I Painted This From a Photo

I like the composition, the capture of a relationship. I'm not quite finished with the painting. I want to do a little more work on the figures.
I'm using a different method than I usually use. A lot of glazing with a few brushstrokes and lots of palette knife work. I think it gives the image a different look and feel than a straight up painting. I personally like a painterly picture where the paint is as much the subject as the subject..
I also use a bare bones palette of 3 acrylic colors - burnt sienna for red, yellow ochre for yellow, and ultramarine blue for the blue. Plus titanium white. Some gel medium to make it nicely spreadable and a secret experimental technique that is a secret.

Why am I gibbering on? Why does the hound dog howl at the moon? It's his nature. Additionally I'm being pretentious, a poseur. I talk about my "palette" like I was a grand master and my fans want to know all the details.Like a vanity photo shoot its one of giddyup kicks of bloggin - .  Speaking of vanity photo shoots, look here this is what I could look like if I wasn't me. And plastic surgery to do your nose or whatever. I marry a girl with a petite nose and distinctive chin - we have kids and they look like rodents! You tricked me. Off button Mikey. Click.

PS. A swell prize to the first person that correctly diagnoses my mental disorder. Heck a swell prize to anyone who gives me a cool diagnosis, even if its wrong.

6,six, Oh Heck, Another, Candidate 6

Leonardo da Vinci, polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, writer, blah, blah blah. Leo's problem is that he entered himself in the Polymath Genius category. He should have just gone for plain genius. He did not know plumbing; was an average cook; and had no thoughts on golf, rugby, or darts. One rumor is that he made a deal with the devil to be a genius. Notice that his photograph is washed out as though he was a ghost or something. This pix must have been taken after the devil collected his soul.Tip for those young genius applicants - don't enter in the polymath category unless someone (wink wink) is on your side.

Candidate #4 and the Biggest Mustache in the World

Candidate 4. Frederich Nietzsche.

He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism. His key ideas include the death of God. After that, all his prayers for success, good health, and wisdom went mysteriously unanswered.

The psychedelic drug in magic mushrooms may have lasting medical and spiritual benefits.

Psilocybin is known to trigger transformative spiritual states, hallucinations, and other weirdness.  If the dosage is wrong it can result in terror and panic. Johns Hopkins researchers  were able to reliably induce transcendental experiences in volunteers, which offered long-lasting psychological growth and helped people find peace in their lives — without the negative effects. The study was published in the journal Psychopharmacology.

Make a Note to Reduce Mr Pickles dosage,
but ask him to change that light bulb 
since he's already up there!

Martin Heidigger Leers as Overrated Genius #5

Now this guy's got one inadequate mustache, but what a forehead! What other problems? He had a poster of the Fuhrer over his bed. The Fuhrer had a picture of him in his wallet.
Heidegger claimed that Western philosophy since Plato has misunderstood what it means for something "to be", tending to approach this question in terms of a being, rather than asking about Being itself. Bill Clinton was following this line of thought, I guess, when he asked for clarification of the meaning of "is".

Marty practicing his Leer

Head shot for his audition for "Guys and Dolls". He did not get the part.

Most Overrated Genius, Candidate 3.

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."- Albert Einstein
Let's work with this to see how much wiseness we can suck from it. If I made his quote simpler it might go like this: "Simple as possible - not simpler." I'll steal that one for myself. We know he quit looking for those pesky electrons and once again he fails to follow the path to its logical end. His aphorisms are incredibly lucky blurbs that were unintentionally wise. Also known to have stolen "Albert Einstein Look" from Mark Twain.

Einstein Covering up a Blemish

Trick or Treating, Halloween 1952

Hypochondria?  Doc, that's about the only thing I haven't had!