So My Plan Is...

So this is the painting I'm working on for my niece! It's 2x3 feet and it's kicking my butt. I've had the canvas for almost 3, maybe even 4, months now. And I'm only starting on the 3rd layer of paint. Yeahhh..this thing will be in its ugly stage for a loooooong time.

Pretty much, she wanted a painting of a unicorn with wings (Pegacorn? Unisus? Whatever it's called..) and I thought "Okay that'll be fun for me to do since I love fantasy AND I'll be getting paid for it!" No...this thing has been staring me in the face, unfinished, for almost 4 months now. I don't know what's wrong with me! If this were for me, I'd probably have it finished by now. And I didn't really get why I was feeling so unmotivated until I actually learned why in my Psychology 101 class I'm taking right now! (Pretty much, our brain sees getting paid for something as work. So when we're getting paid for something we enjoy, our brain sees it as work, so it's less motivated. Or something along those lines.) So after thinking about that and letting it sink in for a few days, I realized that was my problem. And I also think if my sister would have given me a deadline I would be busting my ass trying to get it done, but she said no rush on it.

I'll be honest, there have been times when I thought about texting my sister and telling her to forget it. Especially after getting insulted because I'm in art major and being belittled because of it, but I've tried truckin' on through it. Does it have a lot of paint? No. Is it anywhere finished? Not at all. But I'm still working on getting it done. My niece is also very into art (because of ME mwahahaha!) and when she saw the painting as it is last night, she got so excited and she thinks it's almost done. So I'm trying to use that to motivate me to work on this more! My Psychology 101 class will be over after this Friday! Yipee!

So here's my plan...I only have 3 weeks of completely free summer break before the fall semester starts (eww), so I'm going to work on this painting inbetween everything that might be going on. My boyfriend, Austin, and I have a summer bucket list we'd like to get done, and we already have something planned for next Sunday. So I'll be working on this painting most of the time before we leave, and probably the night after when I get home. I sense lots of all-nighters in my future!

So here are some little facts about this piece so far:
I've already put close to 15 hours into this, and there's a ton more to go. That's the first horse I've ever drawn a full body of, and I'm pretty proud of it, so far! I've never done a painting with a foreground, so we'll see how that goes. And that pink mushroom on the right was actually a happy accident of the first wash of colors running!

There's also a lot of symbolism in this piece:
The little houses on the left are actually "spirit houses." They're believed to protect the forest and anyone who encounter them. I put those in there because they'd look so cool in a fantasy painting, but also for the symbolism of protection. The stacked rocks are usually made by hikers so they can find their way back. I placed these here so she'll never lose her way. And I plan to put some sort of fog/mist in front of, and around, the winged unicorn that has little sparkles in it. Those sparkles are going to represent wishes and angels watching over her. I know butterflies usually have some sort of meaning, but I put those in because she REALLY likes butterflies, haha!

I'm going to have a YouTube video on my channel whenever this gets done with little clips of my progress throughout this painting, so I'll definitely link that when it's finished! (: