The Girl Tribe, The Ham, and A New Watercolor WIP

I had Miss 8 and Miss 3 on Friday and we did a bit of painting. I had a 12 x 16 piece of watercolor paper with a very dark linear pattern painted on one side and the dreamy background that I showed you on Friday painted on the other. When the girls asked what we were going to paint, I cut the paper into 4 and we played. Miss 3 did both sides of hers:

Miss 8 did just one side, but what a wonderful job she did. She has such a good imagination and paints freely and with confidence. I need to borrow some of that laissez-faire. 

Mine were less creative and more predictable, but the girls heaped praise on my anyway. 

I had my six month old sweetie yesterday and how she's grown and progressed. She is such a happy, pleasant baby and is rapidly changing. It won't be long before she is crawling and then the fun begins.

This morning I decided I'd looked at my latest sketch long enough and it was time to apply some color. My goal was/is to use shades of gray on the buildings, roadway and beach and put some color in the boats. At first, I thought I should have added a bit more yellow to gray this purple out, but I'm not totally unhappy with this color, just very disappointed in its application. It would appear that I had too much of a difference between the amount of water in the first stroke on the top of the buildings and the next stroke and this made a separation that I didn't intend. I was hoping for more of a soft, flowing wet in wet look. I will work on my "fixing" skills and see if I can get this first wash to be more acceptable before moving on.

I guess that is one thing about being a beginner at watercolor - you learn the fix-it stuff before you get better at the "doing it right the first time" stuff.

This is what it looks like right now - sorry, I know you winced when you looked at it.

I sent in my membership to the Jackson Civic Art Association this morning and am planning to attend the life sketching class on September 15th. There is one on the 8th, but I think I will be at my sister's house then. The Fall is shaping up to be quite busy - I'm going to visit my sister just after Labor Day, I have a wedding in Mackinaw City on the 17th, I'm visiting my Mom the first full week in October, and the hubster is scheduled for surgery on his Achilles tendon on the 11th of October.

Miss 7 (who will be 8 next weekend) started school today and I am anxious to talk to her to see how it went. Miss 8 starts the day after Labor Day and Miss 3 (who will be 4 on September 18) begins preschool the next week. There is something very nice about the return to schedules after the long, unstructured summer break. 

I need to go get a bit of breakfast and then get myself onto the treadmill and then do a bit of weight training. I've been slacking and that is just not acceptable to me. I am 15 pounds thinner, but I still need to firm up and maintain this new me.

I hope to get some art done today, and am working on my handmade journal page with new photos and am planning to add the new ones. You can see them here. I'm thinking a repurposed journal would make a nice gift.

xoxo