2022 is here

 Happy New Year!

Having heat in my garage studio is making a world of difference to my art practice. In previous years it's been several months into the new year before my creative spirit has felt inclined to come out of hibernation but this year I just have to pack up my thermos of coffee or tea and step into my space. 

I am opting to participate in a couple of creative online challenges in order to keep to my big goal of putting my art out into public space. To do that I also followed through on starting an IG account in my own name slangdon_art. I'll still keep my private account but this one is public facing. 

I posted one of my Palette Play pieces as my initial post to test out how posting works from my phone (I usually prefer to do things from my desktop PC) and everything went okay. I've since googled to figure out how to do line breaks so I can avoid the dreaded big wall of text for when I get wordy - and I know I will LOL. 

I'm participating in 21 days in my art world hosted by Tara Leaver for which there are daily prompts, the first being to post a favourite painting. So hard to choose but I opted for Emmanuel and then I got really techy by posting 4 images showing his evolution from discard palette canvas to finished piece. Thankfully it all was fairly intuitive. Up next is 'lesson learned'.

I've also opted to join in on Bethany Kohrt's January Drawing Club, again with daily prompts - yesterday's was an article of clothing that you have worn recently. My new two toned grey slouchy fleece hat fit the bill perfectly. 

These both can seamlessly fit into my own 100 day project that I'm doing from January 3 - April 13 which involves drawing daily, as that is an area that I need to strengthen by upping my practice. Posting daily for the duration of Tara's challenge also gives me the opportunity to become more comfortable with the platform and I can see how much time it involves. I doubt I will continue daily after that but I would like to settle into 2-4 times per week to build a following of a sort. We'll see - it is such a big unknown right now.

Almost forgot to document the biggest news though - 2 of my three paintings sold at the Westland Gallery Square Foot show!!! To say I'm head over heels about that is putting it mildly. Gale Force and Tufted Joy have gone on to new homes, I don't know where, so I'm also feeling an unfamiliar twinge of something about that. But that's okay, I'm happy to get used to it LOL. 

End of Year

So I bit the bullet and signed up for a year with Artwork Archive at the apprentice level. This gives me room for 100 pieces in my online inventory - and I've already put 17 pieces there during the free trial LOL. I can always upgrade as needed but for right now this suits me just fine.

I want to add some notes to remind myself of things to do in the New Year as well - ie like start a new instagram feed in my own name, likely slangdonart. I don't foresee myself being a big user of ig but can't fail to recognize its value for getting work out there and known. I can envision taking one day a week to update my inventory, ig, this blog. I just don't want to become a slave to social media and have it cutting into my creative time to explore my art world. 

End of year is always a slow time creatively for me as the holidays pull focus but I do want to include some pieces that I have been working on recently. Besides two posts in a row without images is just one too many LOL.

Up first is my attempt to abstract the landscape from our much beloved family farm. I opted to use a very limited and muted colour palette. It's now at the rest and reassess stage. I will come back to it in the new year and see if it tells me what it needs to be completed.  

These next two are experiments with collaging some of my used palette papers onto 6 x 6 cradled wood panels. After sealing the panels I primed the natural wood with clear gesso so the colour of the wood shows through the open areas of the paper. Quite happy with the results and will definitely do this again.

Archiving

The amount of work I'm producing, whether good bad or indifferent, is now starting to pile up. Each time I do a studio clean up I come across pieces that I've completely forgotten about which is often a pleasant surprise. But the time has come to start keeping an inventory of just what I have and where it currently lives.

This subject has been discussed on Art Tribe and the Virgo in me liked the idea of an organization system but which one would suit me best. An excel spreadsheet seemed too clinical for me and a lot of hunting and pecking to figure it out so I decided to investigate some online options. 

After researching a few I signed up for the 30 day free trial at Artwork Archive and I have to say I'm sold. I still have a couple of weeks left to try it out but I'm pretty pleased with how intuitive it is. Plus being a visual person and learner it suits me. I love having the images included with the info. The location info is handy as well now that I have a few pieces installed elsewhere for the moment. And it lets me easily track what I've submitted where, what's been gifted and what's been sold. It also makes sense to do this at or close to the beginning rather than months down the road. Since building a website is one of my goals for 2022, having an organized inventory can only help with that process.  

I'm So Excited

... and I truly can't hide it!

Image (c) Westland Gallery Square Foot Show

Westland Gallery has posted pictures to their Facebook page of the 2021 Square Foot Show hanging and I was able to see two of my pieces hanging. It all feels a bit surreal still to be honest. My inner child is absolutely squealing right now LOL! 

 

A Milestone Day

 Major excitement for me today as it was my drop off day for the Square Foot Show at Westland Gallery in Wortley Village. This goal has been several months in the planning and I'm quite chuffed with myself for having followed through. Wouldn't have foreseen doing this a year ago LOL. 

Lots of new experiences for me in bringing pieces forward for sale - applying hanging hardware, applying a protective finish, labelling and signing each piece. I decided to go with spray varnish for the canvas piece and then cold wax for the two pieces on wood panel. As far as a signature goes I finally settled on putting my initials in one lower corner and then full signature on the back. For the non representational pieces I don't want to choose for the purchaser which way to hang it. As the painter I certainly have a sense of which way it goes but once it's out of my hands it should be up to the buyer to choose for themselves and I don't want my signature to determine that necessarily.

Looking at them here I see I also need to practice my photography skills, as you can hardly see the hints of red that live in Gale Force. 

    

     Gale Force - mixed media          Adrift - mixed media                 Tufted Joy - mixed media

       on 12 x 12 wood panel              on 12 x 12 canvas                    on 12 x 12 wood panel

Tufted Joy is also serving as my personal xmas card this year, so spoiler alert for those on my card list LOL. It was painted from a reference photo belonging to Mary Villazon , with permission, as we are both members of the Photos for Artists facebook group. 

The Square Foot Show  runs November 24 - December 30, 2021.

Up next - my winter project is to build a proper website for my artwork and I'm hoping to be able to link this blog to it at some point. Lots more learning ahead!

A first of many firsts to come

 This was the first year that I actually set written goals for myself and my art at the beginning of the year and I'm extremely pleased to say that I have followed through on every one of them! 

And then today I followed through on one more impromptu plan. I entered some of my work into a local competition - ack! This is so not me LOL. My goal here is not the prize which is nominal, but to actually put my work out there into public space for anyone to see. This process started with my decision to participate in my sister's weekend market, so more about the competition in a minute.

Each Sunday since early June I have taken a selection of the mini canvases I painted during the winter/spring lockdown, along with some older watercolour pieces and notecards, and set up a vendor table to test the water of selling my art. I had no idea whether anything would even appeal to this limited market and next to no idea about pricing said art. Well, things turned out better than I could have ever imagined. The 40 lockdown pieces were quickly rehomed and I was having trouble keeping up with new items to add to my display. Got lots of lovely feedback too.

So now, as summer is coming to an end I turned my eye to our local fall fair and lo and behold - despite physically cancelling the fair - I saw the creative arts competition is to continue virtually. So I had a good look through my stuff and found 8 pieces that I was happy to enter into 4 different categories. They were entered this morning and are now out there online for anyone to see. I can't tell you how huge a win this is for me!

Next up on the agenda is making and selecting pieces to put in a local gallery square foot show. Application deadline is less than 6 weeks away! 

Lucy Revisited

 

Lucy is growing up so it was time to update her portrait. This is done in charcoal on 12 x 12 inch watercolour paper 140lb cold pressed. I was really pleased with how it turned out overall but especially her mouth and teeth.

I'm once again taking Louise Fletcher's Find Your Joy course this summer and thoroughly enjoying it. I'm a bit behind on the weekly modules due to some other art commitments but since I have access to the material for the year, that's of no concern. What I can see though is how my work this year has been propelled by my participation last year, if that makes any sense. Sort of like a springboard effect. 

Those 'other art commitments' are also an after effect of taking FYJ last year in that it's given me the confidence for putting myself 'out there' more than I ever have as an artist. My mini canvases have been selling at a rate almost faster than I can keep up with - not a bad problem to have LOL. 

Fall is Here

How quickly it seems the season changes. 10 weeks of the FYJ2020 course has just flown by. Later this morning will be the wrap up zoom call, which will be an ending of sorts but such an amazing beginning. I can't say enough about the value of Louise's teachings. There's just been so much to take in and the amount of exploration that still awaits is huge. So glad we have access for a full year! 

 

I've kept up with the videos with each new module but not necessarily the assignments and journaling that is so key to moving forward. But all in good time! I've been having a blast just through swatching different colour palettes, amazed at the variety of tones and colours one can make with just a couple of colours plus black and white. There's a part of me that would like to pick a short term palette to work with for a period of time. 

This piece to the left is baltic blue, yellow ochre plus B&W and I'm quite enjoying it. I've watched a lot of the series Shetland recently and find a wonderful beauty in the bleakness of the landscape. Such a drastic difference from my own surroundings. I also have a 'thing' for the simplicity of some of the cottages found in the UK. It all ties in with my connection with inukshuks I think, in that here is a marker that someone has been here, no matter how harsh the geography might be. Someone has been and left their mark. This is one of the many revelations that my journaling uncovered for me and that is key to why I want to make art. Can't wait to see what else I find out about myself LOL. 

Change of Plans

Clearly, my inner artist has been growing more confident with my time spent in studio this summer and she was not to be denied LOL. I have a lot of available space in my bedroom and so with a little shift in layout, the winter studio has been set up!

Took down the california shutters on the big window, plunked my table right in front, bought some flexible floor lamps with daylight bulbs in them, rearranged the furniture and we're good to go. Touille, my calico longhair aka the boss, was a little unsure with all of this activity but has given her stamp of approval now that the dust has settled. And she's behaving herself as far as painting etiquette goes, though anyone familiar with cats knows that could change at a moment's notice. For now she gets to come and go freely when I'm painting. 

With the change in location and season I'm already noticing some differences in my practice. Winter is just around the corner and with ever diminishing light a reality, I'm finding late morning or early afternoon is usually when I'm drawn to create. But every now and then I find myself called back in the evening, to play around some more. And I like that!

New Season

Fall is definitely upon us! Cooler temperatures for the past few weeks have forced induced me to alter my studio time. No longer can I head out there first thing in the morning - well I can but I'm not a happy camper being out there LOL. 

I do have a space heater but that necessitates me closing the garage doors in order to be effective, and I'm loathe to give up the light just yet. So I am starting to make a plan for when I finally have to close my little haven down and relocate inside. A list, because I love lists, of things such as what art supplies need to be stored indoors (mostly just paint and mediums) and what kind of art do I want to make until I can get back into my studio. I know in my head it makes perfect sense to spend the winter working on my ancestry, and I'm sure I'll embrace that once again when it's time but the painter in me isn't ready to give up the reins just yet to my more pragmatic side!

In the meantime, here's a sampling of some of the pieces I've worked on since my last posting. Oddly enough, I've gotten back to my watercolour roots in recent weeks. Wasn't expecting that but I'm delighted that it happened. It's also got me dreaming of working on full sheets of paper which is huge, both physically and philosophically for me. Scary and exciting all at the same time!

Siddall Road (c) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart
acrylic on 12 x 12 in canvas panel

Cosmic Duet (c) Kate and Susan Langdon
mixed media on 12 x 16 in paper

Southwest (c) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart
watercolour on 12 x 16 in CP paper

Thoughts from the Studio

Still relishing my new studio space - it's a rare day indeed when I'm not out there for at least the better part of the morning. What I like best is that I seem to have successfully granted myself permission to play and learn while I create. Gone is the entirely self imposed expectation that everything I do must be 'good' - something, that if I chose to show other people, would not be embarrassing to me. It's been a long battle, that one, but so freeing to have achieved!

To set the stage, I usually have 3 or 4 pieces on the go at once, in varying stages of 'doneness'. This allows me to keep the creative flow going while I'm waiting for a layer to dry - yes, patience is a struggle and this really helps LOL.  I had already decided that yesterday was the right time for making 'the bold move' a la Tara Leaver's wise words. Then I decided to work with a colour that I don't normally use - a confident, bold orange created by mixing primary magenta with hansa yellow medium. 

I painted a ground of bright aqua green mixed with a smidge of phthalo blue. On this I outlined several circles of varying sizes that would then be painted orange. Of course, the orange over the aqua background dulled the colour down considerably so I needed to paint the circles white before they could be orange. Here the large circle is orange on top of aqua whereas the two smaller ones were painted white first, then orange. Not sure yet where this will end up!

While I was waiting for layers to dry I started eyeing some of the other pieces I had on the go and decided to spread the orange to them as well. Because this mixture is quite transparent, it acts more like a glaze enhancing the underlying work. It certainly breathed new life into one piece and showed potential for a whole new direction in another. I think I'll save that for another post though as this one has gone on long enough and it's time to head to the studio!

Update: threw some more paint at it and have left it here for now.

Major Change - New Studio Space

I've long held to the nagging suspicion that I was getting in my own way creatively - that the art within me was constrained by the space I had restricted myself to work in. So I decided to put myself to the test this spring. 

After researching as many viable options as I could think of I decided to move my art space from my desk in the front room out to the unused half of our garage. Bought an inexpensive rug to protect the concrete from spilled paint, had my favourite carpenter hang a sheet of painted plywood (with an added on ledge) on the wall, bought a portable 6 ft table and started moving my art supplies out there. A small investment in time and money to see whether or not I had been fooling myself.

 Best decision, Sue! I'm now 6 weeks into my new studio and have learned and played and created more over that time than I have in the previous 2 years. I love the physical 'stepping out' into my work space. I've already added some additional mobile storage and will plan on investing in a small portable heater when the time comes so that I can extend my studio time as late into the fall as possible. Also a rolling desk chair so the upholstered Queen Anne can be retired to the basement once again!

Between the side window and open doors, I'm happy with the amount of light. With the surrounding trees the studio stayed comfortable even through this most recent heat wave. 

The Pitfalls of Green Tape

I remember taking a watercolour workshop a number of years ago, in which the instructor made an adamant stipulation that we not bring coloured painter's tape to class - the standard masking tape or white tape was fine, but there was no tolerance for blue or green or any other colour of tape. At the time I hadn't been painting all that long so this struck me as a rather odd, individual quirk of this particular artist but hey, one that was easy enough to follow. As my painting experience has grown over the years, I have come to see the wisdom of his words but that lesson really hit home for me this week. 

I had been working on another free form piece that started out with purple as the dominant colour. White tape had been added to my list of needed supplies - primarily hoping for better adhesion and hence masking, than the green painter's tape I had been using up from my stash - but in setting this piece up I had used the green.

Once again my plan was to let the art dictate to me what to do, admittedly influenced by my purchase of the new-to-me phthalo turquoise. After working over several days, it just wasn't coming together and I finally decided to write off the loss and abandon it to my orphan drawer. 

But first, I had to strip the tape off. And wow, I was not prepared for just how much of a difference that made to the look. It's not the best thing I've ever done but neither is it the hot, unsalvageable mess I thought it was LOL. So, hats off to Joe F. and no more coloured tape for me!

Purple Koolaid (C) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart
mixed media and collage on 11 x 15 watercolour paper

My scanner cannot accommodate the width of this piece so there's a portion of the two smaller pieces missing from the right edge. I set this up with the intention of it being an all in one tryptych ie one frame for three complementary paintings, however I don't have the technical capability/tools to make that happen for posting here. Hell, I'm just happy when I can get the image to sit where I want it to LOL. 

Threadbare - a process post

This will be my first process post - providing I can get the blog to cooperate when I post the images, and that's a big IF. Well, I'm sure it has more to do with my abilities than the workings of the blog template LOL.

I have been challenging myself in recent days to just start a piece and let it dictate where it goes until the voice inside finally says 'it's done'. The only idea I have in the beginning is usually the colour palette I start out with. Over the past couple of weeks that has been complimentary colours - predominantly red with accents of green/blue etc. The piece here was to use an analagous scheme of blues, greens and greys. (My apologies for the poor lighting and the neon green painter's tape - it was what I had on hand.)

So I began with some scribbling of several shades of blue and green watercolour crayons and then added a scribble of charcoal to connect these areas. It was at this point that potential names for the piece came to me - you can see it there in the upper right hand on the tape - threadbare I or tapestry I. 

When I added water and pushed the colour around the page it faded much more than I expected it to. Up until now I had been using my Inktense blocks and this was my first run with watercolour crayons, so while it surprised me I was not unhappy with it and I learned something, always a bonus!

The next day, I decided to do something bold and declarative to see where my muse would take me. I drew in the bold black square with my extra wide Sharpie marker. Well, that was certainly an in your face bit of mark making LOL. I left a sliver of open space underneath which comes into play in the next stage. The square was coloured with cobalt green crayon and then wet and brushed into place. At this point some spattering of that same colour happened intentionally.

By this point, the green tape was a distraction and I was pretty sure I was done with my outside edges so I removed it. The piece needed something else to give it life so in comes pyrrole red to play with the teal. It joined the spattering crowd as well as the blob and the sliver under the square. My brain just laughs at all the technical jargon here. 

I was done for the day, but not sure the piece was done so I did what has always worked well for me and walked away. I just love how refreshing and helpful that approach is to really clarify what is missing. When I looked at it first thing the next morning I knew the weight of the black marker lines was waaaaay too heavy, so that needed to be fixed. I painted over most of the square with gesso, thinning the border lines to about half their previous width, then added the cobalt green back in. Much happier!

Threadbare (C) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart
Mixed media on 12 x 16 watercolour paper

By this point I'd decided to name it Threadbare and that led me to the final decision to paint a line of stitching down the right hand edge of the big square. Seeing it here, it really needs the white border around it but my scanner isn't big enough to capture that

******************

If this post were a dvd it would have a blooper reel LOL. Because I had used charcoal to draw the initial, thread like lines, I needed to 'fix' it in place so I decided to cover the entire piece with matte medium. I knew it would give a bit of fuzziness to the charcoal itself and I liked that idea. What I hadn't counted on was it smearing the ink of my signature really badly, so bad. I didn't want to abandon the piece so after letting it dry thoroughly I brought out the gesso again, covered the old signature up and redid that section again with much better results this time around. Another lesson learned on my journey as an artist LOL. 

From this to That

Almost a month ago, I started an experiment. 

I wanted to do a painting starting from a given reference but then only use it as a jumping off point with no expectation of where the journey would end. Each day I would sit down with it and just go with whatever struck my fancy. 

To begin, I was inspired by an image that is part of Windows 10 library of images that appear rotationally on my lockscreen. It is of an iconic tree, in a lake near the mountains in New Zealand. I wasn't wedded to my rendering of it and that was tremendously freeing for me.

I started with charcoal and added colour with Inktense blocks on 12 x 16 Arches HP paper. The second day involved throwing a lot of gesso around as a veil, then adding back some random marks with charcoal. Some days I would work on it for only 15 minutes or so, other days there would be a lot more contemplation involved. I worked on it daily for about a week and then life intervened and my creative voice went quiet for a spell. 

When I took it up again, I still had no idea where it would end up but distance told me it needed some life put into it and so I glazed the whole thing with green gold and that really seemed to bring things into focus. It still took a few more days but then suddenly and very quietly I knew it was finished. I've never felt more like an artist than I did in that exact moment. 

I won't bore you with the in between and quite frankly ugly bits but here is the beginning and the end. I will definitely be doing this again.

"Underneath a Tree"  mixed media on 12 x 16 HP paper
(C) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart

Autumn is Upon Us

The calendar may say Fall but the weather certainly hasn't quite gotten the message yet. We've had cold weather to the point that I've turned my fireplace on and the yearly maintenance for the furnace has been done, but the humidity right now outside is reading midsummer! Only one more day to go and then things will cool off to whatever is supposed to pass for normal now.

Okay, on to the art! Experimentation is definitely where my head is at these days. After long resisting the idea of an art journal - a physical one - I have set one up. It's not my go to place by any means but I think I can make it work for me. (I won't bore you here with the details of why I've resisted this for so long because well, it's just flat out boring)

I thought long and hard a couple months back about taking Tara Leaver's Abstractify course but the timing didn't work out as my August was filled with other things. I decided when she offered it again in the new year then I would sign up*. BUT this month I am doing her Expressive Charcoal online course. I can't say enough fantastic things about her approach to all of this - she's definitely a kindred spirit. 

Anyway, here is a sampling of some of the things I've done so far. They're from my phone so the lighting is horrible, apologies.  The bottom two are self explanatory but the top one is part of the magic! It started as an exercise: on a big sheet of cheap paper, close your eyes and draw a favourite place. That was a no brainer for me so I drew the big perennial garden on the far side of the pond and circled around to do the outline of the house. Took a lot of imagination to see it when I opened my eyes LOL.

Next step, cut the paper in two sections and tape it back together in an interesting way.Now, start adding lines, marks, shapes whatever your brain tells you to. Thick lines, thin ones, smudging wherever you feel like. Just play with it. Now cut it again and retape it. And this is what I ended up with. I see an abstract headless nude figure! What I don't see is any evidence of a pond, garden or house LOL and that is the beauty of it. It delights me so much I think I"m going to frame it!

* note to self. Don't forget!

Lean on Me

Lean on Me - 8 x 10 mixed media
on 300lb CP wattercolour paper
(C) Susan Langdon aka NUKIART

My sister Kate sent me this charming photo of her friend's dogs Louis and Wilbur a short time ago and asked me if I thought I could paint it. Given that their personalities seem to pour off the page I was eager to give it a go. Sadly, her friend's mother died unexpectedly within a few days of Kate's request; I was even more motivated to do this picture justice.

I took my time, mentally sorting out how I wanted to approach it and then began it last weekend. I had to verbally remind myself to slow down and let the watercolour bits work their magic. My own impatience is often where things go wrong for me with this medium LOL. 

Bit by bit it came together and I am so pleased with the final results. It is scanned, signed and packaged ready to be delivered to its new owner next week. 

What I Did on My Summer Holidays

Fall is officially here - one of my favourite seasons. I truly can't decide between spring and fall. My favourite seems to be whichever is happening at the moment! So for now Fall is it!

I have been spending my summer, at least artistically, by trying new things. New techniques, new colours, new media. And that will definitely be continuing on for the rest of the year. Some days I have to really make myself slow down and just focus on what I'm currently doing and not go haring off in six different directions. Here is some of what I've been working on.

The first is a second take at doing a study of one of Carol Nelson's gemstone series. This time I started with a black gesso base and built multiple layers up from there. While I'm reasonably happy with the results, I don't think I will be moving on with it to do any of my own pieces. At least for now. 

Next up is an abstract that I worked on over the entire summer, letting it speak to me when it had something to say. And let me tell you, when it came to putting the realistic chains in, it spoke very determinedly. I don't know specifically what it was saying but rusty chains, along with the ghost image in the bottom right corner were a must! My inner child can be so bossy sometimes LOL!

This last piece is a WIP abstract currently on my easel. It's acrylic with some underlying gesso texture. This version started out as a study of a piece I'd seen on P interest but then the bright blue poppy seedheads showed up so who knows where this will end up. Certainly not me since the plan when I first put paint to canvas  was to do an abstract version of our local river. There's also a bear under there somewhere too.

I won't know when it's done until it tells me it is - I just wanted to capture it here in case it looks nothing like this when that day comes LOL. 

Project Completed

I purchased this really neat picture frame sometime last year and knew I wanted to use it to display my own work. It's a system where 16 8x10 inch frames are joined together to form what looks like a mullioned window. I was just waiting for the right piece to go in it.

Then John Lovett, a brilliant Australian artist whose work I just love, posted a piece of his recently that sang to me and well, I had to attempt a study of my own. My version was painted as a 5 x 7  and then with the magic of technology I was able to scan it, enlarge it and print it out into a 16 8x10 grid. And this is the result. I'm pretty chuffed with the results as it now hangs above the gorgeous table Taylor Made custom made for me earlier.

My study of a John Lovett piece for my own personal use

Notes to self - in case I try this again with another piece, be careful where the centre of interest is placed. Unfortunately under one of the mullion bars is the majority of a brilliant orange red clump of foliage that is stunning with the turquoise of the water. Too bad most of it doesn't show now that it's in the frames. 

It's That Time of Year

Once again I am participating in the Every Day in May Challenge. I'm giving myself permission to be a little more relaxed about it though this time around, at least as far as posting my efforts goes. So it'll likely continue to be every few days I throw up what I've done in the interim. Up first Days 1-3. For my own info, I'm using a 6x6 field journal from the hand-book paper co. It's my first time painting on Fluid brand wc paper and so far I'm impressed. 

#1 - a toy. Only cat toys in my house and even though I had lots to choose from, this peacock feather is Touille's current favourite plaything.

#2 - something with folds. Thought about this one for a long time and for some reason ended up with crow's feet. Thankfully mine aren't quite this extreme yet.

#3 - a hammer. Was much more inspired to paint this Hammer than the one in my tool box.