Don't Mind the Arrow

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I was going to do this in reverse order, starting with the bad and the ugly. You know, the same way that when you have some good news and some bad news, most people want to start with the bad news. Finish strong. Instead, I'm going to start with the good and maybe you'll have lost interest by the time I get to the bad and ugly.

The Good

Sunday night, Morgan and I headed out to the Adams County Fair. Free admission! (Although they neglected to mention the $5 fee for parking.) We went near sunset so we could try to get some good photos of the rides. After we'd walked around for a bit, we sat on some rocks near the pony ride and I sketched the rides area. It was just a quick 5 or 10 minute sketch, but I'm pretty happy with how it captured the salient points. I got some good digital photos of the fair, too, and hopefully some interesting ones on film as well.

The Bad and the Ugly

I decided to try another watercolor, using a picture on Paint My Photo (thanks for the heads-up about this site, I'm looking forward to using more references from there and submitting some photos, too!). I'm trying to learn to loosen up with watercolors. Because "loose" is not my usual style in any media, I expect it will take some real effort to make it happen, if it can happen at all.

I'm not happy with this at all. Well, actually, there are a couple of things I like about it, but many, many more that I don't. I just remind myself that it wouldn't be practice if I were already good at it. I like the lamp, some of the shadows, and the sky is all right. Everything else, well - the less I say about it, the better.

Watercolor?

I was reading Vicki's blog the other day and she linked to an entry on another blog in which the author posted a still life photograph and challenged people to paint it.

I have some watercolors, and some watercolor paper, but I never, ever actually do watercolors. I figured it would be a challenge, all right, so I shrugged and got out the equipment.

It's true, I'm no watercolorist. 

From Painting?

It was sort of fun, although about halfway through I contemplated calling it a failed experiment and never speaking of it again. I forced myself to soldier on, though, and in the end it's ... finished, at least. I might actually try my hand at the watercolors again here and there because much like the gesture drawings, I think it's good for me to stretch my boundaries.