Colors vary slightly between the finished photo, and the video. The photo is a scan, and the video was taken on my iPhone under not so great lighting. This abstract painting is available for purchase here. 

How to Paint an Abstract Painting with Palette Knives video

Only one week to go, and my 31 day challenge of uploading a video a day will be over. Whew! As the Brits say, I’m knackered. I almost didn’t have the energy to write a blog post this week. I thought, what will I write about? All I’ve done is edit video for days on end. Bingo! Start where you are – always. I decided I have plenty to say about my third straight week of daily uploads on YT.

Firstly, I honestly don’t know how the daily vloggers do it, and I’ve said this repeatedly over the past 3 weeks. I’m completely in awe of their dedication, commitment, and work ethic. I knew before I started that it was going to be extra work, but I had no idea the amount of time I was going to spend editing the videos. Some days it takes me 10 or more hours to edit a short video in iMovie, and I’m not doing anything fancy. I mostly edit out my unnecessary hand movements, like every time I reach for paint or wipe my brush on a paper towel. I also edit out pauses I take when I’m thinking or interrupted. Nothing big, but OH, is it ever time consuming..not to mention tedious. I didn’t have that kind of time to dedicate to each video, so some of them I sped up super fast (4000% to 8000%), so my hand movements aren’t as noticeable. It cut my editing time drastically. I didn’t want to do that for every video, so there are varying speeds. 

Having reached week three of daily uploads, I now can say without a doubt that Youtube IS indeed hard work, and those who say it’s not a “legit” job need to try it for a month. I can’t imagine having a camera in my face every single day like the daily vloggers do. I didn’t have to look my best, say all the right things, and constantly think of something entertaining to do while making these videos. All I had to do was paint, so I consider myself lucky. It was tough enough just filming my hands. 

That all said, it’s still been a fun experiment, and something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. I LOVE the yt community. I’m happy I took the plunge, and I will continue to upload video to both of my YT channels going forward. It won’t be every day like it’s been this month, but probably two or three times a week. I need to think about it, and come up with a schedule that’s doable. 

If you haven’t subscribed to my YT channels yet, there’s still plenty of time. I won’t be stopping any time soon, and you can watch past videos anytime you like. I also might get brave, and do some livestreams in the future, which will be fun. You can find my portraits here, and my palette knife paintings here. 

I’ve had enough of black cloudy skies, tornado warnings, rain, flooding, and major highways closing down for the second time in a couple weeks. The weather here has been absolute crap for months now, minus a day or two, so I turned this dark photo into a pink one to remind myself that better days are coming. One can only hope. Weirdly, after I made this photo in Photoshop, the sky did turn a yellowy-pink last night. I grabbed a shot of it..

We were under a tornado watch at the time, so seeing this color wasn’t a good sign. You don’t want the sun coming out to heat things up, and cause a tornado, but all was good until I received this email this morning.. 

ONE TO FIVE INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN IN THIS AREA OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS, WHICH HAS EXACERBATED ONGOING FLOODING FROM HEAVY RAINS OVER THE PAST WEEK. ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINFALL IS EXPECTED THROUGH TONIGHT, WITH CONTINUED AND WORSENING FLOODING EXPECTED. * THIS IS A SERIOUS FLOODING SITUATION WITH NO IMMEDIATE END IN SIGHT. 

Major highways and interstates have been shut down again for a few days. For the second time in 3 weeks, we can’t get to our other house because the highway is under water. My husband has lost 2 weeks of work because his workplace is underwater. Crossing fingers that better weather is coming our way soon. 

GET IN HERE BEFORE YOU DROWN, AND FEED ME!!
Miss Maudie Pawdee is such a demanding girl. 

You should check out this clay artist. I’m absolutely fascinated with the itty bitty fine details of their work. I’m not saying that because I’m Jai’s stepmother, and I’m biased, but because you really really should check them out. 😀 You can also hire them to design your website or book cover. 

Looking for copyright free images to use as reference photos in your artwork? This site is now my go-to. How generous of these awesome photographers to give their work away for free. 

What I’m reading: The Hike by Drew Magary – Hilarious, sci-fi fantasy. I greedily gobbled up part one in one sitting. LOVE it, and I’m not big on sci-fi, so that says a lot.  

What I’ve been watching this week: Bless This Mess on Hulu..OMGosh!! Dax Sheppard has been my obsession for months now. I’ve been googling and listening to every interview him and his wife have done. As soon as I heard about his new show, I binged every episode in one sitting. It’s absolutely HILARIOUS. This is my second time watching it, and I’ll probably watch it 3 or 4 more times. Pam Grier, Ed Begley Jr..need I say more?? 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Let’s stay in touch. Let me know in the comments how you’re going to spend your long weekend, and if you have anything interesting planned. I plan on painting a lot, and getting some new videos recorded for next month. 🙂