2018 Progress Report: November-Part 4

I am FINALLY getting the last November 2018 post done. I'm just thankful that nothing got done in January. That means that's one less month I have to worry about, lol. Again, I apologize for not getting this out months ago. Hopefully, soon enough, the "What's Happening Now" blog will be focusing on what actually is happening now as opposed to what happened six months ago. 

Anyway, the final week of November was serious crunch time for me. I had to have everything done by early December. The last day of November was my original deadline though I had to work beyond that date. There's one project that I had to give up on because I knew it would not be done in time. I didn't give up on it for good though. It's a project that I plan on finishing this year. One thing is for sure. I hate these crunch times and I think I may try to get more work done during the summer so I can avoid them as much as possible.

That's all I have for right now. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

11/25/18: This is something I have brought this up in previous posts. There was a major correction I had to make here. I had to switch the pieces on the top and bottom because of a mistake I made earlier in the development of this project. When I started the drawing part, I didn't have the back side with me and I ended up doing the drawing upside down. I did not realize this until everything was already glued down. It wasn't easy to reverse the top and bottom pieces. 

11/26/18: This drawing is pretty much done at this point. Overall, it's a pretty good  drawing in my opinion, though the face probably could have been defined a little more.

11/27/18: I finally came up with a title for this. I was doing some printing and laminating.

11/27/18: I can't remember if I had revealed this already, but The Last Weekend is a followup piece to both 2007's Mary's Necklace and 2016's Mary's Dilemma.

11/27/18: I jumped the gun on this piece. I wasn't able to get it finished by the end of the year and the label has since been discarded. I plan on finishing it this year and when I do, there will be a new label, most likely with the same name though.

11/27/18: I glued the ceramic piece in place.

11/27/18: I spray painted the back of this except for the area around the label.

11/27/18: I started applying the fiber paste on the front. 

11/27/18: I spray painted the back. Now some painting needs to be done.

11/27/18: I got some canvas work done on Invisible Walls.

11/27/18: I got some canvas work done on The Last Weekend.

11/27/18: I did some fiber paste work.

11/28/18: Gesso work was done on Invisible Walls.

11/28/18: Gesso work was done on The Last Weekend.

11/28/18: I got some spray painting done on the sides.

11/29/18: I got molding paste work done on the back of Invisible Walls.

11/29/18: I got some molding paste work done on The Last Weekend.

11/29/18: fiber paste work was done on the sides of Invisible Walls.

11/29/18: I got some fiber paste work done on the sides of The Last Weekend.

11/30/18: I got some more fiber paste work done on Invisible Walls.

11/30/18: I got some more fiber paste work done on The Last Weekend. I didn't finished it yet though.

Blog Status (What the hell has been going on lately?)

For those of you who follow this blog even occasionally, you may be wondering what has been going on lately and why I haven't been updating the blog. The answer to this is simple. I have been very busy lately particularly with my job. At the same time, progression on my artwork has been moving along at a snail's pace. Everything is slowly progressing and that affects the blog. I have been rather tired lately and when it comes to making these posts, I'm a slow typer. I have to gather all the pictures, make sure they're posted correctly and then post the blog to more than half a dozen different sites. It takes a long time and I often don't have the energy for it. So the updates are coming. It'll just take a little while to catch up.

Prior to this post, the latest post was the November Part 3 blog. The next one will be this one obviously and then November Part 4 will come afterwards. That will hopefully happen soon. As of right now, here are the planned posts:

2018 Progress Report: November-Part 4
2018 Progress Report: December
2019 Plans
2019 Progress Report: February/March

Last year, I had decided to bring the Weekly Report back though that didn't quite work out. I still want to bring it back, though it might come back in a video format. I'm not 100% sure yet. For me, 2019 is looking like it may be a somewhat quiet year. That doesn't mean things aren't happening. They definitely are. It's just that due to all the things going on in my personal life, a lot of what I had planned for this year may not come to fruition until 2020, which is fine with me since I would rather get things done right instead resorting to making shit. That's how I've always been.

That's all I have for right now. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

2018 Progress Report: November-Part 3

During this week in November, I worked on one drawing and did molding paste work on two other pieces. Fiber paste work was also done during the week. It was getting to the point where the show was right around the corner and despite how fast work was getting work done, I always felt like there simply wasn't enough time. No matter how much I had achieved, there was always a lot more left to do. There were also things that would go wrong at the worst possible time such as having a glue gun break and finding out I made a huge mistake with one of the projects.

That's all I have for right now. Hopefully, I'll have Part 4 out soon. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

11/18/18: The name label is in place.

11/18/18: I started doing the canvas work.

11/19/18: The canvas work is complete.

11/19/18: The gesso work is complete.

11/20/18: The Molding Paste work is complete.

11/20/18: Molding paste work is complete.

11/21/18: My self-portrait drawing is mostly done at this point. I really messed up on one of the eyes but I didn't bother fixing it since I knew that eye was going to be covered up later on. You can probably guess which eye is messed up.

11/21/18: I started doing the fiber paste work on the bottom half of the the sides. 

11/21/18: I started doing the fiber paste work on the bottom half of the sides. It was a little tricky with this one.

11/23/18: Fiber paste work on the top half of the sides and inner parts. This took longer than I had anticipated.

11/23/18: The drawing is pretty much complete.

11/23/18: The drawing is now integrated with the ceramic part, though I am about to find out that I made a huge mistake on the back. I hinted at this mistake in past posts and I will explain it more in the next post.

2018 Progress Report: November-Part 2

During this week in November, I focused my attention on two projects. I was working on the drawing for one while I was working on the back for the other. My projects were quickly coming along though was still a lot of work left to be done. By the time the next week would arrive, I would continue working on the two projects below in addition to a third project.

That's all I have for right now. Hopefully, I'll have Part 3 out soon. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

11/14/18: At the time of this picture, this drawing was close to being finished. Even though I started it several weeks earlier, when I finally got around to putting some serious work into it, it didn't take long to finish.

11/14/18: I finally have a laminated label down and have started the canvas work. 

11/14/18: The canvas work has been completed.

11/15/18: The gesso work has been completed.

11/15/18: The drawing is all but completed. Additional darkened areas were added in order to surround the ceramic piece that will be placed on top of the drawing.

11/15/18: The ceramic piece has been glued down.

2018 Progress Report: November Part-1

Since the start of November, I had been transitioning from working on ceramics to working on drawings. This is simply the next step in the process of getting these projects done. Normally, I would like to have the drawings done before anything else but that just didn't happen. By the time the end of November comes, another transition will take place from drawing to acrylic mediums and paint.

That's all I have for right now. Hopefully, I'll have Part 2 out soon. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

11/5/18: This is the last ceramic piece that needs to be worked on.

11/5/18: I'm trying to apply a few different glazes in order to get a variety of results. 

11/6/18: The firing was a success. These pieces are looking pretty good.

11/6/18: I still have a long ways to go with this drawing though it is starting to look presentable.

11/7/18: I think the drawing was pretty much finished at this point. It just needs a coat of gloss fixative which will happen later.

11/8/18: Gloss fixative had been applied, though I wish I hadn't done that since the fixative wraps the drawing and makes it harder to glue down on foam board. I did it mostly out of curiosity and that was a mistake.

11/8/18: It's starting to come together, finally.

2018 Progress Report: October-Part 5

The last week of October saw a change in my weekly work schedule. Around this time, wet clay work had stopped and would not be continued for the remainder of the year. I got back into drawing. Glazing work continued while I also made preparations for a Halloween photo shoot. During November, I would end up shifting away from firing clay and focus more on drawing and other mixed media work.

That's all I have for right now. Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. Also, share this post with anyone who might be interested. If you want to support me and my projects, you can donate to my Patreon or buy buttons from my Etsy store.

https://www.patreon.com/Jon_Erich
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonerich

10/30/18: I'm making sure all the pieces fit after the bisque firing.

10/30/18: This is basically the same as the first picture but from a different angle.

10/30/18: Here's yet another angle of the previous two pictures. With this particular project, the pieces can only stick on if they're glued on. Also, there's one piece missing. That's because it had to be fired separately due to the kiln being too full.

10/30/18: There was a lot of glazing that had to be done this week.

10/31/18: During the early morning of Halloween, I finished carving my turnips that I would use for a photoshoot later in the day.

10/31/18: I was working on this drawing. The proportions are still messed up, though I at least got an idea of what the general composition would be like. I should have been more careful when starting this drawing for reasons that I'll explain in a future post.

10/31/18: I started on yet another drawing. This is bed on a digital photo project I did back in 2006 called Jon-Erich's Eyes.