3 shades of gray

Camping!!!

I didn't paint anything yesterday because I was "roughing it" with one of my good friends.  We've both never built fires OR hammock camped, so we went to a state park that had little camping lots and a bathhouse (yay for toilets!) and trails that were easy to follow and had many-a-time been trod.  We coined it the 'kindergarten class' of camping.  Which, for camping for the first time by ourselves, I think it was pretty successful!  Praise God we had FANTASTIC weather and no one died or had even the slightest flesh wound.

"Gray day, everything is gray.  I watch, but nothing moves today" - Dr. Seuss' My Many Colored Days

Color intensity is the richness of color: how blue is a blue, how green is a green; but color value is the lightness or darkness of a color.  Today I studied how to use value to create dimension and depth... the rules were to create 3 shades of gray and only use those 3 values to make the object come to life.  It is difficult!  My eye doesn't automatically want to look at the big picture.  I'm excited to practice it more this summer. 

"Art is 10% inspiration, 10% perspiration, and 80% education." 

          - Penny Soto, The Watercolorist's Answer Book

Round Three!

Topic 1: FRANDS are kewl!

My friend Krista let me paint her and beautiful belly today!  Yay for friends... while I painted, her and her boo played the new Lord of the Rings video game.  I am so excited about this summer, because I can hang out with dear friends and not have to be worried about work the next day.

Topic 2: Why I am doing this blog

I don't think I've mentioned this, but the reason I am doing this blog isn't just for kicks 'n giggles, it's for accountability.  Let me explain:  this past Sunday after church I plopped myself on the couch and thought, "What the heck do I do now?"  I didn't have to prepare food for next week for lunch or dinner, because I didn't have work; I didn't have to make my workout bag; I didn't have to set out my clothes for the next day; I didn't have to start getting ready for bed at 8:00; I didn't have to go to church that evening; and I didn't want to watch TV because I didn't really have any shows I WANTED to get hooked on.  I was in a good place to say, "What in the world am I going to do with my time this summer?!"  So I made a ton of goals in hopes to have a productive summer.  I think of 'goals' as ideas that give me inspiration - not as solid expectations.  That way I don't cry if I don't meet them. :)

I know I am wooed by God through art and music, so I am pretty much having this blog to keep me accountable to my goals.  So I may post a video of me playing my ukelele or guitar, as well!

I just want everyone to know that God gets the glory out of this blog, not me.

Second Picture

Second picture!  Read whichever of these topics interests you most:

Topic 1: The Old Man and the Sea... and some Jesus... and bad grammar (sorry, I feel like I have tons of tenses everywhere)

I have recently just finished my first Hemingway text, The Old Man and the Sea.  As a gal who just started working in the real world, this book compelled me.  The old man: spending days alone, waiting and waiting for something that may or may not happen - yet he is bound and determined to live in the present throughout the entire book.  My take on it: I have expectations for my future that I want God to fulfill and I'm waiting on Him, but I want to live abundantly in the here and now and let God conform me into the image of Christ.

Topic 2: The more I watercolor, the less I know about watercolor.  

I did this one based off of The Watercolorist's Answer Book.  This technique was 'Mastering the Gradated Wash'.  They asked for two colors I have never heard of before: brown madder and new gamboge... didn't have either one of those, so I discovered a site called wetcanvas.com  that had people who knew all of these amazing things about paints and the chemical makeup of different colors and their values... and I was able to substitute brown madder by mixing burnt umber with alizarin crimson; and the gamboge... I really don't remember the name of the colors I mixed... um.... bright yellow and dark yellow to get a bold opaque yellow... yeah.... :)

Here's the first one I took in the shade:

And this one I took with the sunset shining on it.  

Which one do you like better?

My for real first one!

Today's post is not the most elaborate piece I've done... probably closer to the opposite.  I honestly started two other projects before this one and each time said, "Hm. Nope. Not enough time today."  It's a challenge to paint a picture in one day and make it meaningful and unique when I have many other goals in mind for the day.  My excuse for this painting is that I don't need to give all of my secrets away at the get-go, am I right?!  And the other excuse is because I love poppies.

And Prongs decided to help me type this blog.  Thanks, Prongs, for all of your 'input' that you contributed to the 'cause' - and by 'input' I mean hair and by 'cause' I mean the crevices of my computer... he shed some light on the subject. BAD PUN SORRY!

I shouted this song on the way home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RmZFaruXhs

My First One

I've got a goal to post a new painting everyday this summer, no matter how good or bad it is.   I'll start tomorrow.  That's when it'll get really real and fresh, like, still-kinda-wet fresh.  Yeah.  To kick it off, here's a picture of a bunny that I painted back in April.

"The grass withers,
    the flower fades,
But the word of our 
    God stands forever."

Isaiah 40:8