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Gouache, Birthday Boy, Snow, and Thread
Just a quickie catch-up post! I’ll have some great news to share in a couple of weeks about what has been keeping me busier than my usual busy. But I’ve also managed to squeeze in a few other things. First in date order is two online classes with the delightful, talented, and superlative teacher Val Webb (website here). This winter I had planned to relax and take two of her classes which overlap by about a month. Despite the fact that you can really do a LOT of work (and LEARN a LOT), I decided to take both. First one is Drawing Dogs and Cats, second one is Fairies (or as I prefer, Faeries) in Nature.
My Luna-Boy faerie in gouache, about 9 x 6 inches.
In Val’s classes, you learn not only about drawing, but also painting, as well as various media and techniques. The lesson above is for small children as fairies, with wings, and gouache (which I have never used). There are some technical issues; basically, I need practice with the medium! But overall I am quite pleased with my Luna-boy. In the next photo, we worked with graphite to sketch a dog. His right eye is a bit off (thank you for the feedback, Val! I knew something was off but couldn’t spot it until you helped), but I’m fairly happy with this one, as well. I attribute all good stuff with these two to the quality of Val’s teaching!
Sweet doggie, in graphite pencil.
This week is also number 2 son’s 16th birthday. How the child can be 16, weigh more than me (wooohooo! finally!), etc., defies comprehension. Clearly the calendar lies. Eli’s request for birthday dinner: my waffles and Joshua’s parmesan fried chicken, an exact repeat of what Joshua had in early November. As it was the beginning of the wrestling season, Eli couldn’t pig out. This time he could and did <<grin>>!
We will NOT think about the calories involved in waffles and fried chicken.
Thanks to de facto DIL Ashley for taking pics as I brought in the birthday cake:
The calendar lies. There is no way my youngest is 16. I realize I am old enough to be his grandmother, but that is irrelevant LOL! Eli, we love you to bits and are so thankful you came into our lives (even if we were and are old and tired!).
She also got this great pic of Thumper the 26-toed cat. As you can see, our cats pay us no mind. Sigh.
Thumper. Sigh.
And guess what it is doing today. Again. Sigh again.
One more time. At least it isn’t sleeting a lot, as was predicted, and the temperature is now down to freezing or just below.
At least it is pretty–the flakes where HUGE! We were predicted to get a lot of snow, school let out early, and we are all expecting it to be cancelled tomorrow. Then the weather service predicted less snow, more ice and lots of sleet. That is actually a lot worse. But we haven’t had any sleet here in Hope, though beyond the ridge of hills on the coast is may be sleeting. Here it has been snowing for about 7 hours. We’ll see what the morning brings. We will also fill buckets with water as it is likely to be heavy, wet snow and power could well go out. Again. Sigh.
And to end of a fun note, this fall I will be helping curate (i.e. be the behind the scenes worker bee) the new SAQA Food exhibit, open to SAQA members. Alex Veronelli, mover and shaker at Aurifil Thread, will be the juror. Just today I received the Quilts, Inc., eInsider newsletter, which had this profile of him. It’s an interesting read. Enjoy.
Now I need to go start on dinner. Oh whee.
March 12th, 2014 at 6:29 pm
Wonderful pix…I feel like part of your family, LOL. Thumper is the quintesential cat…gotta love them!
Evelyn
March 12th, 2014 at 8:33 pm
You did a great job on the left eye and nose, and I can feel the slobbery kisses (dogs don’t give anything bug slobbery kisses).
Happy birthday, Eli.
March 16th, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Thank you so much for this peek into your life. Do you think Eli has any idea how many of us enjoy his athletic career?
March 23rd, 2014 at 10:57 am
Sorry to be late, but oh my how Eli have grown 😮 John turned 15 on the 4th and he’s a big boy now LOL. At least he’s eating – a lot, so he might grow into that wiry frame of his.
Hugs!!