This weekend, I tried to draw colored pencil portraits of Granddaughters 3 and 4, using cell phone photographs as guides.
I started by cropping the photos, enlarging and printing them at the right size, and lightly tracing the faces onto mixed media paper. Tracing the faces is cheating, in my humble opinion, but if I'd tried to free-hand them, I'd still be trying to sketch the first one.
There are about a zillion colored pencils in this house. Whole sets in boxes and tins, and jars full of odds and ends from who knows where. Some are probably left-overs from my sons' grammar school days. Different brands, different materials. Some blend easily, some don't. I don't know the difference.
I've made a mess out of both portraits. Too much blue in #4's portrait; her skin is zombie-colored. I backed off the blue for #3's portrait, and it is far too pale.
I'll probably start over.
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The Husband and I and The Sister-in-Law went to see the Downton Abbey movie yesterday. Enjoyed it.
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I went to check on the community garden this morning. Didn't see any live squash bugs. Powdery mildew is running rampant. I harvested a little over 2 pounds of squash and then sprayed the plants with neem oil and pruned off some of the most affected leaves. I tried not to get any neem oil on the blooms, fearing it would kill the bees.
The purple hull pea plants are putting out runners. They'll be blooming soon. I am determined not to lose this new crop like I lost most of the first one.
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