During The Superbowl...

 I'VE NEVER BEEN A HUGE FAN of football and while the super bowl was playing I decided to do some night pleinair painting. I went over to the Fountain Bookstore downtown near The Martin Agency and set up my easel. I've always wanted to paint this scene but with no cars. Unfortunately...that ain't gonna happen. The entire area is packed 24/7 so the chances of there not being a car there is zero. 

Anyway, I had a good time. A few onlookers heading to a bar to watch the game stopped by to chat. 

Riverbend Coffee Drawing

 

I DECIDED TO REVISIT ONE OF my coffee drawings from 2020. The original coffee shop drawings/paintings were literally created with coffee from each coffee shop. I don't know if I'll draw every single coffee shop, but I really love this particular location. For some weird reason, Riverbend reminds me of the bakery from the film, 'As Good As It Gets', when Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt are walking early in the morning, and they stop in to grab warm rolls. In reality, it looks nothing like the bakery in the film but something about it has that stereotypical 'good morning' feeling. The staff has always been friendly to us, and in the morning, there's a solid, warm glow coming from the windows, and on a rainy day, the reflections on the street just make it feel so welcoming. 

So, I decided to draw it. Prints can be purchased at my etsy store: Riverbend Roastery Fine Art Print Richmond Art Pencil Drawing Coffee Art Richmond Richmond Virginia - Etsy

Vice President Harris

APPROXIMATELY 1-2 WEEKS BEFORE THE ELECTION, I begin drawing the next potential president. In 2016, I began drawing both Trump and Clinton, and when Trump won, I put Clinton's aside. When she declared she wouldn't run again, I discarded it, as there was no reason to continue. About a week before the 2020 election, I began drawing Biden's. When he was elected, I finished it and began to move forward to possibly publishing the book From George To Joe which can be purchased by clicking on the link. 

I think a day or two before the Nov. 5 election, I put Vice President Harris' on pause. Here is the incomplete portrait of Harris. If you'd like to watch the Tiktok of me showing the process, here is a link: VPHarris

For anyone reading this blog for the first time, if you can click on the 'Presidents' label/button on the side and view all of the presidential drawings. 

Tiktok...

WELL, THAT WAS A SHORT-LIVED ban. I am not a fan of Tiktok for a variety of reasons, but one that I will go into detail about shortly. Because I rarely delete a blog post, in an earlier post I kind of say some negative things about the app and this time will be no different. There are some great things about Tiktok - product reviews, cool DIY vids, 'did you know?' posts, as well as business advice and news. But most of Tiktok (from my perspective, anyway) is trash. 

For the most part, I make a timelapse of a live wedding painting or other piece of art and, post it and log off. The views on each video range from a few hundred to 3-4,000...nothing to write home about. Late last year I posted a Tiktok of a timelapse of one of my live wedding paintings and about an hour after posting it I had a weird feeling that I should log back in, and ho. lee. chit...there were over 20,000 views and a smattering of comments - some positive, some negative.

A few hours later the views were at 50,000...by the end of the day over 100,000, and the next morning, over 270,000, along with a ton of negative comments. I don't mind honest critiques of my art (the colors are off...he could've worked on the composition...idk, not my thing lolz...I wish he would've put more focus on xyz...) but what I absolutely detest about it are the hateful and insulting comments. When I say "hateful and insulting" the commenters were bashing the couple I painted. Understand that a live wedding painting is just that...painted live. Tiktok has given the impression that artists are creating a gorgeous work of fine art in just a few hours, and this is simply not the case. Most artists will complete about 90-95% of the painting on site and then take it back to their studio to add touchups (color correct, put in facial features, add a little pop of color here and there, etc.). The artist has 4-6 hours to capture the likeness of the couple and it's possible that things are going to be off - maybe the hand is too far to the left, or maybe she wasn't fully dipped like that, and so on and so forth. There is a LOT going on at a wedding, people talking to you, drunk attendees, kids running around, someone bumping into the easel, having to move your painting multiple times, lighting changes, and the list goes on and on. The pressure to get it right is intense. 

For the record, I want to say that the comments were half positive (OMG I want this at my wedding!...Wow, you captured them perfect!!), maybe 25% critical and 25% insulting/nasty (why you got this bitch looking like Shawty Bae?...If you painted my double chin I'd sue your ass!...You can tell this is a man who painted this shit!). At first, I began deleting the insulting comments, but then I decided to respond to them accordingly. 

From there, the views continued to climb...1,000,000...2,000,000...3,500,000...and before the app went dark for a few hours, the views were at 8,300,000. As the view count went up, so did requests for live wedding paintings, commissions, and people requesting art. Around December things began to slow down with the commenting and the views on my videos back to their normal, a few hundred to a few thousand, and I'm fine with that. 

From my perspective, Tiktok is kind of like the Craigslist of the social media apps. If you get an STD from someone you met on Craigslist, you almost can't be mad...it's Craigslist. Tiktok is kind of the same; the loudest, most obnoxious commenters are generally from private accounts and don't have the financial means for the services they're insulting. I read somewhere once that the social media service that has the fewest insulting comments is on NextDoor. Why? Because the people connected to you are in your neighborhood/zip code. It's easy to make a disgusting comment when you can remain anonymous; not so easy when someone can show up at your door. 

Just like my views on Snapchat haven't changed, my thoughts about Tiktok haven't either. That said, I still use Tiktok for business, posting maybe 1-2 timelapses a month, but for the short time it was down, I didn't really care, but I'm also not an influencer who didn't have a financial backup plan, so there's that. 

Megan and Abraham Live Wedding Painting

MEGAN AND ABRAHAM DID ONE OF those things that are not conventional in a live wedding painting, but that I absolutely LOVE when they do it. They had me paint the background of the greenhouse dining room at Avonlea Farms, and then paint them posing outside of it. Abraham is...dude is cool as fuck...he really is, and Megan has one of the sweetest personalities a person can have. She had a ton of tattoos down her arm (referenced in the last post) which makes painting weddings fun as hell. This was one of the funnest paintings I've had the pleasure of doing. 
 

And A Happy New Year to You!!

 JUST WANTED TO SHARE ONE of my favorite live wedding paintings from last year. One of my favorite venues to paint at is the Virginia Cliffe Inn, in Glen Allen. Gabriella and Nathan had a tattoo bar there, where they tattooed their names on their ring fingers (and couples could get their own tattoo after the couple got theirs). It's rare that I see something at a wedding that I'm surprised by, whether it's paper plates, a drunk uncle or someone saying something outrageously stupid, and the list goes on and on. That was definitely a first. 

Gabriella had amazing tattoos and those are always fun to paint...which I shall show in the next post of Megan and Abraham.