There's only so much Netflix you can watch....

We're still in lockdown in the UK so I've been trying to make plans and to find things to do to fill my days with some kind of loose schedule.

I'm walking my dog the statutory once a day - much to her disgust, as she usually gets 2 decent walks each day...

I'm also trying to do some daily yoga, but finding it a bit slow, so I'm hoping my mind slows down over the next week to accommodate it...

I seem to be eating my way through the entire kitchen, so I'm also trying to fit in a workout of some kind every morning, and Joe Wicks seems to be providing me with a good 20 minutes of cardio (and absolutely knackering) muscle toning exercises. I'm on day three now having completed days 1 & 2. I woke up this morning and struggled to move my legs, and then found out it was 'Leg Day' apparently...

I have struggled through Day 3 and now my legs aren't sore anymore, mainly because they're numb from the exercise still. I think that pain might come back later on though.... I just hope everything stops cracking and clicking soon...

Anyway apart from trying to do some exercise, I'm also spending a lot of time painting and trying different things out. I challenged myself to paint a ballerina in oil paints on a black background... something I thought I couldn't do (why do I do this to myself??) so after much procrastination, I made a start on the figure.

At this point I had only put acrylics down on the painting - I'd added lots of detail and it was turning out so well that I actually chickened out with the oil paints and the black background. Instead, I finished it off in acrylics and left the white background as it was, spending lots of time perfecting the folds in that transparent tulle skirt which is the main focus of the piece.

I really love it.

As much as I love the result, I feel that I compromised my initial idea of the oil painting with the black background, so I've now made a start on my next painting with a slightly different approach.

Again I started with acrylic paints for the underpainting - this sets out the tonal qualities of the painting fairly quickly, marking down the shadows and highlights to follow later, but instead of putting details in with acrylics (like last time) I quickly added the background so I couldn't chicken out later... This is a genuine problem that many artists face... when a painting or drawing turns our really well, or at least better than you'd hoped, you darent carry on with it too far in case you ruin it...

These three photos show the initial tonal painting, the added background, and the further, slightluy darker, tonal painting I added with acrylics.

I'll be adding oils over the top over the course of this week hopefully, so please look out on my Facebook page and Instagram for updates.

As ever, I'll be producing prints of these two paintings and selling them via my print shop https://www.artbyjillaspin.co.uk/shop

As you are a subscriber to my website/blog, please use APRIL10OFF to receive 10% off any purchase from my store

What are you doing to keep yourselves sane during these times? Please feel free to comment and let me know your plans....

Jill x