Boo Boo

For nearly a year now, painting has been a challenge. Around this time last year, I began working on the piece featured in my previous post. There isn’t any glaring issue preventing me from painting; rather, it’s been a struggle to find the inspiration to pick up the brush. However, I’ve managed to overcome that creative block recently. I opted for a subject that wouldn’t overwhelm me, just to ease back into the rhythm.

Sometimes, the spark for a painting ignites in the most unexpected of places. I stumbled upon an image while mindlessly scrolling through a website — a black cat peering through a gap in some underbrush. It had that unmistakable anime flair, though it was likely crafted by “AI”. But I’m not writing this to dwell on that subject. Surprisingly, it triggered a cascade of ideas in my mind. Initially, I toyed with the notion of painting a fox in a similar setting in my own style, but I’d recently tackled that subject. After much deliberation, I settled on the concept you see above.

The title of this post may raise some eyebrows. For a few years now, Kate and I have been avid viewers of a YouTube channel called The Urban Rescue Ranch. It chronicles the adventures of an eccentric animal rescuer who transformed a property with a troubled history into a haven for various creatures. Lately, he’s been caring for a whitetail deer fawn named Boo Boo. Now, the painting above doesn’t bear any resemblance to Boo Boo, nor was it meant to depict him. Nevertheless, as I showed my progress to Kate she took to calling it Boo Boo as well. Hence, its title is now Boo Boo. Who am I to argue with her?

Possibly due to my extensive experience in designing t-shirts, I’ve developed a habit of working out the color palette for my paintings after sketching. Whether I’m working digitally with a plethora of colors at my disposal or painting traditional with a limited selection of tubes, I find it beneficial to establish a cohesive color scheme in advance. This approach simplifies the process of ensuring harmony among the colors, provided I choose them wisely. The color palette displayed above served as my guide, with every hue in the painting derived from it.

On a different note, writing this has reignited my desire to tinker with my website and perhaps delve into writing more. I’m brimming with ideas, spurred on by reading and visiting other blogs recently. I long for the era before social media’s dominance, when self-publishing was the norm. Despite not currently earning a living from the Web due to uncontrollable economic factors, my passion for it remains steadfast. Even if my enthusiasm for maintaining my own website wavers, my interest in the Web itself endures. I’ve grown weary of social media platforms; the only one I frequent regularly is what’s collectively known as the Fediverse, with Mastodon currently being its flagship. While I occasionally post elsewhere, my patience with these platforms is as thin as the hair on the top of my head. Ultimately, my own website remains the one true place I can call my home on the Web. Perhaps, like previous occasions when I’ve expressed similar sentiments, I’ll forget I wrote this and persist in neglecting my personal website, despite my better judgment. I hope not.