Cherries

I just completed one of the more difficult paintings I've done... ever. I have a few theories as to why it was so blasted hard: 1- I wanted to try out acrylics since I haven't for a while. I have gotten so used to the juiciness of oil paints that the acrylics just seemed dry. 2- I painted on paper. That was a bad idea from the beginning. Add to the dryness of the paints the dryness of the painting surface. 3- I have a lot of other things I should be doing but decided to paint instead. My focus was just not here. 4- There are a lot of colors in these little fruits. I was wanting to paint and get it done quickly so I could get on to other things, but I kept finding little flecks of blue or bits of yellow or green that needed to be in there. I don't think I would call this painting done, but I have to be done for now.

This painting is for the Rookie Painter online painting challenge. I think I've participated in it just a couple of times. Since the dissipation of the Different Strokes blog I am having a hard time painting as much as I should. But, I liked this photo and thought I'd give it a try.

Cherries
7.5 X5.5
acrylic on watercolor paper

Vote for our Gerber Baby

I entered the photo from the last entry into a Gerber contest. There are something like 50,000 entries so far, so it will probably be a far-fetched idea, but go on over and give him a vote. It would be so cool if he won!

http://www.gerber.com/Photo/?entryid=49265&source=10086654&utm_source=Gerber&utm_medium=email&utm_content=PhotoAcceptedReminder&utm_campaign=GerberGeneration#/gallery/

You can do a search for specific pictures by first name or entry number. His first name is, of course, Liam and his entry number is 49265

Get on over there and give him a little votey vote. (I think you can vote 1 time each day from each email address.)

UPDATE: VOTING WON'T BEGIN FOR ANOTHER MONTH. I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN YOU CAN VOTE FOR OUR LITTLE MUNCHKIN.

Still no painting...

... but I DID play around with some photos- does that count?

Original photo

Exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, blur, composition all tweaked.
Added the burned edge-
much better!

In other news: I now have 40 followers. 10 more and someone will get a painting. No joke!

Follow Me... again

38 followers as of 9:56 pm on Friday, July 9, 2010. 12 more and someone's getting a painting!

By the way... I kinda like this color combination lately. I made Liam a hat and shoes using these colors and I think they're so cute!

Test

Some cute baby face to test photo size... I'm tired of having tiny pictures while the rest of the world has great big ones that are so awesome! Here's my adorable baby in living color!

Camp Angelos

This is the lodge at the camp I will be going to this afternoon. I am teaching a watercolor workshop (if you can call it that) to 22 teenage girls. It is simply for girl's camp certification, so I doubt it will be as intense as that sounds. I wanted to give them an example of the type of painting they could do. Mike had a good idea- to give it to the Stake President at the end of camp. I think I might.