"Point Wilson Lighthouse" step by step 2

I really want the light from the lighthouse to pop so I wash the entire painting, except the light, with indigo. While I am at it I throw some pale shadows on the buildings. 

 I mask the buildings and I paint the sky and a few rocks. 

Here is where I see lots of  mistakes, I masked out the buildings when I painted in the sky, I shouldn't have done that, now the buildings are too light, also I used tape to mask out the buildings and some paint seeped under the tape and if that wasn't bad enough, I have a huge bloom in the sky. These problems would be a little easier to correct if I hadn't have used a highly staining color. now I don't know if I can save this painting. I'm not that far into it perhaps, I should just start over. 

"Point Wilson Ligthouse" step by step 1

I am going to paint Point Wilson Lighthouse Located in Port Townsend Washington. I will use this as my reference photo: 

The problem is, I want to paint the lighthouse on a foggy evening at dusk. I don't have a photo of the lighthouse under those conditions. But, I found an image of another lighthouse in the foggy, dusky conditions I am looking for. I will use this photo to reference the mood and the color of the painting.

 Here is my beginning sketch, with some masking fluid applied: 

Matthew

"Matthew" is a 16"x 20" painting done in acrylics on a panel

Matthew is also a 3 year old little boy

Matthew's  parents wanted a portrait of him to match the one I did for their wedding

 I matched the previous portraits style and repeated  the same orange from his father's hair in Matthews shirt and the same brown circle and white background so the paintings look as though they were painted at the same time instead of 7 years apart.

Playing catch up.

Well it was pointed out to me that I haven't posted to my blog for a while. Actually I must admit I kind of forgot that I have a blog. Well I didn't really forget, it just was not at the top of my to do list in fact it gradually moved to the very bottom. For the next few days I will post a few of the paintings I have done in the time since I last blogged.  

Elizabeth 10x10 watercolor

This is a little painting that I did for my friend Elizabeth. She is one of the most amazing people I know. I saw a photo of this daisy and the bright happy colors reminded me of her, so I painted it for her. Elizabeth is fighting cancer and yet, she remains one of the most happy, loving people I know. See her blog here. http://www.23newfriends.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

Painting in Progress "Little Boy Blue" Watercolor on Yupo

Little Boy Blue 11x14 watercolor on yupo

Well I have had so much fun painting flowers on Yupo, synthetic paper, that I wanted to try to do a portrait. I wanted to paint something simple, when I remembered a picture I took of my little boy a few years ago that I thought would be perfect. 

Here is the beginning. I paint Big washes of color and then tilt the paper to make the color run. 

 Here is the next step. Be patient with me on this painting. Yupo is funny stuff. I paint an area of color and then I have to wait all day for it to dry before I can do the next area.

Next I painted the hair. I was toying with the idea of leaving his hair blue but, I got carried away. And.... I was trying to add more shadow to his shoulder and ended up lifting all the old color. that was too bad because I kinda liked that area. One of the hazards of painting on Yupo all the color lifts really easily. I usually paint with lots of layers but, on yupo you have to go with just one. On the bright side you can pretty much lift, or erase, anything you want. Usually with watercolor anything you paint is there pretty much forever.

I painted his shirt brown to balance out the brown hair. while the paint was still wet I accidentally dropped a piece of paper on the wet paint. I kind of liked the texture it made do I did it in a few more spots. well see if I decide to leave it. I also added a little shadow to his eyes and some color to his lips.

 Just adding some some more shading

I'm not sure if I like it or hate it. I am working on the shading. this is getting frustrating, when I paint in watercolor I usually do lots of glazing in many layers. I can't do that on this paper because all the color will just lift off. All the colors on the face are very subtle I can't get a good photo of it with my camera.

Well this is it. I framed it but I haven't varnished it yet, I still may want to make some changes.

What do you think?

Real Vision

I was driving home from an eye doctor appointment with Jim when he said "I'm glad I wasn't born blind because I learned lots of things when I could see that I never would have known if I were born blind"  Wow. I thought he couldn't remember what it was like to have "normal" vision.  It is amazing the things that Jim is grateful for. I have never heard him complain about his vision loss, most of the time he refuses to admit that he is "visually impaired" he will tell people that he doesn't see very well out of one eye (a vast understatement). I thought that he really believed he could see just fine because he didn't know what he was missing but, apparently he does remember what it was like when he could see and instead of being bitter that his vision is gone, he is grateful that he had good vision at one time. 

Mothers day

2011

bitter sweet mothers day yesterday. My sweet husband cleaned the kitchen and cooked dinner. My second oldest bought me a dozen roses, another son gave me a box of my favorite cookies, my youngest boy made me “breakfast in bed” and rubbed my feet as I ate it, that was all wonderful. But, it was the first mother's day in 18 years that I didn't have a child in the choir at church singing mother's day songs, and I saw the other moms get little things their kids made in Primary and my kids are all too old for that now too. I have been looking forward for months to talking to my missionary son, and I guess we talked for an hour but, it seemed like 5 minutes, Just like all the really good things in life it was over far too soon. As we said good bye and hung up I realized that it probably will be another 4 years of mothers days skyping missionary sons before my entire family is together again on mother's day. That's six years in a row. bitter and sweet. Don't get me wrong I am very happy about my boys going on missions but, gosh I sure do miss them. I guess that's all part of being a mom. You love the little buggers so much just the way they are and you want them to stay that way forever but, it would break your heart if they never grew up and reached their full potential. I guess that's why mom's cry when their children reach milestones they are proud and happy but at the same time their heart is breaking as they are saying goodbye to the child that they love so much as he grows into a man, and they know he will never be the same again.

Just Forget It.

We got the Christmas tree up and lights on the house. It all looks so bright and festive. I always look forward to getting out the Christmas decorations, it's like opening presents on Christmas morning, lots of fun surprises. Why a surprise?  because, I  buy Christmas decorations at the after Christmas clearance sales, then I pack them away and promptly forget about them. So I always get a happy surprise when I open the boxes of Christmas decorations, “Oh how pretty, I had forgotten that I bought that”..... well this year it was a new Christmas tree “Oh, thank you, myself, I've been wanting a new tree for years” Sometimes being forgetful is it's own reward. 

Taking and giving offence.

Confucius says "He who takes offense where none is intended is a fool, he who takes offense where offense is intended is a bigger fool." If someone has no intent to offend me then why take offense? They have made a mistake, probably unknowingly. Did they simply misspeak? are they ignorant of the situation?  I try to see their point of view, Most people don't intend to offend, so cut them some slack. On the other hand, if someone is trying to offend me then they are being a jerk. so why should I give them what they want, and be offended?

"Baby Talk" watercolor painting work in progress

How it is done.

or, how I do it anyway.

"Baby Talk" 10x13" watercolor 

OK so I forgot to take the first picture, So lets just pretend that there is a pencil sketch of the birds here.

  I usually put the first layer of the background first, so here it is. Don't worry, it will have more layers of color before it is finished.

 I begin shadows on the subject, here I usually use lots of indigo, for living creatures I also use reds.

 I begin to add color to the subject. I also begin the eyes at this point so I can work on the expression.

Now the painting is almost finished, all that is left is the little details, darken a few shadows, scratch out some highlights.

 Finished painting.

Creaky, Squeeky

I walked into the kitchen the other day and without looking up Jim said "Hi mom" then he added  "do you know how I could tell that it was you mom?"
I shouldn't have asked, but I did. "Mom you creak when you walk" I kind of laughed it off, thinking that his hearing must be extra sharp to make up for his vision loss. Later that day I mentioned it to Jim's older brothers: how it was funny that Jim thought that I creaked when I walked. Their unexpected response was "yeah,  you kinda do" Whaaaaa...?I Creak when I walk! Oh yeah, that's just what every woman wants to hear.

Then when we were in church Jim was leaning his head on my shoulder I reached down to pick something up and Jim said "Don't do that mom, when you do that your shoulder squeaks"  Oh, now I creak and I squeak.

The funny thing is now that I know about it I have been noticing the noises I make when I move and it is driving me crazy. Yes, I can hear my knees popping and my joints creaking and squeaking.

I guess I'll never be a ninja.

Who Says Chickens Can't Fly

 Our chickens have decided they like to roost in the top of the trees. This is a problem we have never faced before. All the other chickens we have had have been content to perch on the roosts we made for them in the coop. But, these girls, they like the freedom of the trees.

 When they first started doing this they were much smaller and we said "when they get bigger the branches will not be able to hold them and they will have to stop".  They solved that problem by going higher and higher in the trees. We have tried clipping their wings, but that hasn't stopped them. They have figured out a way to start at the trunk and jump from branch to branch until they get where they want to be. We went out and watched them last night, it would take them about 15 minutes to work their way way to the top, many times when they were almost there they would fall and have to start all over again. Silly chickens, they know there is an easy to reach roost in the nice warm coop, I guess they think it's worth all the extra effort it takes to get to the top.

I admire their determination: they know what they want and are willing to work hard every day to get it. Perhaps I should be a little more chicken.

Note to Self: Don't Complain About Stuff

We came home from vacation. It was a really good very busy vacation full of experiences, adventure and lots of driving.

We came home exhausted to find... our dog ate the couch. Not just nibbled it, but tore it into little bite sized pieces. We left him toys, paid the neighbor kids to play with him every day but, apparently the last day before we got back he got bored and ate the couch. So I piled the bits of foam into a cushion-shaped pile, duct taped it together and threw a blanket over it. The next day the light fixture in the dining room broke, so I figured we would eat more candlelit dinners. The day after that we received a quite unexpected bill for $100.00 in the mail. And so it went on, day after day one catastrophe after another. It was getting pretty depressing. After about a week of disaster after disaster, as I sat duct taping the washing machine together I thought. Why am I whining? All of this that I am depressed about is just stuff, and stuff is temporary. Look at the bright side; sure the couch and washer are duct taped together, the handle of the oven is broken and so are  the fridge shelves and my dishwasher. But isn't it a blessing that everything broke in such a way that I could still use it? The furniture was over 20 years old and worn out anyway. And perhaps it is better that the family can't see my cooking. Look at all my blessings: four healthy kids, no cancer! no seizures! a wonderful husband and a family that loves and supports me, What more could I ask for? How petty of me to complain about silly temporary stuff.

The funny thing is, as soon as I stopped whining the bad things stopped happening. For date night that week we went to Home Depot and bought a inexpensive dining room light that my 15 year-old installed for us, and a couple of days later we went to a furniture closeout store and got a good deal on a new love seat and couch.

As my oldest son would say "It's all good"

We're all Winners,...Maybe

It was the “Sports day” for all the special needs kids in the school district today. Jim did not want to go because they give out what he calls “loser awards” or what everyone else calls participation awards. He gets so mad that everyone gets an award “even people that don't even try”. He went on quite a rant: when he wins a race he doesn't want the same as everyone else, he wants special recognition, when he excels at something he wants people to acknowledge his success. I told him the participation ribbons were just to keep track of what “games” the kids had played, and just go enjoy playing the games anyway. Apparently he followed my advice, when he got home he said he had fun, he was disappointed that they didn't run a “sprint” because it is his best race and after some coaxing he even let me take a picture of him with his “loser ribbons”

The Bad and the Good

I was thinking today about how incredibly deeply grateful I am for Jim's successful surgery and lack of seizures for the last three months. It has truly been a miracle. I really can't believe what a change it has been in our lives. It makes me feel like dancing around with a goofy smile plastered allover my face. As I was thinking about this I thought about my other children, was I grateful that they hadn't had seizures in the last three months also? Well of course but, I wouldn't think of doing my happy dance because one of my other sons had not had any seizures. Why? well it's because they had never did have any seizures.

We often don't recognize the blessings we have been given until we go without them for a time. We don't notice how good we have it until we experience the bad. Perhaps that is why we have so many "difficulties" in this life. It is  to help us to be grateful for all the blessings that otherwise we would ignore. And gratitude makes us happy. So now I'm off to dance some more.