this day like no other

Friday, and what a fabulous day it is. The air is fresh! That's one of the things on my wish list when we moved out here. We're lucky to live in a town with relatively little industry.

My dear boys are still playing me for kibble, and so we have several goes at getting them to eat their proper meal which is laced with digestive supplements, good oils and just as importantly, especially for cats, water. Here, Muji gives me the look. His accessories are a stem of Dill that I give the boys to play with, and the tip of Babu's tail.

Once done, they get their kibble, which is dessert for them even though it's a formulated food product. That makes them very happy. Then they are allowed to trade plates for proper cleanup of tasty bits.

I finally dared to cut into this giant watermelon with a scared ( scared? I mean scarred) hide

like the whale that it is.

The other remarkable thing about it is that it has SEEDS! I feel like a relic of the old world that I should even be remarking on this. Hopefully, the tide is changing with this new generation of environmentally aware youth. Bless them.

I was struggling this week with subject matter as I've mentioned before, and under this drawing there are two more completely different ones.  I like the challenge of not working with reference material as I believe in the wealth of visual information I've accumulated over a lifetime. I correct a lot more this way, but I don't remember using my eraser so much as with this piece.

Eventually I gathered the courage to start colouring in, but my confidence was low.

Layer upon layer of coloured pencil, I gradually built up form, continuing to correct my drawing.

Eventually I gave myself permission to stop. There's always more one can do. Most artists would call this a preliminary stage. I'd be interested in seeing this painted but I've never had the discipline to build further than this stage; either I'm painting or I'm doing a rough impression like this. It's the concept that matters more to me, somehow, than the final product.  Often I like the initial drawing best.

This piece, Mother and Child,  started and ended with graphite,

but mostly it is in coloured pencil with touches of India ink.

Drink in this day, dear readers,

this day like no other.

peace