A Sketch Stretch, A Butterfly Hunt

Above you see a couple of studies of a flower box, the item I'm going to use between the two women in my painting to act as a "soft" division between them. I did the top drawing before PT, the bottom drawing after.

When I got back from PT, I looked at drawing one and thought,"Boy, is that lame." I stuck it under the faucet and let the water carry away what it would. Then I laid it out to dry for a bit. When it was just damp enough to work it again, I went back into it. At that point,it was pure watercolor on Arches; I stayed with the watercolor, but added a bit of water-marker for definition.

This morning,the marker struck me as being too harsh; I went back into it with everything I have. It's now what is called a mixed media painting--some watercolor, some marker, some colored pencil, some acrylic. It's a bit stronger, yet still light weight, which is what I'm after in the background of Mom and Teenager. The colors seen here are what I have in mind for the painting--only the background is darker.In the painting I want to use a pale gray, warmed just a tad to connect with the skin tones

The lesson here: One must be fearless in art. No place for butterflies in your stomach. Drawings are just paper with some marks on it. You don't like those marks, jump back into the ring and knock 'em around till you do. If that never happens, thrash it and jump in again.

SPEAKING OF BUTTERFLIES

I captured a couple this time using my macro setting, as Kalie's Friend suggested, and the continuous shot setting I found on my own. Then zoomed in and cropped what I liked. Butterfly #1 was a frantic big guy who couldn't hold still for a second. The bottom guy was no bigger than three quarters of an inch. Nearly invisible, he took his sweet time. I'm definitely keeping the bush--and adding a bench. Butterfly hunts are exhausting.