House things
I'm still fretting mightily about lights -- Should they be recessed, track, or tube? How many lumens do I need to paint? Where do I want them? How much of my meager warchest are they going to end up costing me?
Before I dissolve into a little stress puddle, though, I promised to share a floor plan!
(click to embiggen so the text is legible).
I've grayed in the areas where I'm planning on furniture. The easel is positioned to catch the north light during the day time, which should be great -- and helps me not at all at night, which starts at 4 in the afternoon during the winter. That's for acrylic and oil painting (also for panel prep, because it's a fancy easel that lays down horizontally if so needed). The computer area is in a darker corner, with a few feet of safe zone between fragile equipment and ground zero for oil paint* -- that's computer, printer (assuming I ever fix it or buy a new one), scanner-I-don't-own-yet, office-y stuff, etc. The drawing areas -- which would also be for watercolor and inking -- are harder to figure out, mostly because I'm not sure which furniture I'll use. I have a small wooden drafting table, and dad has offered me his big old metal one (which is what I learned to draft on). I also have a lightbox (courtesy Westrider/Tinierpurplefishes!) that'd love a semi-permanent home somewhere. And then there has to be some kind of Thing for holding inks and pencils and colored pencils and water colors and... er... have I ever mentioned on this journal that I have a really hard time focusing on only one medium?
Anyhow, that's the studio.
This past weekend I did almost nothing on the studio, and instead finished a kitchen project. It was a very small project (cut board, paint board, mount board), but I took it from "Hey, I need that!" to "finished" in a week, which is doing pretty damn well for me. Behold: a shelf!
Yes, my kitchen is actually that red. It's more overwhelming in the photo than in actuality because the phone camera really picks up the reflected reds... and because Erik happened to be using the red dutch oven. And I have a red teakettle. And towels. :P The other walls have white cabinets, which breaks it up a bit.
If I had the time and energy, I might paint an 18" strip behind the shelf the same white, to make the oils and vinegars and things pop -- but I'm really hoping to tear down that wall with a sledgehammer in the next five years, so I don't care that much. :P
On the right you can just about see the pot rack, which was my invention and one I keep shamelessly patting myself on the back over god damn it sometimes I can be brilliant. A couple of eye bolts are mounted in the studs with a chain slung between 'em, and the pots hang on S-hooks. About $20 at the hardware store for vastly increased storage space, right where you can get it. It was one of the first things I installed in the house. I'd come up with the idea back in the apartment, where I had even less space, and it made it much more workable.
Anyhow, that's two sections of my house. Who knows what you'll see next -- messy bedrooms? Bathroom mold? It could be anything!
*Oil paint travels. You can never actually keep the oils where they belong, you can only try, and sigh philosophically when you sit in wet paint. That's the downside of taking days to fully dry.
Before I dissolve into a little stress puddle, though, I promised to share a floor plan!
(click to embiggen so the text is legible).
I've grayed in the areas where I'm planning on furniture. The easel is positioned to catch the north light during the day time, which should be great -- and helps me not at all at night, which starts at 4 in the afternoon during the winter. That's for acrylic and oil painting (also for panel prep, because it's a fancy easel that lays down horizontally if so needed). The computer area is in a darker corner, with a few feet of safe zone between fragile equipment and ground zero for oil paint* -- that's computer, printer (assuming I ever fix it or buy a new one), scanner-I-don't-own-yet, office-y stuff, etc. The drawing areas -- which would also be for watercolor and inking -- are harder to figure out, mostly because I'm not sure which furniture I'll use. I have a small wooden drafting table, and dad has offered me his big old metal one (which is what I learned to draft on). I also have a lightbox (courtesy Westrider/Tinierpurplefishes!) that'd love a semi-permanent home somewhere. And then there has to be some kind of Thing for holding inks and pencils and colored pencils and water colors and... er... have I ever mentioned on this journal that I have a really hard time focusing on only one medium?
Anyhow, that's the studio.
This past weekend I did almost nothing on the studio, and instead finished a kitchen project. It was a very small project (cut board, paint board, mount board), but I took it from "Hey, I need that!" to "finished" in a week, which is doing pretty damn well for me. Behold: a shelf!
Yes, my kitchen is actually that red. It's more overwhelming in the photo than in actuality because the phone camera really picks up the reflected reds... and because Erik happened to be using the red dutch oven. And I have a red teakettle. And towels. :P The other walls have white cabinets, which breaks it up a bit.
If I had the time and energy, I might paint an 18" strip behind the shelf the same white, to make the oils and vinegars and things pop -- but I'm really hoping to tear down that wall with a sledgehammer in the next five years, so I don't care that much. :P
On the right you can just about see the pot rack, which was my invention and one I keep shamelessly patting myself on the back over god damn it sometimes I can be brilliant. A couple of eye bolts are mounted in the studs with a chain slung between 'em, and the pots hang on S-hooks. About $20 at the hardware store for vastly increased storage space, right where you can get it. It was one of the first things I installed in the house. I'd come up with the idea back in the apartment, where I had even less space, and it made it much more workable.
Anyhow, that's two sections of my house. Who knows what you'll see next -- messy bedrooms? Bathroom mold? It could be anything!
*Oil paint travels. You can never actually keep the oils where they belong, you can only try, and sigh philosophically when you sit in wet paint. That's the downside of taking days to fully dry.