Portraits and Painting of the Week

Although it was very cold yesterday, my day went pretty well. Early in the day, I prepared for my art girls. I cleaned house and baked Toby an apple cake for his birthday. I wrapped his presents and started his birthday meal – put on some black-eyed peas with ham to slow cook. Sarah and Emily came to art. Sarah was finishing a commissioned painting. I think she has done a great job. She is so very talented. Later in the evening, Toby went with me to the library where I had to attend an art guild meeting. The meeting went very poorly – so poorly that I don’t want to talk about it. I finally got my fill of sour-belly and got the heck out of Dodge. Actually, Toby and I had plans to go over to the GGs and watch the big football game. Once we got to the GGs, things picked back up. GBN1 was wearing a dress; she said she wanted to dress up for Crewcraw’s birthday. GBN2 sang the slowest version of "Happy Birthday" that I have ever heard, but the funniest part came when she got to the part, "…to Cwooooo-cwaaahhh." The smile on Toby’s face said it was the best present of the day.
Here are two paintings that I did on Wed. The first one I did in a new journal of watercolor paper. The paper is handmade, and I learned that it will come apart with too much painting. Notice the shadow side of his face where I put in more water and paint is mucky. The lighter side with less paint worked well. Now I know. The second painting is of the same boy, but on different paper. I wanted to see if I could make the painting work better on different paper. This will be my Portrait of the Week as well as my Painting of the Week. We will see if I can keep up the weekly paintings. I also started another watercolor yesterday, but it is not ready for viewing.