Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Friday: watercolor techniques

I watched the next Oto Kano youtube video, 8 Advanced Watercolor Texture Techniques, then tried a few in my journal. The Magic Eraser worked fine. BUT… the bubbles. Oh, the bubbles.

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The blue was my first WET attempt. It soaked through to the other side and left NO bubble shapes. The red was my second, too much paint, attempt.

Next I added too much soap… ugh. I even tried a few drops of glycerin. I don’t know enough about glycerin to even know why I thought that might work, but it was sitting on my table from when I’d used it to mix a pant of white gouache. It didn’t help (surprise!)

I thought I’d sail right through “bubbles”!  Anyway, I did end up with something bubbly looking, and if I try a few more times I think I could get it.

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But… I’m not that interested right now. It’s fun to know it is an option, though. Oto has suggested several other textures I may try, just didn’t today.

(I have to admit, now that I’m looking at them dry, it’s kind of interesting. The paint turned rather opaque in the process!!)

In other news, we met the family at The Bier Garden. YUM! But I didn’t have room to sketch anything from the evening here after the bubble incident, since I’m trying to stick to one page a day. Or since I’m lazy?? Whichever.

How was your Friday?

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Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Day 22: Wednesday, The beach!

The kids asked me top go to East Beach in Ocean View with them for a bit.

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A killer hot day today with heat indexes in the 100-110 degrees F range, but still really nice out in the shallow water of East Beach.

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The floor of the water area is clear and soft, and shallow enough to walk way out, a plus with young kids. And, the waves are really minimal. The lack of waves makes the water particularly clear.

Ellis and I spent our time devising ways to capture small schools of fish which swam all around us, but we were unsuccessful. On the way out, however, MOMMY and Ellis actually caught one!!

Meet Emily, in our little green shell bag with the net bottom:

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Emily is back with her family, no worries!

Not our boat:

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Day 1 of the 2019 Summer Cheeseburger Challenge:

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Ellis hadn’t tried a cheeseburger until July 4th when she tried one Papa grilled, and liked it. So we decided to try every* cheeseburger in Hampton Roads this summer, and began with a classic, McDonalds! (she liked it)

This toad greeted me on the top step at my back door first thing in the morning:

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All in all, a very pleasant morning.

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Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Day 17: pizza oven!

Tried out our new pizza oven…it is an insert which goes in the grill Mark got for his birthday this year. I discovered a local pizzeria sells their dough raw in premeasured balls, so purchased several…  pizza number one did NOT look this charred… it was perfect and tasted great!! Yummers!! We are ready to (pizza) PARTY!!

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Also received my ticket to Minnesota’s famous Junk Bonanza which will be in September… woo-hoo!!

Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Day 16: youtube watercolor practice

Watching a couple of Shayda Campbell’s youtube videos, I decided to practice them. Too too fun!!! Thanks Shayda!!

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Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Day 15: watercolor doodling practice with CreationsCeeCee

Just following a youtube tutorial again for ideas, inspiration, practice and play. (check out CreationsCeeCee!)

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In this tutorial, she shows how she makes little doodle books to keep with her each day. She watercolors shapes on the pages, then doodles in ink later, as she finds opportunity.

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Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Day 14: Cow Appreciation Day!

Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A is a long hard day for everyone, but lots of fun, too. Katie, Ellis, and Rainer joined me for several hours, Seth and Sarah both worked, even SANTA showed up (no lie!!) I didn’t get many photos. Daniel, Emily, and Naya made sure everyone was happy, so I’ve featured them. 🙂

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(I feel like I’ve captured Naya, and The Cow, but poor Emily is both adorable and full of energy in real life, and I just couldn’t get her!! I got her big bow, though.)

Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Day 12: a morning swim

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As you are probably aware, my husband and I are owned by two newfoundland dogs… this morning when the dogs woke us up (as early as every other day), instead of an early morning walk, we took them out to the beach for a quick swim. (and a good rinse off at home after)

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(That’s my attempt at Emmett swimming.) Emmett loved it, Clara tolerated it and DIDN’T SINK, which is a pretty good end result. And the rest of the day we mostly just goofed off. In fact, in the evening we were going to go out but some strong storms rolled through and we decided to chill with Emmett, because he’s afraid of thunder. I guess what I should have sketched was Emmett in his thunder shirt!

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Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Day 11: Meet Joe.

This is Joe, my husband’s new best friend.

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These are the ribs that Joe made. “Please, Joe, please… please do not make so many yummy ribs.”

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I have included a picture of the REAL miniature watercolor tin, so you can see how adorable it is. I popped out the children’s paint tablets with the intention of filling it with my own, but only have two colors in there right now. I tried to find it online to link it for you, but all I succeeded in doing is finding a DIFFERENT small travel palette which I don’t need, but did purchase, because it is relatively inexpensive and looks like EXACTLY what I want. So… I stopped looking after that initial fiasco. It wasn’t going to go any better, I’d just find something else cool to buy, and not the $2.50 children’s paint tin. (But… HERE is the link to that supercool box available on Etsy…. )