When I'm feeling particularly off some days and want to do art but not think too much (especially recently with my week-long sickness), I usually end up doing miniature copies of famous paintings. I'm pretty sure this isn't how most people would think to use an art history degree, but it's fun and doesn't use a lot of paint. May also make me blind in the process. I primarily use my smallest brushes and a couple of pins for these.
This one, Thomas Eakins' Gross Clinic, is still in development, but it's been a fun challenge just because of the number of figures in it. I particularly like that Dr. Gross' forehead is a big shiny white spot in a somber and dark surgery room. I'm not usually a big fan of American art, but Thomas Eakins won me over when the professor talked about how he would write letters to colleagues about the ridiculously hard time he had making the jump from drawing to oil painting.
I can't help but be charmed by famous artists who shared the same problems even a hundred years before. Art changes and evolves, but now just as always, the art student must go through the same motions and frustrations.
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