July 4 and Retouching

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Today was an out-of-schedule chore day. I pruned the new growth suckers on the mysterious bush in the back yard, then I removed two laurel bushes that my puppy keeps chewing on. Laurel bushes are poisonous to dogs. After exercising my green thumb, I put on my chef’s toque and made a cauldron of mushroom soup — it has 1 kg of mushrooms in it. I love mushroom soup. Afterwards I returned to gardener mode and irrigated the parched plants in the front yard. I use drip irrigation for a few of the less drought-resistant trees.

I also touched up page 29 of my Easter Island children’s picture book. The shadows on the Jimmy Jay and Dylan Dolphin characters were quite feeble. They look better now.

Children's Book Temple Top Picture Finished

Today I wrapped up the Temple Top picture. I added some shadows to help the characters standout from the background. I also gave Buddy a crouching posture as he peers into the distance looking for his relatives in the highlands of Mexico. Tomorrow I’ll start working on the jungle picture as they begin their trek to the Mountain of Monarch Butterflies.

One more pass at the poppy field

29/365

I thought that yesterday’s version of the poppy field was over-painted, so today I tried to restrain my heavy hand. I used the lightpad to trace yesterday’s painting using a brown Prismacolor pencil onto some Strathmore Bristol board, then had at it. I lighted up on Buddy Butterfly to give him a little lighter feel, and I incorporated some reflected light in Jimmy Jay’s shirt and pants. I then went over some of the lines with a black Prismacolor pencil.

Then I got carried away sprinkling yellow color into the sky, as if to say, “Hey, it’s a brilliantly sunny day and these guys are gonna be best friends.”

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UPDATE: rescanned this image with my new A3 scanner. The quite blues in the sky were nonexistent when I scanned with my ancient HP printer/scanner.