Cheryl, You Fink

There's my late afternoon work space.
 
Cheryl talked me into signing up for an online watercolor class, which I thought started today, but actually started on the 1st. Oh well.

I did this because Cheryl is such a "Yes!" kind of person, and I admire that about her. I'm more of a "Uhhh, I'll get back to you about that" kind of hermit. In addition, for the past 35 years, I've been a "God, I hate watercolors" kind of artist. So you see, Cheryl, how fond I am of you.

And Cheryl, I'll pay you back for this, one way or another.

The first session was about washes, thin application of paint to form a background color: flat, graduated, and variegated.

I was not pleased with the results. My paper was too heavy, and didn't soak in the pigment worth a damn. (Top left.) On the second try, I soaked the paper with water, and got a slightly better result.
Ditto with the graduated wash. Wet paper.

The one on the bottom right was a much lighter paper from a different company, and it worked pretty well even dry. I kind of like the variegation. I might even use this technique someday.

The four blocs were as much as I could handle. I was awake from 4am with sinus problems, and though I went back to bed for an hour around 8, once I was up again I worked on the Press, then immediately went out to the ranch to groom and ride the shedding Dink, then ran a sprinkler over five different sections of the front yard and garden while I watched the online class video and set up my workspace.

Tomorrow is supposed to be horrible weather, with occasional showers and high winds -- perfect for hanging out in the studio, so maybe I'll get more artwork done.

One thing is good from today's watercolor session: there are art supplies and implements covering the workspace ... and that's what a studio should look like.