I'm 33 today!

Happy Birthday also to my sister-in-law, Sue!

It would have been nice to show you something I was very proud of for my birthday, but alas, this is what I've got. It is from the same reference photo as the sadly painted pears. While I was doing this I got an idea about how to do those white reflections (from Bet Borgeson - color them in and then erase.) Obviously, I got a little obsessed with that idea and overemphasized the highlights. And, generally, the color mixing is at such a poor level that it looks rather more abstracted then it was intended. But, I like stem - that came out better than I expected (doesn't go with the abstraction at all, but it does look like a stem!) The yellow in the background was the beginning for a second pear, but I decided to just leave off, I've learned enough here (read that: this is not salvageable.)

Inspired by Nicole Caulfield, I tried a portrait copy - on a small scale (2.5"x3.5"). It turned out horrendous, but it was in color! :-) Some of that was related to my limited colored pencil collection. But, as it's my birthday, I've gotten some money I'm planning to earmark for art supplies (thanks Mom and Dad!) So on the happy note of accomplishing another goal (pushing myself to work in color) and being able to feed my art supply passion, I wish you all a lovely March 27th!