If splurging on nice frames for your work makes you feel good about putting it in the setting it deserves, so you can have it on display and enjoy it, I don't think you should regret it. You'd want someone who bought one of your pieces to do the same thing, right?
Nattering onward... What if you use up some of your current supplies to do loose versions of prints that, at some point, will have to be historically accurate? Or use the sketchbooks to play with the look and style without the necessity of being accurate...yet? Who knows, might get things flowing.
I know my Felix sketches are loopy and meh, but I've decided to focus on getting familiar again with painting. With the goal of not "make a good painting," but "get the feel of these paints" so that, in a while, I can do the "make a good painting" part. It's helpful just to work with the same materials I'd use for fancier work.
And I'm of the opinion that thumbing through reference books is always good, because the information is settling into the crevices of your brain. Even if you can't directly and consciously access it, it's om there processing; it'll inform what you do later. I spent a whole lot of December going way over my data plan watching YouTube reviews of watercolour paints and paper, while periodically kicking myself for wasting time and money. But along the way I reached a critical mass where I got tired of watching other people talk about the topic, and where I had collected so many new ideas and insights the only thing left to do was try them myself. In this case, the money for the materials is spent, so why not make use of them. Though I managed to justify buying those sale paints, too....
Pulling off the shrink-wrap is therapeutic--Go for it! :D (Plus you won't have the worry about using non-archival paper lurking in the back of your mind using up neurons.) The better-than-copier paper is already there, waiting, and...well, I'd look at it as the difference between practising Chopin on an electronic keyboard, an ordinary piano, or a top-of-the-line concert grand. The second two cases are going to be better to get you into the swing of it than the first, even if all the notes aren't in the right place to start.
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Date: 2017-01-03 03:58 am (UTC)Nattering onward... What if you use up some of your current supplies to do loose versions of prints that, at some point, will have to be historically accurate? Or use the sketchbooks to play with the look and style without the necessity of being accurate...yet? Who knows, might get things flowing.
I know my Felix sketches are loopy and meh, but I've decided to focus on getting familiar again with painting. With the goal of not "make a good painting," but "get the feel of these paints" so that, in a while, I can do the "make a good painting" part. It's helpful just to work with the same materials I'd use for fancier work.
And I'm of the opinion that thumbing through reference books is always good, because the information is settling into the crevices of your brain. Even if you can't directly and consciously access it, it's om there processing; it'll inform what you do later. I spent a whole lot of December going way over my data plan watching YouTube reviews of watercolour paints and paper, while periodically kicking myself for wasting time and money. But along the way I reached a critical mass where I got tired of watching other people talk about the topic, and where I had collected so many new ideas and insights the only thing left to do was try them myself. In this case, the money for the materials is spent, so why not make use of them. Though I managed to justify buying those sale paints, too....
Pulling off the shrink-wrap is therapeutic--Go for it! :D (Plus you won't have the worry about using non-archival paper lurking in the back of your mind using up neurons.) The better-than-copier paper is already there, waiting, and...well, I'd look at it as the difference between practising Chopin on an electronic keyboard, an ordinary piano, or a top-of-the-line concert grand. The second two cases are going to be better to get you into the swing of it than the first, even if all the notes aren't in the right place to start.
Yes? Maybe? :)