Outside of the studio, I am making good work in my sketchbook. I am layering ink, watercolors, conte, pencil, crayon, coffee, wine, and arabic gum. Occasionally, I will find a poorly adhered graffiti or street art sticker around town, which I peel off and place into the book. I found a controversial conservative sticker that reads in German, "A great empire needs a great symbol." On the sticker is a graphic of the building in which Hitler was ceremonially appointed as chancellor. It was destroyed during the war, and has been questioned ethically wether it should be reconstructed. I understand that radical Hitler supporters view its rebuilding as a pro-nazi monument. The sitcker proves that there is still an underlying community of nazis in Berlin. I talked with a local friend about the phenomenon. He told me that they are few and that they are cowards. Twenty four years is not so long I suppose.
I went to the visa office today, to register for my place of residence with no luck. I may return tomorrow.
In the afternoon, I set out to make portrait paintings of volunteers in the park. I saw a friend of mine sitting in his sitting spot. I told him that I was out looking for volunteers to paint portraits of, to which he responded that I look no further. I sat down and set up my supplies. I'd planned out the set-up the night before (and painted four self portraits to test it out). I had a medium sized plastic container which held only water, a plastic shallow pan with ink and water mixed to a dark gray, and an egg carton with white gouache. I had a three inch brush and two small watercolor brushes, which I designated as wash, dark transparent layering, and opaque grays. I used a sheet of paper from the block that I'd bought the day prior. First, I applied a wash with my large brush blocking in the space of the figure, then I established shadows with a smaller brush. From there, I began to go in with white to cut the figure back a bit in places, then I began mixing grays and applying them to the figure. My friend recieved a phone call from his lady-friend and he mentioned that he had to go meet with her. I was about ten minutes into the painting at the time and I believe, noticably struggling. Some of my proportions were slightly off, and the values were extreme. I felt that painting another person was much more challenging than painting myself in the studio had been. I was happy that my friend had to leave, but I would like to paint him again.
