correct them, if there was some mistakes. And, trust me, there were some, because the background was supposed to be white and black is always vividly visible on white, of course.

The greatest part was the dancer’s red dress. It was pretty easy to paint and it didn’t need much of carefulness or something like that, as it needed some shadows and highlights and with those brush strokes I could easily do that. Although, it still needed something. Something that would make the painting look more solid and professional and artistic and stuff. So I had this idea in my mind, which then I liked so much, that I thought, “hey, go for it” and I went for it and that was really a good idea after all. You know those pastels people use to draw with? So, I had those pastels, different colours and I just thought, that I could shred them, just like we shred cheese or chocolate to spread them over pizzas or cakes or whatsoever. And while my painting was still wet, I could shred those pastels and then spread them over the painting and the paint would keep them on when it got dry. That would be just perfect. And I would not just spread those pastels all over the canvas, but on the dress mainly, so that it would look amazing and alive. I took red, orange and dark red or brownish pastels for that and shredded them. The process itself was not hard, but it was hard not to lose them, I mean, I didn’t want them to be spread all over the places, because then they would get stuck somewhere and everything would be in pastels and stuff. So I sprinkled them on the dress very carefully. The painting looked beautiful, if you ask me, and I was very proud of my decision and that everything came out as planned and, maybe, even better! My sister liked it, too. And, well, everyone else liked it when they saw it some time later.

Now that the painting was ready, all I had to do was to wait for it to get dry. The waiting process was not easy, you know. And I had to go from one home to another and I had to take the painting with me, so it was pretty hard to transport a painting which was still wet. But somehow I managed it and now I had it with me, on the wall, waiting for it to get dry.

The painting is still here

Well, it turned out, that I couldn’t go to my friend’s birthday party after all. So the painting would be here, with me, until I had a chance to meet Nino and give the painting to her. She was not very happy about my decision of not going to her birthday party, of course, and she didn’t know what my gift for her was, obviously. I wasn’t sure, when I could meet her to give her that painting, but I hoped, that it would be soon, because I really wanted to see her reaction or what she would say or would she even like it or not.

Finally, a month later, it was my birthday and I decided that I would have a party and I invited her, too, and then I would give the painting to her _ that was the plan. We had a great time, you know, I’ve written about it in my another blog _ about my birthday party and all the other stuff. I showed the painting to Nino and she was kind of shocked , I guess, she didn’t expect me to paint something for her birthday and maybe she thought, that it would just be some gift like a perfume or something like that, you know, the usual stuff _ that’s what I call them. And she was pretty amazed by the painting, I guess. However, she couldn’t take the painting that day, because of some reasons, and then it was decided that she would take it another time.

Well, that “another time” came some time later, too. And everything was ready for the painting to be taken away, but still, somehow she forgot to take it, even though I told her not to forget! When she was almost home, I remembered her painting and saw that it still was here in my apartment, and messaged her and that was the time when she had also remembered that she forgot the painting and it was kind of funny, you know.

So, after all those things, the painting is still here with me and waiting for Nino to be taken away. And, you know, it’s already summer and I painted it in winter!

The painting itself had so many likings and stuff like that, you know. I uploaded it on Facebook after showing it to Nino on my birthday. People really liked it and wanted to have it. They even though that the painting was on a large canvas, and if you ask me, it will be great to be on a large canvas. One would hang it on the wall and it would look just amazing. There were people wondering whether or not I would sell it and they were asking the price and all the other stuff. And they would like to know what was the size of the painting and when I told them that it was not for selling or for me and that it was not on a large canvas and, in fact, it was on a very small canvas, they were just surprised, because they thought it was on a large canvas. They said, they thought that because it seemed like that from the picture that I uploaded on Facebook. Well, I could paint that painting on a large canvas, of course. I maybe do that, who knows, but for now, it’s this small canvas painting and it’s with me after all this time.

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