Tag Archives: painting progress

Paint Every Day, January 2022 Completed!

9×12 and 11×14 Acrylics, January, 2022.

Here are all the January paintings. Some portraits, some landscapes, some horses, one donkey. One failed cityscape. A pretty good month. I have completed the Paint Every Day in January for 4 or 5 years, with varying degrees of success. I think 2022 is the first time I actually painted all 31 days.

I hope to compile a retrospective of 6 or 7 years of trying to learn to paint with acrylics in the next month or so. It is time consuming! To find all the images and resize them and get them organized. But I always enjoy seeing other artists’ progress.

In the meantime, here is my set of paintings from January 2018:

9×12, 11×14 and some 16×20 acrylics paintings, January, 2018

Mostly dogs in 2018, with a handful of other animals and one almost-kind of horse, in the middle of the top row. I have improved! I just wish I had been more consistent, as always. I have started to paint over some of these. Though, the bat and panda found homes, and the beagle in the bottom row is probably going to stick around.

Thanks so much for dropping in! If you’re doing art projects this year, let me know so I can check them out. :-)

Acrylic Painting Retrospective, 2014 – 2020

It’s hard to see progress in your day-to-day life, but after enough years go by, a timeline emerges. Self-taught post-40 via Youtube and many trials and errors, some help from Sarah Kaiser at Studio 215 and lots of drawing practice.

Below are a selection from the past five and something years, These first two in orange are the earliest vs. the latest in this series. Hard to believe the same person did those.

Still orange! 2014 acrylic painting vs 2020 acrylic painting

The first 30-day painting challenge I did was in January 2014. I did a bit more in February but not much for the rest of the year.

I could not find much for 2015-2017. I was practicing art but mainly with ink and pencils.

In 2018 and 2019 I painted every day in January along with some of the internet, and then with sporadic practice the rest of those years.

In 2020, January went up in a puff of smoke but I did paint every day in February and I have finally been finishing paintings, which I did not manage to do much before.

Looking forward to another five and something years of progress, particularly since it’s become *slightly less difficult to get to practicing once a little progress is made.

Thanks for stopping by! Hello Paint Party Friday!

Acrylic Painting in 2019, Early February

I practiced acrylic painting every day except one in January, and am on track to do the same for February 2019. What I have not done is finished many paintings. But they are getting closer! Virginia Woolf from my last post is the first acrylic painting I can say I am happy with, and is finished. YAY!

This post contains two works in progress – Toni Morrison and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They are coming along pretty nicely. Learning to paint is a long process and often frustrating! But nobody can become a better painter (or musician or dancer or a lot of other stuff) without practice. The trick is just to keep going!

Toni Morrison, 11″ x 14″ Acrylics in progress, www.theslumberingherd.com
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (AOC), 18″ x 24″ acrylics on canvas, in progress. www.theslumberingherd.com

Thanks for dropping in! Hello to Paint Party Friday! Let me know if you have any favorite youtube painting videos!

End of March Acrylic Practice

St. Vincent reference pic, captured still from youtube video

March 24, 2018, 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in Progress 1

March 24, 2018 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in Progress 2

March 24, 2018 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in Progress 3

March 25, 2018, 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in progress 5

March 25, 2018, 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in progress 6

March 25, 2018, 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in progress 7

March 25, 2018, 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in progress 8

March 25, 2018, 16″ x 20″ Acrylics in progress 9

Still far from complete! I honestly don’t know if I will be going back to any of these portraits in progress! If too many days pass I tend to start a new one. I should probably stop buying new canvases and try to finish a couple!

Meanwhile as we find ourselves in this bizarre and frightening timeline with ignorant white supremacist loons and their Russian puppetmasters trying to break democracy, I feel it’s important to clearly state one’s objections to this repulsive and frankly horrific state of affairs.

But, I also think it’s good to remind people that the forces of good are tireless, committed, and winning small victories. So here’s a happy story for this post:  A deported veteran who launched a health clinic for other deported veterans in Tijuana, Mexico, has been granted citizenship in the United States.

Hello and thank you to Paint Party Friday, and of course many thanks for all the nice comments!