effort

green cat day

Green Cat Day means painting day. I started with a water colour of my mother. I find her incredibly difficult to paint. that's why I keep trying.

She went to have her hair cut yesterday and I asked her to sit in my art room to take a BEFORE photo. This was how she looked BEFORE the haircut. I will make the AFTER portrait tomorrow.

As you can see there is a GREEN cat on the wall behind her. I am not sure if you can see it. Maybe some of you might see it as blue. Anyway that smiling cat thing is a painting by my little nephew Jensen. I love the painting. It looks better in real life than here. 

Now you know why I call painting days Green Cat Days. If you can paint a cat green with such gusto you are a winner.

I prefer to simplify details on my mother's face and the things on the wall. Here is a quick sketch of her, with the green cat painting behind her.

I made 2 more quick portraits of Gylan and Jensen. They are learning to play the ukulele lately. They are pretty good at it considering how new they are to the instrument.

Here they are playing and singing You Raise Me Up. I think their mother got that song printed out for them. :P

Jensen wanted to try the classical guitar too. He and Gylan both love the bass-y sound of the guitar compared to the ukulele.

I love how curious they are with everything. They are not afraid to try new things out. I hope they stay that way for a long long time.

I made another portrait of my mother in gouache. The bed has turned green too. It has turned into a Green Bed Day.

See you tomorrow.

fabric

sketches of my mother

I made some quick ink sketches of my mother today. They are based on a photo of her when she was younger( the 4th one onwards). Halfway through she came to my room and sat on the couch to take a nap. I made 2 more of her while she was resting. When she woke up I made another one of her looking at me sketching her. I kept everything very loose and just enjoyed the in on paper. It was fun getting so many different versions of her when I didn't try to capture any precise likeness.