[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”2500.0”] Two eggs 8″ × 8″ Acrylic on birch panel Two eggs 8″ × 8″ Acrylic on birch panel [/caption]

I made time for a little painting this weekend. Real painting with real paint. I am trying to turn off the tiny project manager who lives in my brain and just do work instead of thinking in terms of a larger project or an exhibit. Because I frankly just need more practice.

I also have guilt over the painting supplies I bought which have been lying dormant since I fell in love with digital painting.

It’s so much easier to turn real paint into mud. There is so much more set up and clean up with real material. However, I have an artifact from this weekend - a tiny little painting. It’s not my best or my favorite, but if I put it into a frame and gave it to someone it would make them happy. A digital work flickers by on Instagram in a second and doesn’t have an opportunity to make much of an impact beyond a quick double-tap-and-heart.

It’s an interesting set of trade-offs - digital media has nearly infinite possibilities with no ongoing cost or material, but no impact in the world. Physical media generates garbage and is dreadfully slow and costly.

I want to commit to burning up the rest of my painting supplies and call it all practice. The supplies are already doomed simply because I’ve purchased them. So I may as well get some value out of them. If I burn through them all and I still want more - that’s probably an OK sign.

   [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2500.0"]<img src="http://abouthalf.micro.blog/uploads/2018/14da4bc5c1.jpg" alt=" Early underpainting - this bowl looks like a coconut. "/>  Early underpainting - this bowl looks like a coconut. [/caption] 
  


  
   [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2500.0"]<img src="http://abouthalf.micro.blog/uploads/2018/4f2c3fb310.jpg" alt=" Middle stages of the painting - the egg on the right took a long time to capture. I should paint more eggs. "/>  Middle stages of the painting - the egg on the right took a long time to capture. I should paint more eggs. [/caption]