Mothers' day stress

The original photo

Attempt 1: Pen and ink

Attempt 2 - watercolour

But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 


So, mother's day is coming up and I've spent all this time painting, so what could be better than a drawing of her grandchildren.  Answer, a GOOD drawing of her grandchildren.  Being this nervous made me tense up, and the second attempt was okay but not great, I'm sending it anyway!  It's funny how I've painted my daughter as more as she is now than as she was 2 years ago when this photo was taken, and how I find her much easier to paint than my neice.

Last art class - cubist watercolours

My very last painting and drawing class - sob!  Since I've been fascinated with perspective, anatomy and clothing I decided to break down the model's torso as much as possible using pen and ink to create geometric blocks and watercolour to provide indications of shading.  It's not Picasso, but it solidfies the direction of my interests.

Watercolour in sepia

Another first, this time working in varying intensities of ochre on watercolour, learning how to build up glazes to create depth of colour, very much first steps.  This lovely lady is much less podgy and more beautiful than the picture suggests, slowly developing confidence with drawing.  What strikes me is how long everything takes, I get totally absorbed and the time has gone just like that.  I'm finding that ears are much bigger than I thought they were, I guess I tend to judge the size of the organs of their face by the importance of the function, so eyes would come first.