Dance Performance, Sketches and Altered Book

I really should be getting ready for my fitness class this morning, but I'm afraid I was a bit overzealous with my new ab exercise app on Friday and my back is still sore. I tried both ice and heat last evening and then ended up going to bed around 8:30. I didn't get up until 8:30 this morning. Luckily I don't have bed sores. My abs are quite sore as well, but I view that as a very good thing. People who know me will not be at all surprised by my gungho attitude for all things exercise, but I've been trying to be more temperate - apparently not! I did jog for an hour on the treadmill both Saturday and Sunday, but don't think I am going to do so today. If there is one body part that I really take care of (except for my initial exercise attack), it is my back. I will baby this until it begins to feel better and then I will do the ab exercises again, but this time the third set will not be performed with a 10-pound dumbbell. Honestly, what was I thinking!!!???


I did spend some time on Friday evening at the Potter Center at Jackson Community College watching my daughter's girls (my grandgirls) perform. Miss P had two dances to do and Miss M had one. I highjacked a photo their mother took outside after the performance to share.

I spent some time on Saturday playing in my altered book. I recently rediscovered Caatje's blog and must admit that I emulated her style on these two pages. They are not done yet. They need some secondary decorations to break up the handwriting. If you don't know Caatje, you should definitely visit her. She doesn't just do journals, she takes fabulous photos of the island in Denmark where she lives. She is quite entertaining. I am thrilled to have her on my subscription list again.

And finally, I decided to try my hand at a portrait of Miss M (ever since my two attempts at her big sister, Miss P, she's been asking when I am going to do her.

As you can see, I don't have the tilt of the head right and so haven't put in the features.

She posed for me with a bit less tilt in her head and with her hair long and loose and I used one of those photos to try again on watercolor paper. I was going to just do a value study, but decided to use this one as a watercolor (I will try to do a value study on sketch paper first to help with the placement of the color.

Again I don't think I've captured the youthfulness of the model, but hopefully the addition of color will help.

I think I will use Photoshop to change the size of this one and print out four of them on sketch paper and try my hand at a few different value studies to see what I like before tackling this one in watercolor. For those of you with experience with watercolor portraits - does this seem like a good idea? Is there something else I should do to prepare myself before adding watercolor to this one?

The hubster taped the ending of the French Open Men's Championship between Djokovich and Nadal, which was rained out yesterday. What a finish! Kudos to both! I didn't really care which one won - they are both champions already, but Nadal definitely owns Roland Garros!

I am going to try to have a careful day as far as my back goes, which probably means I will be going through treadmill withdrawal today. I have the two dancers pictured above coming to spend the afternoon and evening with me and am looking forward to doing some art with them. Perhaps we will do some collage and I can do more in my altered book.

I do hope you are feeling well and that you are finding time for yourself and your art.

xoxo