Tonight was the first time in a couple of months that I managed to attend our combat shoot competition... the break must have done me good, as I shot almost a personal best tonight. It was good to see all my shooting buddies again and have fun laughing with them at dinner afterward... I'm glad I went tonight.
Had meetings to run to tonight... didn't get home until late...so only his life vest got painted... but I kinda like it.
Tonight was a Murphy's Law night for me... went to a monthly meeting... nobody there, then I remembered we'd had a party earlier this month and so no regular meeting... Got home and spent the entire evening struggling with and FTP transfer of files from our Jeep forum our website hosting service is doing an upgrade (against our will) so I wanted to make sure I had a backup... it took 3 hours to get my files ARGH... so no time tonight to work on my painting... did manage to draw these waiting on files to download.
Afternoon thunderstorms... afforded us a bit of a break from the heat, but so little rain, the ground is still dry...
The only place I saw SeaGulls today was at the grocery store. I spent the day indoors... doing laundry.
Too hot to do much today... so we shopped... got some new bed linens.. and beach umbrellas and various other things we couldn't live without LOL... now we're off to have steak for dinner.
I drew this based on a picture in Karlyn Holman's book "Watercolor without Boundaries" and using some of the new paint colors from Daniel Smith that she recommends in the book, Quin. Burnt Orange for the flower pot. I've watched the video of the first demo 3 times now..... I think I've finally got it thru my thick head LOL
Another long day for me... but the full moon and the lightening bugs were nice, I don't usually ride my scooter after dark, but the moon was so bright it wasn't really dark tonight. Tomorrow I get an evening at home... and hopefully time to paint a little.
Hard to keep going today after my long day yesterday... bright spot a box of new paints, a brush, and a new palette from Daniel Smith... I've got a painting that needs some paint added... hopefully tonight.
Thirteen hours working as a poll manager, followed by a victory party... I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Tim Scott won by a large margin in spite of his opponent's negative ads the last week or so... Tim showed his character and refused to retaliate... I'm proud to support Tim Scott for Congress.
Today is the first day of Summer, summer always means reading for pleasure... I do love to read, and my collection of books overflows 4 bookcases... that does not include my huge library of art books LOL thunderstorms today gave us a bit of relief from the heat... tomorrow I'll be working the polls for the run-off here in SC... I voted today... tomorrow we'll know who will be on the ballot come November.... and for a little while the phone will stop ringing with electronic campaign calls.. I HATE those, I am VERY politically active and still I HATE those calls... I wonder why politicians waste their money on doing that?
Headed back to Charleston today... hot, hot, hot... even the cows were standing in the ponds trying to stay cool. Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there... if your Dad is still alive.. tell him you love him today... I sure wish I could tell my Dad that one more time.
Traveled from Charleston to Uwharrie today, very HOT and Humid.... the fields along the way were in various stages of growth... some freshly plowed, some showing sprouts... and some corn as high as an elephant's eye.
Cartoon Lion... quickly done, as tonight I'm packing for our trip to the mountains early tomorrow morning.
I should probably try this again using the colors and brushes she suggests in the book... I ordered the video that goes with the book, and discovered it is 4 DVDs not just 1... I really like the way she does her paintings... just gotta find some time to try out these new techniques.
We got a break in the heat today, an afternoon thunderstorm brought the temperature down almost 15 degrees... and boy did we need a break.
The office park near our house has all these bushes, trimmed like this. I have no idea what they are, or why they groom them this way.
We met for lunch with some of Ron's classmates had some laughs listening to everyone's stories.
Fifty four percent humidity and 97 degree heat just sucks the life out of you... it's too hot to even think about going outside.
Another Daily Zoo book animal, I found this giraffe irresistible..
We spent most of the day today, at political meetings and/or parties...it was too hot and humid to get much done in the yard.... or to tackle my current mound of dirty laundry.
Added the humidity to my weather notation... 42%... makes the air thick enough to cut with a knife... and Hot, did I mention it's Hot today :-)
This is Bill Conner, he is running for Lt. Governor of SC... I support Bill Conner, and if you're undecided or your candidate didn't make it to the run off, give Bill a look. I think he's the best man for the job.
voteconnor.com/
This caricature of Bill turned out pretty good until I tried to paint it... so don't judge Bill by my bad paint job.
Just trying some elephants from the Daily Zoo book... I liked the one reaching up... Looking forward to getting some sleep... stayed up way to late watching election returns...
Fourteen hours working at the polls today... this old lady is exhausted and disappointed in my fellow citizens... Called and talked to my Mom tonight... she works the polls in Georgia, their primary is in July. Off to bed for me....
I'll be working for 14 hours tomorrow as a poll manager for our SC primary election... hopefully I'll have a bit of time to do a sketch or two... but it'll be later before I get it posted. I voted today at headquarters, and sent an email out to all my friends letting them know they could stay home tomorrow since I'd taken care of making a selection for them... LOL
I've never been to Europe, I don't even have a passport. My father went there twice, 66 years ago he was on the beaches of France for D-Day. For the fifty year anniversary he and my mother went back to France. My Dad never talked about it much... he loved the movie 'Saving Private Ryan', he said that movie was the closest thing to what it was like that day.
It is HOT in Charleston today, Ron and I went to eat some grits and listen to politics this morning... grits and politics go together down here LOL... then work in the yard till the heat drove us inside.
I should have drawn a hockey player to commemorate my grand-daughter Ashton's first goal in a hockey game yesterday that her team won, and she was awarded the game puck to remember it by. I'm really proud of her, she is a great kid and a pretty good hockey player too.
I did this marsh runrise as my contribution to the Spirit of the Gulf Challenge... Find out about the Challenge here....
www.suzannemcdermott.com/2010/06/spirit-of-gulf-challenge...
Today is the three year anniversary of the removal of my right kidney and the clear cell carcinoma tumor inside. Every Day Really does Matter, I've had a great three years and I'm looking forward to being one of the 63% that survives to the 5 year mark... infinity and beyond...
I got two watercolor books today. 'Watercolor simplified' by Pat Weaver, I've checked this book out of the library 4 times... I finally decided to break down and buy a copy.. I love her color theory lessons and the demos in her book... Based on Lin Frye's recommendations after taking a workshop last year I also got "Watercolor without boundaries" by Karlyn Holman... this book I've only thumbed thru.. but I can already tell I'm going to really enjoy this one too.
I cooked up enough chicken for 4 meals... it tasted wonderful. This is our new charcoal grill, it works great for big stuff, not so good for small stuff (like 2 burgers)... for that we use our small grill that we take on Jeep trips.
This didn't work out as planned... I had wanted to paint my paint colors in the tubs on the left... but the ink pen I used proved not to be waterproof ink... oops... so I put the color samples elsewhere. You might wonder how I managed to use a pen with runny ink....
well ... it was a gift from a fellow sketcher... his favorite pen he said.
You see I was sitting at a political meeting with my tiny pocket sketch book, sketching the people ... the man sitting next to me noticed and told me he was an artist too, and he handed me his favorite pen... I made a few lines with it, and said 'ooo I like the smooth line this makes' and so he said 'keep it'... so of course I had to let him have my Pitt pen... which he tried and liked as well.
So today was the first time I tried to use the pen with a wash (that other book has no color just pen)... and discovered it runs... The pigment numbers for the two bottom colors for those keeping score are Pg 36 + Py110 for Hookers Green and PBk6 + Pg27 for Paynes Gray. I like to note the pigment of my paints, so that I know what I've got no matter what the manufacturer names the color. Most of my paints in this palette are Daniel Smith and Windsor Newton.
