Snippet Sunday - Underpainting, redux and a quick watercolor

With our trip out of town this week and a healthy dose (har har) of the crud for the kids and me, I did the minimum on the creative front this week.

Actually, that is not entirely true! I did a minimum on my oil painting, but I did some drawing exercises; loosely copied some designs from this book; speed-sketched a couple of animals for Sprout to guess; and I did a quick watercolor sketch of some date palms at Anafora. I wanted to remember the vibrant, jewel-like colors and variety of dates ripening there in this season:

I moved before finishing my sketch, which is why my composition is weird.

Here is the "progress" on the oil painting. I corrected the shape of her head and started laying in some colors on the hair as well as a light glaze over her skin. This stage is the one that freaks me out, the one where it pretty much looks like a mess. I have to have faith that it will get there as I lay on more layers, rounding out the forms, brightening the colors, refining the details...

"A work in progress, a work in progress," that is my mantra.

Here By Glimpses Known

Because we were on the road Wednesday, here is your glimpse of Egypt a few days late.

"Hey, look! There's the Nile!"