Painting evening/event

The introduction

Hello everyone, now I want to share an evening with you, that was pretty cool and awesome and it was all about art and stuff like that, you know. Well, my friend wanted to have a painting of  someone so that he could make a gift to her and he asked me to paint a picture on a canvas. I really couldn’t say no to him, in fact, I couldn’t say no to anyone, I guess, so I told him that I would paint and he just brought this large canvas and had it all planned, you know.

So, I had all the day after noon free and I could do whatever I wanted, so it was planned that I would paint the picture. It was a nice sunny day and the mood was for painting, too, I guess.

It was an afternoon when my friend came with that large canvas. He used to call me and ask me where to buy the canvas and what size it should have been and other stuff like that, and finally he got there, where the canvases are sold and all the necessary stuff for painting. He really asked me that about a million times and at last he got there and bought that canvas that he wanted. I was also run out of the white colour paint and told him to buy that, too. So, he came and brought those things and everything else was readyand I could start painting. He also showed me the picture of what he wanted to paint. It was a picture of a girl from behind, she had her arms wide open and was on a ship or something looking at the sea and her hair was all here and there and it was a nice picture as a whole, if you ask me.

The painting process

The very first thing that needed to be done was to paint the background and, I guess, that was really the hard part, because there was this sea in the background and painting a sea is not something that I can paint very easily, and, I guess, no one can paint it very easily. I mean, there are, of course, the masters, who can paint the sea with just a stroke of a brush or something like that, but now I’m talking about us _ the plain painters or whoever we are, without much experience and self-taught ones. So, the sea was pretty large, I mean, it was about half of the canvas and I had to paint that whole area with those things that resemble the sea and the waves in the sea and painting the waves is really hard. Well, painting them is not very hard, it’s the way they look that is difficult. When you see those things, you should get that they are waves and I couldn’t really see the waves on my painting for a long time, I guess , and I tried my best them to be just like sea waves or ocean wavesor whatever, just to be waves . That was the longest part of the painting, if you want to know the truth. Then there were supposed to be some white lines of the ship and the girl and that would be pretty much it.

Well, I was left with the canvas and the willing to finish the painting that day, or at least, I would finish the main things that day and then there would be just some corrections, or some layers that the painting would need to be completed. You know, the layers are laid after some drying, and I’ve said that the drying process requires some time, so it would require some additional time for the painting to be dry or ready for another layers, of course. But the thing was, I didn’t want it to be drying for very long time for some reasons and I wanted it soon to be finished. First of all, I wanted it to be finished soon, because I wanted to see how it would come out, and secondly, I didn’t have much time for painting, there were some exams coming up and stuff like  that, you know, and it was that period of time, when you don’t really have much of a free time. Also, my friend wanted this painting for a gift for a birthday or something and he had this exact day, when he wanted to have that painting, so that I had some deadline, I guess. And he is pretty persistent, if you want to know the truth.

So, after getting some coffee and chocolate, he and everyone left and I was to start painting this picture of hers. Well, don’t worry, they didn’t leave me for all day, they would come back, but some time later, so I had all the freedom and time for myself to start painting and see what it would become.

Painting background is always kind of not very easy when it comes to the sky. And, then there was this sea I had to paint, and as I’ve mentioned, painting sea waves is not very easy stuff. Well, I painted the sky and the see was supposed to be kind of darker and it needed to have waves and I did my best to make some pretty good waves. You know, when you try harder, it just seems that nothing comes out right. You just have to do some brush strokes just like that, and that would seem more detailed and more alive, than that thing you try to achieve. I guess, for me that was the hard part in that painting, but everything went okay, so then I could paint the girl. It was pretty easy, as it didn’t need much details, because it was supposed to be kind of blurry on the painting.

I guess, that was the time, when my brother and friends came back and saw the painting. At that moment, I was resting, as I remember and my friend was like “what are you doing, why aren’t you painting?” and I was like “my muses are gone” and you should’ve seen the look on his face, he was all desperate and stuff. Well, I wasn’t joking. After all those hours of painting, it’s really normal to have muses and mood gone for some time and not want to paint anything for some time. But, I guess, he thought, that I was all done and that I wouldn’t continue painting the picture that day. Well, he was wrong. I did continue painting. It was kind of amusing when I painted the canvas and all these three were looking at it with intelligent faces and stuff. My friend was making some corrections, too, I mean, it was his idea to paint this painting, of course, and it was supposed to be as he would like it to be, mostly, so I really appreciated, that he told me some things, how he would like some strokes to be and other details, you know. It’s good sometimes when someone tells you how they would like something to be done. Not in an ordering way, but a suggestion and then you listen to them and if you agree with them, you will consider their thoughts and you will do those stuff like they said. Or maybe after those ideas, you will have a better idea or a modified one, which can bereally great and worth considering.

While painting and stuff, we got some other guests, too. They were there by themselves, drinking red wine and they poured some for me, too. You know, a little bit of alcohol is what every artist needs, I guess. Then it’s easier to go ahead and make those strokes more freely and stuff. Now the things were going faster, or at least, they seemed to go faster and the painting was being painted a little faster, too. Well, all the main things were already painted, and it only needed some other details, so , of course it would seem like it was going to be finished soon. And the people around where with all those glasses full of wine and standing in front of the painting with all those intelligent and thoughtful faces, looking at the painting and saying their opinions about stuff. All that process was pretty good and I liked it. It was like when people gather on poetry nights or some events like that and they give their opinions about stuff and have some wine and talk and everything. I haven’t been on any of them, so that this one was kind of like that and I can say, that now I have been on something like them, you know.

The painting itself had some real progress, of course, after getting that wine and stuff. Then there were these other friends of ours coming to our apartment as it seemed. Well, we didn’t know for sure, but it was highly likely. And I hadn’t seen them for a while now and I was really glad, that they came. Ani and her brother. Me and Ani have long known each other and went to dancing together and summer schools and in England and stuff like that, so it was bad, that we were both in Georgia, in Tbilisi, in particular, and we couldn’t see each other for so long. That happens, you know. So now she was here and we talked about thingsand she saw those paintings and said that she was amazed by seeing them “in person”. Well, she would also like to have one painting for herself, too, she said. Unfortunately, they had to go soon, because they were going home to Kakheti and left pretty soon. And we continued our evening!

Seemed like the main things on the painting was done and it was already kind of late and people had to go, so all of them went and I was here with that painting and I would rest a little and then make some corrections on the painting and then I would let it get dry, so that I would paint another layer of some small details some other time and that would be it.

Sometimes, it’s better when you paint at night. I don’t know why. Maybe because it’s the calmness of the day that brings you up for painting or it’s the mood senses or whatever, I can’t really understand, but usually it’s the late evenings or early mornings when I have this feeling of wanting to paint something. But , in general, those are the times not for painting, because in the mornings I have to go to lectures and in the late evenings that could be done, I guess. Well, I have painted some stuff late in the evenings or nights or something like that. But the thing is, it’s dark during those times and you need light for painting, I guess, and the painting seems  a lot different on the lamp light or whatever you have and it’s not what you want, I mean, if I want to have vivid colours, maybe I can’t really make the exact colours on that lamp light, or maybe I just miss something, well, many things can happen. You know, the artists went out in the nature and painted stuff there. I want to do that, too. I’m planning on that. I want to feel the nature and paint that feeling, the exact moment, the exact feeling. I guess, sooner or later I will go somewhere in the nature with all my painting stuff and paint something there. Well, everywhere here is the nature, you just have to take those things and go, but I don’t know, why I still haven’t done it despite my willing of doing it.

So, about that girl painting. I did make some corrections that night. And told that my friend and he was all like “send me the pictures” and I sent them to him.

The next day was the painting’s dry day and it was supposed to get all dry and stuff. When the painting is somewhere in such place, where there is a small wind or something, that’s better, because it lets the paints dry faster, so I had this painting near a window, but since it was not hot or something outside, it was only for some time and then I would close the window for the inside to get warm again. After a day or two, the painting was dry and I had some small details added to the painting and that was it, the painting was finished and I told my friend, that he could take it. I took some photos of the painting, of course, or else, it would be in vain, because every artist should have pictures of his/her paintings, if not the original paintings with them.

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