Close-to-Final Version of "Watering the Flowers"

After another busy weekend (hubby's band played so Saturday was a LATE night - then we picked and froze 15 quarts of blueberries on Sunday evening - by the time the blueberries were finished I was finished too) I managed to find a few minutes last night to do some fine tuning to "Watering the Flowers". I bought a little battery operated eraser while on a jaunt to an art store this past Friday and what a nifty little gadget this is! Does a wonderful job of removing color without damaging the paper. And, surprisingly, it only cost $6.95.... Woo Hoo!... I love a bargain!

So the eraser was put to work. I was not happy with the little guy's nose or his left facial profile. So I erased the profile line, all of the nose, part of the mouth and some shading here and there that didn't pass muster. Then I carefully redid those parts, taking extra care to note the precise angle and length of line and such things. I'm learning that for me it takes close observation then thoughtful calculation on how to achieve the look I'm after. Even then it doesn't always end up like I envision it. Guess that's one reason art is so endlessly fascinating... the challenge of getting the vision onto the paper. Anyway, I'm posting what I hope is either the final version of this piece or close to it. I'm going to let it sit for a couple of days and see if anything jumps out that needs changing. If not it will soon be on its way to its owner... who doesn't know it's coming.... it's a surprise!

While at the bookstore I also bought a new CP book and I LOVE IT! I had a coupon for 30% off so I used it on this book "Painting Light with Colored Pencil" by Cecile Baird. I had the book on my Amazon Wish List but had never looked through it so I wasn't sure how good it was (I don't think the cover painting does the book justice). Let me tell you.... it's GOOD! Her colored pencil paintings are simply awesome. Beautiful. Wow. What else can I say? And even better, her demos are to the point and very detailed. I plan to do some exercises from the book this week (and the hubby hopes that I'll find time somewhere to bake either a blueberry pie or a blueberry crisp... a reward for the hot, hard work of picking and freezing blueberries!)