I Cheated.

…cuz this photo, which has been a forever favorite of mine, is no where to be found for purchase.  I just SEE it and instantly feel calm, cool, and hear nothing but (you know – that noise you hear when you swim underwater).  Extinct or not, some version of this photo really needed to live somewhere in my apartment.  So I grabbed a canvas, some oil paint that I mixed up in an egg carton, a little paintbrush, and a 6-pack of Sam Adams, and took a stab at it.  Here’s how it went down (please forgive the fuzzy iPhone shots)…

THE SKETCH:

THE WATER:

Trying to make the reflections look realistic DIDN’T really shake out for me.  But I DID have a great time finger painting all the pretty shades of aqua.

THE SKIN PART:

The shadowing effect (see britches and wedgie) was a happy accident that occurred when I smeared the lead lines from the pencil into the wet paint.  And, whoops.  The poor girl’s feet look like flippers.

WHERE IT LANDED:

…on a blank, formerly dismal wall that is the 1st thing you see when you come into our apartment.  The little ditty isn’t perfect, but it was fun for my first painting stint since the 7th grade, and now I can’t wait to take a stab at it again.

Note:  Wait till paints and canvases go on sale at Michael’s (which is often…  I swear they’re on sale every time I walk in there).  They’re liberal with discounting and usually do about 30-40% off.  Also – don’t forget what you learned in 3rd grade!  If you have the primary colors (red, yellow & blue) and black and white, you can mix and get just about any color of the rainbow.  (I had a little trouble getting wacky colors like fuchsia and teal, so I sprang for those…  is it sprang or sprung?)

xoxo!