Borders Books just emailed its monthly newsletter, personalized to my supposed preferences. There were 1,539 characters in the URL. (The newsletter itself wasn’t nearly that interesting.)
Author: allisonstein
Have I mentioned lately that I HATE cold weather? We’ve been below freezing for most of the past month. My driveway is still covered with ice from the storm we had four weeks ago, covered by snow we got three weeks ago, and topped off by snow we got last week. Tomorrow the temperature should get into the mid-40s, but it’s just a tease. The cold will continue for the next 10 days at least,…
Mr. Grumpy, watercolor pencils in sketchbook, approximately 9″x12″ Class was cancelled this past week due to bad weather. My teacher suggested I use reference photos of reptiles in sketching my dragon critters. This grumpy little guy was inspired by a photo of an inquisitive little lizard perching on a flower bush. This isn’t a realistic portrait, but I feel good about the facial expression and the round little belly. The icky weather also inspired my…
Two Landscapes, 4″x5″, Watercolor on Arches 140# These two paintings are my homework assignment from my watercolor class. The goal was to paint a landscape using tone and value and only three colors. In this case, I used cobalt, viridian, and gamboge on the top/blue one, and cobalt, quin rose, and ultramarine on the bottom/purple one. The paper makes a tremendous difference. I did a series of practice pieces on 90# Canson, but it felt…
I’m really gonna miss columnist Molly Ivins.