A revelation, new art, and "Art and Advocacy" is marching towards home plate!

First off, we've now added a handy-dandy retweet button to each of our blog posts. Perdy, huh? Go ahead, give it whirl. :)

Second, using traditional watercolors with the aforementioned landscape I'm working on was proving to be a nightmare...

Me, being not very happy with the landscape painting

In order to make the landscape a coherent whole it all had to be at least somewhat wet all the time or unwanted brush-stroke edges formed. But if I kept it wet, I could never do detailed work. And if I did the detailed work on top of the dried base, undoing anything compromised the integrity of the paper. What a nightmare!

So I sat at my work table and pouted, letting my eyes wander self-pityingly around the room until they settled on my rarely-used watercolor pencil set. Bingo!

 

My lovely Derwent watercolor pencils

Now I can have the beauty of watercolors with all the detail. Draw now, water later. Like a little garden. Perfect.

Before...

After!
(I've yet to apply water, but look how much better it is already)

Reference photo

I also completed two new items in my tiny pond series as well as my first tiny Ugandan Sun, pictured here for your viewing pleasure. :)

White waterlily (actual size 1.5 in sq)

 

Blue waterlily (actual size 1.5 in sq)

the "Tiny Pond" series so far (actual size each: 1.5 in sq)

the first tiny Ugandan Sun (actual size 1.5 in sq)

I'm definitely not happy with the white lily painting--there are so many things wrong with it: the values are off, the lily pads don't look wet, and the water doesn't look smooth or quiet like a pond's surface. And though I'm happier with the blue lily the water is still wrong. Grr. Any suggestions on fixing them, folks? At least the Ugandan Sun turned out OK.

I guess I'm still doing a lot of learning, must keep telling myself that that's OK, too. At least I had pleasant company while I worked! :)

DC in her box. She loves that stupid box.

 

Caleb on his Nintendo DS

I also found this old painting of mine the other day:

Four daffodils

 

Four daffodils [close-up]

In other news, "Art and Advocacy" is rocking its way down the homestretch. Thirteen people have pledged $641--wow!! You are amazing, so thank you.

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For those of you who are on the edge about pledging, now is your opportunity! I understand that in this economy, money is tight, and you don't always have spare change to give, even to a good cause. But we are all still given 24hrs each day, no matter the economic health of our country. So please, whether or not you can give financially, consider donating a little of your time to tell a friend or co-worker about our project. I would be honored. :)

I know a few of you have had trouble pledging--please click here to check that your name is on the backers' list. If it is not, email me ASAP and I will run your through the steps. It's not hard, but depending on whether or not you have previous Facebook and Amazon accounts there can be a lot of steps, and I am happy to help you through them.