Two Angels, One Duck and One Little Hippie

My mother and I were in Hobby Lobby yesterday.  I was considering buying a block of watercolor paper, not because I needed a block, but because I'd seen Gritty Jane use it in one of her tutorials and I was intrigued.  A BLOCK of watercolor paper?  I think I remember her saying something along the lines of, "this is a block of watercolor paper... it's glued on all four sides instead of just at the top... you just carve it out when you're done."  CARVE it out?

A former art student, my mom should know about this, right?  She did not.  She even said it sounded stupid.

But more importantly, she said, "I thought you weren't going to take any instruction."  Ummmm... oops.

I can't even follow my own rules!  Well, that's just me.  I'm a rule breaker.  It's all I know, so I'm sorry about that.  Well, not really.  If I were not a rule breaker, I probably would have given up on this art thing a long time ago.

Anyway, I've been practicing what I learned in those tutorials, but I quit watching them because Gritty Jane hurt my feelings (you may have noticed I took down my post about her blog). 

The first face I tried (and didn't finish because my four-year-old said she looked like a duck... and he was right) was this one:

Never finished.  Connor said, "Ewwww... nooo... she looks like a duck."

Then, I tried again:

My first angel.  Better, but not quite.

I was happy with her.  She wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I thought she was the best I'd ever done.

Then, I tried this one:

My second angel. I like her... just not REAL excited about her.

 

 

And then something wonderful happened.  My aunt and cousin and two of my second cousins (or is it first cousins once removed?) came for a very brief visit.  Violet, who just turned four years old, I believe, decided to do her "silly dance."  I snapped a photo and, in my mind's eye, I saw a painting.

Here's the photo:

Violet doing her "silly dance."  Doesn't she look like she should be at Grateful Dead concert?

I painted her the very next day.

"Violet's Silly Dance" 11" x 15", Acrylic and Graphite on Watercolor Paper.

A Facebook friend said he was thinking about taking a watercolor class until he saw this and it humbled him so much that he was just going to forget it.  No, no, no!  I use techniques that anyone could use to create these same results.  I am going to put together a tutorial and you'll see what I mean.

In the meantime, here are some good books:

Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium
Rethinking Acrylic: Radical Solutions For Exploiting The World's Most Versatile Medium

Oh and about that watercolor paper block.  I didn't get it because... that's just stupid.
Canson Montval Watercolor Paper Block 12 x 16 inch 140 lb CP 15 sheets