Semester One

Clem from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

November Thanksgiving weekend 2019.

I had a big 24x30 canvas. I wanted to start painting.

I had just found my muse for this big canvas after hunting down pictures of people from scenes in movies and tv that I liked. Clem and her colorful hair and her colorful vibes. The color tones of the movie. If this wasn't inspiring, Margot from The Royal Tenenbaums was coming in as runner up. These characters and the stories behind the characters are favorites of mine and darn-it-all, if I'm going to use a big canvas, I best see to it that I enjoy the subject of which I am painting.

Or so I hold myself to do that as much as possible anyway.

The lighting on this scene and the lack of details in the background was something I think I would enjoy the painting of. Mainly because the focus of anything challenging being mainly Clem herself and not the other stuff around her.

Ok. It's a good start. We have a sloppy rough draft with some pastels and we're already building color blocks and some highlights and shadow spots.

But it's a sloppy. How about some definition.

Some nice black lines defining proportion. Now we just need to fill her in like a coloring book. Piece by piece.

Jacket sleeve is looking tight and exactly the highlights and lowlights I want on it. Adding some bits and pieces to the booth, table settings, and face.

The cup and spoon. The arm warmers. The booth just a little. I think the jacket is pretty much up to snuff for now.

Ok, now the book has text in it. I am dreading the face and hair a bit as it's the most challenging. But we gotta get to it now.

Much better. Her hair is looking detailed and her face has some more realistic shading on it. The fingers are good now. A few more touches and...

She's as done as I feel she can be done. It looks very nice. It doesn't exactly give Kate Winslet in the face, but she's not so horrible you can't figure it out either. I was so happy to be done as I did my best on every detail I could with her.

It was finally completed March 31, 2020, during the early quarantine period of that year. I call her my semester painting since it was almost as long a school semester of about 18 weeks.

It was a big year of change after that painting, as a few months after this, I became a first time homeowner along with my husband. A bit of accomplishment in an otherwise horrible year for the world. Now she will always remind me of using art to distract from other things and focus on being creative.

Doing that can result in beautiful things like Clem.

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