This is a piece of work of a canal in Amsterdam. i made a rubbing with pencil of a interesting patterned wall to create a base tone and then worked into it. This helped focus on tone and create interesting textures.
I told my boys, "That's you, you and you." They paused for a moment, pointed at the hot dog, and asked, "Well... Who's that?" ... "That's your baby sister." -- Ink and watercolor on 5x5 Arches cold press.
I had a rock tumbler as a child and really enjoyed it. When my youngest was a child we bought her one. She was eager to enjoy it too, but somewhere after starting on that path, we lost track and it everything inside turned into a solid mass. We tossed it and forgot about it. On a recent beach trip, I collected handfuls of rocks, as I am always likely to do, and, upon return, remembered how I loved my childhood rock tumbler. I immediately researched, ordered and eagerly anticipated its delivery. Of course, with Amazon Prime, that was only a couple day’s wait. As soon as I unboxed it I thought “what am I doing?” I have neither time, nor space for yet another hobby. I thought “what will I DO with a pile of polished, pretty rocks?” I would gather them in my hands and feel their silky smoothness. I would likely gather them in some beautiful glass bowl and…then what? I have toddler grand kids frequently at my home. They put small colorful things in their mouths and up their noses and feed them to the dogs regularly. And I don’t even have a single space to display a bog bowl of pretty rocks. So I quickly decided “I’m Returning the Rock Tumbler” and will, for NOW, stick to painting them when the mood strikes.
I was gifted a pad of Yupo watercolor paper. The color vibrancy is unreal! Definitely a learning curb but the results are so fun. Plus this got me painting again. Working digital is such an easy fall back, but nothing beats a brush to paper.
