I was in the Boy Scouts once. One point in their credo is: ‘be prepared’. I’ll go along with that, even though I only made it to the rank of Tenderfoot.

The kids are here from Chicago and LA. The house looks like a hurricane hit it, but we are having fun.

We visited Stanford today. The main reason was to visit the American Girl store at the shopping center, but we also stopped by the university. Sidra loves bookstores, and while we were there, she chose Stanford as her college. Now she’s no slacker. She’s smart as a whip and a hard worker. She had her first job at 6 months of age – as a Ford Model. She had to quit to go to kindergarten.

Will, on the other hand, has to catch up. Even though the family is on vacation, he is in preparation for job interviews, should they come along.

In the picture above, William is practicing his handshake. We would be reciting his elevator speech, but alas, he is not talking yet.

Today’s experiment

In keeping with my self-imposed goal of experimenting with watercolors every day, I submit the sketch below.

Monochrome Fuschia
5″x7″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

The experiment today was the use of one basic color, in this case, Winsor Red. The ends of the petals and the outside of the petals that form the bulbous attachment to the stem are the only places that are different colors. For those areas I found a pale green on my palette and just dry-brushed them lightly.

I mixed a very small amount of gray with the red for the shadowy areas; for the brighter areas, I either mixed the red with white, or diluted the red with water.

The only thing I would change in this sketch would be the scale, since I was unable to fit the extended stamen in the frame.

I guess you can tell I only made it to Tenderfoot.