A Day in the Life

I'm always interested in seeing other people's spaces and work setups, and also in hearing how people spend their workday, so I thought I'd share a typical workday for me.

I get up early every morning: at 4:00 am! I start every morning with some exercise, when I have energy and motivation. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't exercise at all.

After breakfast, I start working. I try to start every workday with some drawing. I usually do line drawings of my kitchen, or sketches of my cats/husband or "talking heads" from the tv. Drawing is the one thing in my life that I can truly say I have confidence in. I'm a good draftsman and it brings me great enjoyment. I'm  past the point where mistakes would make me cringe and I would stress over every little thing. Now it's simply a joy.

Time to start on models! Here's my little oil painting setup. I hardly ever clean my palette. I tell myself that I will hold the model on the table, but I always end up scrunching down in that chair with the model in my lap. I usually listen to NPR while I work.

Here is my airbrush setup. The lower half holds paint and a few models-in-waiting. There is a fan that goes out to a fireplace behind it. I have one of those horrible loud compressors, it always makes me jump. I usually just do base coats with the airbrush, otherwise I would have to get a silent compressor.

In the afternoon I start painting my "flat work." It's not horse-related, as you can see. My eyes are usually pretty tired at this point so it becomes a bit of an endurance session now.

Here's my flat work setup. I don't know why I keep this palette clean and the other one dirty. I paint until the evening, about 7:00 pm.

No day is complete without Jeopardy! I always make grand plans to do some digital artwork in the evening, but unfortunately my energy is really low at this time, so it's usually off to bed soon after this.