Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday! Except for anyone that happens to live in a state where it decided to snow or more accurately blizzard today. It is Spring, right?

Anyways, after shoveling the latest practical joke by mother nature off the driveway I got to work on some things I wanted to get through today and I think I managed to get through just about all of them. First among them was a reminder from my friend and co-host of The Ourcast, SoapBubbles, to watch a favorite movie of hers, Mona Lisa Smile. I’d never seen it and she is chomping at the bit to talk movies so we decided that going forward we’ll devote a portion of the podcast to her talking about movies and getting me caught up on all the culture I’ve missed out on over the years. Right before I started watching it she commented on Twitter about how combined with the painting I was going to be doing was appropriate for the subject matter of the movie. Turns out she was right and I found it doubly interesting because they spent a little time talking about the concept of what is art? A subject which I’ve often discussed because of my somewhat contentious relationship with the ever widening modern definition of it. I try to be accepting and understanding because the reality is my personal tastes cannot and should not dictate what others feel is art.

As Katherine opined in response to her students hoping they wouldn’t have to write a paper about a Jackson Pollock painting they were looking at:

“Do me a favor, do yourselves a favor. Stop talking and look.”

“You’re not required to write a paper. You’re not even required to like it.”

“You are required to consider it.”

It may not be easy for someone like me to stop criticizing long enough to stop and just consider something that someone else spent their time and inspiration to create but I know that I’ll hear Katherine Watson in the back of my head chiding me from now on.

I quite enjoyed the movie and we’ll definitely talk more about it on Thursday when we record the new episode of The Ourcast. This should be our third maybe even fourth week in a row which gives me a deep sense of pride to have carried this on for at least a month straight. I think in the next week or two here I’ll get it set up so I can release an episode a week on our PodBean Page so we can clear our backlog and get everyone up to speed.

I started a new mini today to go along with the movie, I didn’t quite manage to finish it but I’m very happy with how it’s progressing. I was much more aggressive with thinning my paints this time around so I could take my time and get some smoother layers. I can feel my brush control very slowly getting better which is nice as it cuts down on the amount of times I need to go back and fix my lines. Painting minis that are literally only black and white will probably be fantastic practice on that front.

I compiled a few pics in an album if you want to have a look!

A fellow painter and imgur poster @beerjingles was nice enough to offer some pointers after one of my posts. We got a chance to talk tonight after I was done painting and he had some invaluable insights that I hope to put into practice in my upcoming painting sessions. Just goes to show that people who love a hobby who are willing to reach out to us newbies can make all the difference. I look forward to checking in with him again in the future.

Anyways, I think that is about it for me today! I’ll be back tomorrow with… something I’m sure.

Happy painting, gaming, movie watching or whatever it is you enjoy!

• Non-Washable