Palette

I finally found a watercolor teacher that I want to study with. Sadly, her classes are full, so I'm on a waiting list. She gave me her list of materials, including her recommended palette, and I've been trying to work with it, along with my additions of WN cadmium orange and MaimeriBlu sap green. However, the other day when I was talking with her on the phone, she was adamant that sap green should NEVER be used, as it is a fugitive color. If this is true, my sketchbooks will be faded messes in just a few years. I just can't figure out how to mix good greens without it, though!

Other things going on --
-- Still re-doing part of the living room to make a painting corner, rather than sitting at the breakfast nook table. I LIKE the breakfast nook best, but the mess is, well, messy.

-- I was at the used book store the other day and found a couple of Nick Bantock books in very good shape for only $3.00 apiece. I've heard about this Griffin and Sabine stuff for a couple of years, but never read the books, so I decided what the heck. Darn it, I gotta admit that they are intriguing ...

-- I'm so behind in the Everyday Matters Challenges that I fear I will never get caught up! Monday night, while sitting by the door waiting for Trick-or-Treaters, I plan on drawing the Halloween candy. That will get one done, at least ...

Now -- off to work on putting together a Halloween costume for myself for tomorrow. Our work group is going as the Gilligan's Island bunch, and I have one of the easiest costumes of all -- Mary Ann. Just gotta figure out how to get a poof in the top and back of my hair while still doing pigtails... life is sometimes kind of weird, isn't it!

EDM Leaves?

Yes - I've been able to do a little bit of painting and drawing in the past couple of weeks, but not much. Last weekend, DH's parents and family came in, and were here until mid-week. This weekend, MY parents came in to visit. All in all a wonderful two weekends in a row, and as I very much love all parties involved, I've been more than happy to put artwork aside for a bit.

However, I did find time to begin this full size (!) watercolor of autumn leaves, inspired by the Everyday Matters weekly challenge a few weeks back, and based on a photograph I found on Morguefile. This is just the upper left hand corner. I left the largest leaves unpainted, because they will need to be really detailed and I was afraid that even an initial wash would mess me up -- I don't know yet if that was a good decision or not! This has really been fun to work on, as I've only drawn a few of the leaves at a time, then worked on them, then drawn the next few. Rather than being anything close to a precise copy of the photo, this painting has evolved as I work on it. Hopefully it will continue to feel this good!

I should be back on a more regular schedule by Wednesday and hope to begin then to catch up a bit on challenges.

EDMWC - Eye

Everyday Matters weekly challenge from a couple of weeks ago -- draw your eye. Being a bit short on time tonight, I only did the one, and just like in a lot of photos of me, it looks a bit drunk or something! Oh well. It feels good to get a pencil in my hand again this week!

October Sunday on the Lake

To the lake on Sunday with Sis and our friend, while DH stayed home to watch football. We rode around in the boat, beaching it a few times to explore the shore and trying to gather enough wild persimmons to make pudding. Summer seems to be a bit prolonged this year -- and that suits me just fine!

I did this quickie watercolor sketch last time we were out, taking only about 5 minutes so she wouldn't know I was drawing her. Yep, I'm just another step closer to sketching total strangers in coffee houses and burger joints ...