The Pebble-Stare Painting

Daya returns from Vancouver and moves into the dorm this weekend.

I have been planning a gift for her on move-in day- a small painting of Pebbles so Daya knows Pebbles is ALWAYS watching her.  You cannot ever escape the Pebble-Stare.

So, over a month ago I planned the painting.

Small, 5x7 egg tempera.

Should have been an easy no-brainer painting. 6 hours tops.

Except it just about killed me.

I think what happened is I was fighting for mental focus when I started it, and that carried over into the whole thing, then we had some heatwaves and I couldn't do anything and it started taking way too long and hanging over me and stressing me out and.......

It's FINALLY finished and I am so happy it's DONE I could cry.

I'll get a frame and give it to her on Sunday.

I hope it stares at her in the middle of the night.

*********

In no world should it have taken me OVER A MONTH to do a simple stupid pre-planned 5x7 cat painting from a reference I have actually used previously.

Oh also: I experimented on a different surface- Canson hot press illustration board. (it's archival)

Since egg tempera does need a rigid surface, I cut 2 5x7 pieces of the board and glued them together with acid-free glue. It's a fine surface to work on, but I do think for safety's sake it needs to be doubled up and that's extra work. I might stick to Claybord.

Progress shots of this painting looking ugly pretty much until the last 20 minutes: