Gosh, has it been that long?

 I hadn't realised I not blogged for a whole month!  I've been totally absorbed in my painting.   I have been studiously working my way through all the exercises in my books, and am now starting to do some of my own stuff like The Cherry Tree.    I realised that my drawing wasn't up to scratch, so I invested in a 'How To' book, a Kindle download, and that has now become a daily routine to do at least one exercise a day. 

I won't bore you with the really boring stuff, like drawing circles and squares,  and trying to make them look 3D.   I've finally got to the interesting bit in the book and I'm starting to draw stuff.  This was my first attempt at a rose, yes it needs work, but I see this as the basis,  from this I can turn it into a more realistic rose - or that is the theory!   This started life as a simple spiral,  and just by the addition of a few lines, some shading it starts to resember a flower.  I even tackled a portrait!  The confidence is returning, at least my hand and arm no longer tighten up when I pick up a pencil. 

 Think I'm most proud of this.  I tried painting this a few weeks ago and made a right mess of it, the sky was a mess, so was the sea...  it deserved to be consigned to the bin, which it was.   But I came back to it.  I've been working on the glazing (applying thin coats of paint),  and making more use of the dry brush for blending.  I also tweaked the exercise,   which is what the book encourages you to do.  I think I managed to get the shoreline right,  I'm now using white acrylic with the watercolours, thinned down,  but it works well for waves.

I'm currently working on trees,  I am okay with the body of the tree, and branches, but the foilage is defeating me, so I need to practice.  

Harvey has been in the wars.  He came home with a bloodied nose, and looking very sorry for himself a couple of weeks ago.  He had two quiet days, then was back to his usual self.  The wound is healing nicely,   I bathed it,  and made sure it didn't become infected.  No idea if he was in a fight or crashed into something,  he's still happy to go out, so that's good. 

I also had some bad news on my sister,  but the good news is that she is now improving, and that they got all the cancer.  So we're all relieved, she still faces many challenges, but she has a loving family around her. 

I think that's all from me, hopefully I won't let the blogging lapse that long again.   Thanks for stopping by.