October 16 - Time is running short, David, and a sold painting...

Wow, what a day. Today is Sunday and since yesterday I am worried that my wonderful stay here in Florence could be over way too soon. in 13 days we are on our way back to Sweden.

On the other hand: I also need to earn some money. Basically to come back here next year. For longer. :-) Right now I find 6 weeks are an appropriate length.

But money is already on it's way. On Wednesday I'll have a call with a potential new client (coaching business). So keep your fingers crossed for me. Oh AND: I sold a drawing today. At Galleria dell'Accademia! One could say my art was exhibited next to Michelangelo's David. And sold before finished. This is how I like it. Tim, a friendly guy from the US is the new owner. So I could say that a work of mine which was inspired by Michelangelo, and shortly exhibited in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence now is going to a collector in the US. Fame. Clearly :-). And so true. And hej, someone needs to pay for all the art supplies I still need to buy at Zecchi.

So it is Sunday and actually, I am a little sick. Since yesterday. Or was it Friday? I stayed home the whole day yesterday and thought I am better this morning. I was. But well. Now I am laying in my bed again, hoping it will be better tomorrow.

I used the time yesterday for the last live day for my education as sex therapist, thinking, sleeping, and I also watched some bits of this wonderful tutorial on Color by Florent Farges ("The art and practice of color"). I learn so much from this video and I cannot stop recommending it. It is about 8-9 hours and comes with a detailed handbook and color scales, which are fantastic. What I love especially is that he does not claim that there is one right way to do it, but many approaches. He explains all ideas and approaches and also gives information on how he does things. In addition, provides a fantastic color mixing wheel which contains the actual pigments (P XYZ - I even learn to read color codes on paint tubes, OMG!) to find where those are in the wheel. Very precious I find also the information on what color to choose as shadow-color.

I can clearly point out during the video which information I would have wished for in my portrait class at Angel Academy of Art. And the video gives tons of more information. I will have to watch everything a couple of times to really digest it. While watching it I constantly say out loud: "this is soooo cool". I seem really impressed to myself. The last thing I watched yesterday was a color mixing exercise: Step one: Pick two random colors and try to predict what their mix (50/50) would look like. A good way of getting to know your color. Which pigment is more dominant (he did not call it dominant).

Step two: chose the right color from the color mixing wheel to create a neutral grey (the idea here is that complementary colors always mix into a neutral gray tone.). Doing this exercise you learn by doing what the "GAMBIT" of these 3 colors are. The Gambit is the area of colors on the color wheel you can mix with the three colors. Sooooo cool. I feel a lot smarter than the day before. Right after writing this little diary entry, I will also watch a bit more. One hour a day is my goal. Because I want to keep learning constantly.

I am also planning and creating a little plan for my stay here in Florence. What to do (what to paint, basically). Because one thing I learned at AAA: You can create even if you don't feel like it. Showing up for the game is important. And you get stuff done. Doing some urban sketches in the last few days I felt that they were going horribly wrong. But then I told myself that these are learning hours and that I need to put the time in now. The result is not the most important point. Then it does work out. The learning and the result.

While I am writing all this I am listening to very calming music from Laurence Ipsum. Exactly what I need to calm my nervous system. Thank you. Click on the name and you will find his Spotify channel.

Oh, I need to write something about Michelangelo (Buonarroti) 's David. What an amazing statue. And how is it even possible that it survived all this time? Michelangelo created this incredibly huge marble statue between 1501 and 1504. Its original place was at the entrance of Palazzo Vecchio and was intended as a symbol of strength. So and besides all the facts and figures, I am really glad that they put him on a high stand so I could draw him twice. Originally, I wanted to draw his backside (international bum day, you know?!) but to be honest his backside is pretty plain. Where is his gluteus Maximus, I have to ask!! His shoulder blades (looking from the side) seem not existent. So from the back and from the side he looks like a young boy (which would be understandable referring to the David and Goliath story) but from the front, his body looks like the body of a 35-year-old, trained grown-ass man. Very interesting. While walking around in Florence, we made fun of little David statues in tourist shops that had a head which was out of proportion. And I have to tell you: he has a head out of proportion. It is too big. Like his hands and feet. Funny. And even more interesting is that from further away it does not look that way. Very interesting. Made me crazy while drawing him, to get the "wrong" proportions right.

That are my musings for today, dear humans.

See you tomorrow and enjoy today's pictures below,

Siri