Yesterday I bit off a bit more than I could chew. I used mixed media paper. I usually use watercolor paper. I also tried to draw/paint a complicated form AND concentrate on the dark and light areas. The composition was passable, but today I am taking a step back. Today’s experiment: I happened upon a book […]
I was looking through my (modern) copy of John Ruskin’s The Elements of Drawing, which was first published in 1857. His advice to those learning to draw was to observe nature. For instance, he noted that most people think that grass in the shade is the same color as grass in the sun. However, if […]
I’m exhausted. The drive from Burbank to San Jose took longer than expected. We took US 101, the scenic route. It was in maximal contrast to the route we took down there: The 5. Interstate 5 is as straight as an arrow for ‘over 200 miles’, according to Pinky, the voice of our Global Positioning System. […]
Today (April 18th) is my little brother’s 59th birthday. Oy Vey! Between now and July, I am only 3 years older than Dave. Come July, I will be 4 years older. Our older brother Mike is 65. To those of you who are new to my blog, Mike is autistic, very low functioning and has […]
William is my grandson. Today was his actual second birthday. We celebrated yesterday with a trip to Disneyland, but festivities actually began last month. The kids came up to San Jose with William and Sidra, my granddaughter, from Burbank in the middle of March. It was the only time they could all get away from work at […]
I missed my midnight deadline for this daily post. We didn’t even get home until after midnight. Today (I mean yesterday, the 16th) was the day before William’s 2nd birthday. William is my grandson. We went to Disneyland to celebrate. Fun has been on my mind, anticipating our SoCal visit. In my blog post the […]
I swore I wouldn’t paint another bunch of bananas for quite a while (Hasty Banana). However, since I am on a road trip with my wife, Joy, to visit the kids and grandkids in Burbank, I am limited in my subject matter. But, everyone has bananas. When in doubt, resort to the familiar. I left […]
Joy, my wife, and I are visiting our kids and grandkids. William will be turning two years of age this week; Sidra is ten. I started interviewing her just before her baby brother was born. She was so excited then. For the past couple of years we’ve chatted about sibling hood and other events in […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: Yesterday I painted an entire bunch of hydrangea flowerlets that make up a hydrangea bloom. I approached that composition from the ‘Grape and Mango’ lesson in Yuko Nagayama’s book You Can Paint Vibrant Watercolors in Twelve Easy Lessons. I substituted the flowerlets for the grapes and proceeded from there. An individual grape is more […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: The next step in You Can Paint Vibrant Watercolors in Twelve Easy Lessons by Yuko Nagayama is painting grapes and mangos. The only grapes I had were very good, but I ate them and I didn’t have a mango. A few days ago, I bought my wife a hydrangea that had very dramatic coloring. I thought […]
