Watercolor Work In Progress

So far all I've done is add a bit of underpainting. I have no idea how to paint sand - I think it needs speckles of colors and I think I need to put the beach grass in such a way as to convey hills and distance behind the chairs. Any ideas would be appreciated.

I am thinking I need to put in some variation of color in the sand directionally behind to indicate hills and distance. I am planning to put in some beach grasses in greens, browns, yellows. Does that make sense at all?

I need to go to the store later this morning to get milk, bananas, soy milk, Claritin (the hubster is experiencing a lot of sneezing and runny eyes), chicken broth, etc.  Dana and the girls are coming out for dinner this afternoon, so I have some chicken breasts thawing and will make rice and a vegetable to go with it. Miss M is still running a fever between doses of her medicine so is not yet back in school.

Miss K is supposed to be running at the track at Lumen Christi tomorrow morning as a fundraiser and I am planning to go if the rain holds off. Meanwhile I am trying to be a good caretaker. There is a fine line between doing too much for the patient and doing too little. 

I stayed up until after 3 this morning to watch the next video lesson in the Artful Journaling class and so slept in until 9:30. The hubster had already made coffee and managed to get himself and the coffee in a locking travel mug into the living room and into his easy chair. We've each had a bowl of cereal with blueberries and are ready to get this day started.

Are you making time for yourself today?

xoxo

Shopping, EDM 210 and Value Study WIP

I cannot believe the success of the shopping trip yesterday. I think I told you how much I hate shopping and about the odds that tears would be involved. Imagine my surprise - in the second batch of dresses I took into the dressing I found not one, but two dresses that were perfect for me and fit as though tailored just for me. I've found pix of them online but they were very small. I've tried to upsize them so you can see what they look like:

I bought a pretty black and white scarf to wrap around my shoulders.

I bought a white scarf to wrap with this one.

And believe it or not - this gal who has only worn sneakers, crocs or other flat slip ons for about 4 years purchased some really snazzy shoes to go with these dresses. I think I will probably have to practice walking in them before I actually go out in public with them.

The best thing about the whole trip. I bought everything at Younkers for less than $200 total including taxes. Who would ever have guessed!!!!!

Last night I stayed up until 2 am so that I could download Donna Downey's Pan Pastels 101 video class. And then I had to watch it, so finally made it to bed around 3:30. If you have a few pan pastels or would like to learn more about them and how to use them, Donna is a good teacher with a friendly, natural style.

This morning I got up and drew a pair of my panties for the "draw some underwear" EDM challenge. I never would have guessed I would be talking about or exhibiting a drawing my unmentionables online!!??

And last, but not least, I've added a bit of tone to my value study WIP and would appreciate any comments/suggestions - watercolorpencilbuddies - are my shadows more believable???

Thanks so much for coming to visit. If you haven't yet left a comment for a chance to win the set of 12 brand new Derwent Inktense pencils, go to Tuesday's post to do so. The drawing will be on Monday morning.

xoxo

EDM 209 and Value Study of Adirondack Chairs

I've decided to do a value study of the chairs on a smaller scale. I think it may help me to see things better. This is what I have so far:

The shiny parts are just a reflection of light from the overhead light. The shadows on the sand are all the same value.

The intent is for the sky and sand to be the lightest colors. I will be doing some spattering in the sand when I decide to make a larger picture in color. The water will be darker than the sky but lighter than the shadows, and the grasses will be a mix of lights and darks.

Comments/suggestions please!!!

I have also sketched EDM #209 (Draw a shadow) for today's exercise. It is interesting to see the transformation of the Lamy fountain pen from blue to blue green to green.

I've had a quick breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee and now need to get in the shower before Carol gets here. She and I are going shopping in East Lansing. I need a dress for a couple of upcoming weddings. I am a wash and wear, give me a pair of sweats kinda girl and buying a dress doesn't excite me at all. As a matter of fact, I am not looking forward to this shopping trip at all, except for a chance to spend some time with Carol. I have to remember to focus on the positive. If I have success finding a dress that will work for both a late July wedding and a mid-September wedding, I will indeed be pleased.

I hope to have more to share with you tomorrow.

NOTE: If you haven't already left a comment for a chance to win a set of 12 Derwent Inktense Watersoluble Ink Pencils, you should go to Tuesday's post and do so.

xoxo

Brrr! It Sure Feels Like Winter

I finally got outside for the first time in about a week only to find that it was too freaking cold to be out. I spent most of the afternoon at my daughter's house waiting for the Maytag repairman. The window she was given was some time between 1 pm and 5 pm. That is a very large window. As it turns out, they didn't make it within that window, but they did call her to explain that they were running late and came out and repaired the stove.

I find it very hard to spend time alone at someone else's house. It would never occur to me to watch TV. I picked up the living room and checked my email and the blogs to which I subscribe and still had several hours to kill. I did bring my journal with me so I decided to doodle. I am quite happy and surprised with how this one turned out. It seems like at some point in the process, it decides what it wants to be and you have absolutely no control over it.

I began this one with a wavy road that ran around and under itself. I filled in the "road" with doodles and then decided to fill in the empty spaces. There were three of them, but when I got two of them filled in, it decided it was done and I was left looking at a 1-strap bra. Is this the kind of bra one would need if one were wearing a sarong?

This doesn't look anything like I was expecting (I'm not even sure I had a notion what it would look like when it was done), but sometimes you arrive at the end and you don't even know you are done. I was in no doubt that this was the finished product. I hope you like it.

I am going to the chiropractor in about an hour and then going to try to finish my Christmas shopping. Then I think I will come home to a cup of tea and a nap. Ah, the perfect day!

xoxo

Doodle Doodle Oo

I am beginning to feel better and knew I was when I came into the art room and got my pen and my journal and began to doodle. You would think that being down with the flu I'd have had plenty of time to doodle and/or sketch, but all I wanted to do was drink tea and sleep.

Here is what I came up with yesterday:

And then I did this one. It was done using a red pen, but I forgot to change the settings on the scanner this morning. I had it set to scan in black and white.

 I didn't particularly like looking at that heart in black and white, so I just opened it in Photoshop and colorized it.

I am hoping to get some creative time today. I am planning to be at my daughter's house when the Magtag repairman comes. She bought a brand new stove in May and this is the second time someone has had to come out and replace the electronic controls. She asked...they don't have a lemon policy.

I am hoping to do a little bit of shopping while I am in town, but want to be careful not to overdo as I am not yet 100%.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

xoxo

And the Winner Is.......

What a lovely Spring we had today. A perfect one for an outing with a friend. In the beginning, things didn't look so good - I drove to her house to pick her up and when we came out to my car and I turned the key, nothing happened; I mean, nothing. No noise at all. She got out of the car and called her husband on her cell and I stayed in the car and called the hubster on my cell. Between the two of them they figured out that I had a dead battery. After all it was the original battery and was about 7 years old. So we got my car out of the way and she drove.

We did lots of errands including a stop at Michael's, a bookstore, lunch at Appleby's, Toys 'R Us, the Dollar Store and Kroger. We had a lovely time and will certainly not forget who drove last when we next decide to have an outing. We generally take turns driving and the passenger buys lunch. It is a good arrangement.

I have been working on my domino pendants because I finally found some pendant bails on eBay and the farmers' market season is almost upon us. I am hoping to sell some of them so that I can afford to make more.





Meanwhile, I have used the online random number generator to select the winner of the Chinese Painting book giveaway and this is what I got:




Congratulations Katina! I need your snail mail addy so I can send it to you.

That's all for now. Bye!

More Dominoes and Christmas Prep

I tried to get a picture of the lighted houses on top of the entertainment center in the living room. It is quite difficult to get them to show up like they do in person, but I think you will get the idea from this pic. These are actually my daughter's; we really like them and are glad to display them this year. Of course, the hubster is the one doing all the work. I use the word "we" quite loosely.

I haven't had much art time lately, but did prepare a few more dominoes using Golden's iridescent copper fluid acrylics. I really like the effect. The picture doesn't show the wonderful sheen very well, but I think you can get some idea of how they look.



I am waiting to receive some bamboo tiles I ordered as well as some stamps that are the correct size for dominoes. This should give me a lot more leeway. I am planning to stamp them first and then use either colored pencil or watercolor (maybe gouache) to color them in. I'll post when I have some to show.

I think I am going to get some time off for the next two weeks. The girls' father is home for the holidays and is eager to spend time with them. They are all coming out today to bake Christmas cookies. The little girls will love this. I think my dear son (whose birthday was yesterday - Happy Bday, Adam!) will be bringing his 5 year old daughter out for the baking extravaganza as well.

I need to make a trip to town for last minute shopping and to buy some groceries (including flour and sugar for the cookies) before the weather hits. My sister who lives 2 hours west of me had blizzard conditions with a 100 car pileup on I-94 near her. I am hoping it loses some of its fierceness before it gets her.

For now, don't forget to live in the moment!

Shopping and Dominoes

Yesterday was a day off and I made the most of it. A girl friend picked me up at 8:30 AM and we were off. After she had her mamm and blood work, we headed to Bob Evans for breakfast. It was delicious. From there, we headed to Best Buy. I was thrilled to find that I left that store without purchasing anything - I LOVE BEST BUY. From there we went to Toys 'R Us where I found a set of dominoes for $5.99. It was a double six set and included 28 tiles. I also bought a box of Yahtzee scorecards for my Mom.

From there we went to Target. I immediately hit the dollar area and found a really cute pair of mittens for the baby and Christmas socks for the two "big" girls (they are both 5). Next was a stop at Office Depot, where I found a nice set of 12 colorful Sharpie fine point markers for under $10. I have to tell you, it was very cold yesterday with an 8 mph wind that had the wind chill near zero. It was not fun to keep getting in and out of the car, but we had a lot of fun shopping once we got inside.

We drove to the mall and spent some time in a game store. My friend was looking for a Nintendo DS game called Line Rider. We looked at Best Buy and Target and this game store with no luck and then in this game store - still no luck. From there we went to Penney's where I was able to finish up my gift shopping.

We left the mall and went to Sam's. I didn't buy anything fun there, but did pick up some salmon, orange roughy, bar soap, and a bottle of wine for the hubster. By the time we were checked out it was 2 pm and we were thirsty, hungry and cold. We stopped at the Olive Garden for some soup and breadsticks before heading home.

All in all, it was a very successful trip to town.

When I got home, I started playing with the dominoes. I don't know if these few are done yet or if I will cover these and start over, but I am pleased with them at this point. I haven't decided if I will make pendants out of them or maybe attach a magnet to the back of each.


I really wanted to try to draw some faces on them, but haven't tried that yet. Maybe today.

I have to make a trip to the post office to mail some altered CDs for a swap I am in and then the rest of the day I will spend in my art room.

As always, don't forget to live in the moment.