Month: April 2023

I’m delving into portraits. I was told to choose anyone except relatives, otherwise I’ll get beaten up 😉

Rain until the end of the day

my 18th attempt at oil painting

Why don’t they make a notch for the nose in absolutely every such cup? No attention to details at all!

Yesterday I had to specifically go to the store to buy this tool for $15, because nothing was working without it, but with it, it took just five minutes. I had never encountered such a tool before, I found slightly advanced versions on Yandex Market for 6-10 thousand rubles. Scary, what they don’t make.

Decided to add some variety to my life and switched the interfaces of my phone and computer to French, from the operating system to all the programs from Facebook and browser to Telegram and Microsoft Office. It’s been a week already, so far so good.

Among the interesting “finds” — it amused me that memories in French turns out to be souvenirs. I somehow didn’t know that. So, Facebook tells me that I have souvenirs with various people.

Also, PowerPoint suggests adding diapositives – that’s what “slides” are called in French. You would think it’s nothing surprising, but for some reason, slides don’t associate with diapositives to me.

Periodically (like right now) I have to move still-wet paintings, and there’s either no adequate solution or they’re unjustifiably expensive (minimum $80-100). I end up having to DIY.

Recipe for small sizes like 11×14″ (27×36 cm): buy a photo frame to fit the canvas. I got one at Target for $12. The glass from the frame becomes a palette. You can’t buy a glass palette for less than $30. And here, it’s included. Remove the glass — you’re left with the frame. The canvas fits inside it. Just need to attach plywood or thick cardboard on the front (resulting in a gap between the painting and the cardboard). On the back, you could even secure it with rubber bands from underwear. I made a convenient “door”. In the end, for $12 and half an hour of work, I have both a palette and a carrier.

Recipe for larger sizes, 16×20″ (40×50 cm) in my case. At the hardware store, buy four poplar boards 2×1/4″ at $1 each, a set of corners for $2, screws, and foam core board for another five. Lightweight and exactly the right size. Took about $10 and about an hour of work.

But if you buy a ready-made one on Amazon, firstly, you realize there’s almost no choice. Secondly, it’s not only expensive but also of poor quality. A case for a 11×14″ (27×36 cm) size costs $80-100. Any wooden ones cost over a hundred (Search for wet painting carrier or wet painting bag).

The cheapest option — Guerrilla Painter Handy Porter Painting Carrier for $22 made from, essentially, paper or something like thin cardboard. The next option, also made of cardboard but better quality, Raymar, costs $62 for a size of 11×14 and $77 for 16×20″ with shipping. In art stores (HobbyLobby, Michaels), there’s simply nothing available at any price for this purpose.

I wonder, am I really the only one who needs to transport unfinished canvases?

Sure, even $77 is a bit much if you’re buying for long-term use. But this post isn’t about me turning to crafting as a budget solution — it was for fun. It’s about having a need, and there’s practically no product on the market to meet it.

I’m laughing

Look at our cool dog 🙂

By the way, various sources claim that a pyramid is a special case of a cone. According to a formal definition of a cone (everywhere from Wikipedia to Britannica).

Live with that now 🙂

I don’t know what to think of it yet