Making Paint, Painting in Progress & My To-do List

I’m tired of trying to make proper SEO on posts that are really just meant to be conversation and not something that ranks on search engines. So, for this one, I’m ignoring all of the rules.

My To-Do List

Today I’ve got a list of things that need to be done, but one of the priorities is to work on my painting in progress of the barred owl. I’ve finally figured out how to proceed with it. The question that has kept me procrastinating is the topic of whether to do the darks first, as are usually done with oils – or to do the backlit background first.

I’ve decided on the lighter backlit background first. There just doesn’t seem to be a practical way to do it otherwise and for this oil painting we will be going in with lights first rather than the traditional vice versa.

Once I knock a few of the other things off of my list, the rest of my day today will be put aside for actual painting.

What are some of those other things?

I haven’t had time to browse and interact with any of the other Skool communities lately. Interaction is one good way to get ‘found’ by other community members who might like my own courses. But aside from that, I want to see how other ones are energizing their members. I want to see what makes ME feel glad to be in them and interacting.

Backing up websites, adding content

This post is one of the things to do today, but also I need to backup all of my websites. A new external drive came by delivery the other day and I’ve transferred what I need to work with on my daily tasks to the new drive. Now I need to put backups for everything on that drive, as well.

It astounds me that I can fill up a terrabyte drive in only a couple of years. But photoshop files, print layouts, and photos and videos take up the lion’s share of space. Unfortunately, I need all of that on the drive I’m using currently, so I bought one with more space, lol.

Nature Journaling

It’s too cold outside again today, but I will pull up another nature pic from my computer and journal and sketch inside again. This is for my online nature journaling course at skool. It’s a free course, so you should join us there if you want some group journaling fun. So far I’m the only one contributing to it, but I’d love some company!

Making Paint

It’s possible that I will need to make more paint before going much further on the owl painting in progress. If that’s the case, then that’s on my list today too. First I’ll use what I have on hand to do the backlit background portion and see what’s what with the rest of my tubes. I know I need some black and I have soot and bone pigments ready to go for that.

Here’s where the owl stands now:

When I start working on it, I’ll record what I’m doing for my Open Studio course at Skool, too. So my session will serve double duty as progress AND content. I haven’t gotten brave enough to go live with that. I’m afraid it’ll make me too self-conscious. I’ve only recently gotten over the discomfort of making videos entirely, let alone live. But that’s a goal.

Orchid Walk video

I have to compose and edit the first of my Orchid Walk videos – this one to see the leaves of Cranefly and Adam & Eve orchids. This is also one of my skool courses (skool.com/nature-connection/about).

Enter OPA’s Online Showcase

Here’s the painting I’m submitting:

That’s it for today’s update with no proper SEO. It’s hard to imagine that this would perform more poorly than the many pages I’ve labored over making perfect that aren’t ranking either. We’ll see! This new relaxed approach might just turn out to be the best way to go, lol.