Simple Pleasures

I went to my watercolor class last Wednesday night. It was much better than the first class because we actually painted from pictures. I never could paint good pictures without some kind of reference.

I chose a painting from one of my Teaching Books, which are books that have pictures that you can paint from to improve your skills, so I'm not plagiarising.

I did a watercolor of three iris's on a dark background of green and purple. I have to wait for the background to dry so I painted on one of the old backgrounds that I painted years ago and never finished. It turned out to be a poor rendition of a beach. But at least I tried. I still haven't painted the iris but I will try to get it done for the next class so I can get tips on how I did. I am learning to use frisket which is like rubber cement because it rubs off when you're done. It makes it so you can preserve the white paper while you paint something dark around it, or by it. Anyway it is neat to use it and see the outcome. It turns out that you use it just like the watercolors themselves. That is, you can water it down and paint with it on the parts of the painting you want to preserve. It's a good idea to paint the things you want to stay white first, so you don't forget what your plan was and paint in the wrong area.

Watercolor is SO much harder than oils. With oils if you don't like how something looks, you can just paint over it but with watercolors, if you try to paint over something you get mud.

I need to get back to my oils, though, because I have two paintings I am currently working on (ok, I know I've had them for years and haven't finished them, but they are the next thing that I'm going to work on so in a way they are "current").

I've been sick this last week so I've missed work and doing genealogy with my brother Joe, but as I said, I did go to my watercolor class. I made it a point not to sit close to anyone and to try not to cough. I was afraid if I didn't go they would cancel the class because the first day they only had two students show up other than me. This last Wednesday they had about five or six who were already there when I got there, so I wouldn't have had to worry. Oh well, I got to have some fun while I was sick. I was sure weak the next day though, so maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

I find I always seem to do too much when I am sick. It's like I don't really believe I'm that sick but I am sick enough that I can't do my usual routine. There have been times that I've really paid for that kind of thinking. I do need to pay more attention to my what my body is feeling and rest more.

Well, I have to go have breakfast and start my scripture study, so Cheers for now.

Love to you all,

Mither