Getting my feet wet again

I was worried about the pond and how the elements would work with it, so using my new reference, I decided the only way to do it was to start it. A pond is so different than a stream or a lake; there seems to be more reflections because they tend to have stuff growing out of them as well as floating on them. An autumn pond also has the reflections of the sky, snuggled right up to the reflections of the trees near them. It can be tricky to try and fit all that stuff into the flat surface of a painting and have it look realistic. And so very easy to make a muddy mess of it all. Just as with the sky, I needed to put some reflections in and then add others on top of them. but so far I like the effect. It is going slower than I had anticipated and with this busy season, I haven't had the time to come and paint as much as I had hoped. I am also starting the next phase of this project, the 3-D foam structures that will become cliff, bank, trees, etc. I laid out paper on the wall and floor to trace a pattern for the area that the buildout will cover and am excited to start carving. I will take a photo of the large sheets of foam that will be used as soon as I can and post them to my next blog. If you have been following the little notation at the top of these blogs, you have noticed that I've divided the time spent on painting and the time spent on structure. A lot of the structure will be done at home, so I will be sure to keep track of the progress with photos and time and post that as I go along.

A note about the project "500 Fascinating Facts" - I stopped by the library and picked up the first batch....very impressive! I will let you know whose fact will wind up on the wall; both in posting it here and on a list I will update at both libraries as the project grows. Thank you again and keep up the good work! We've got some good ones, but it's a long way from the 500 we need. And for those whose facts didn't quite fit the project, ask me why and I'll be happy to steer you a little closer to the type of facts we need. Everyone can find a good fact and you can do enter as many times as you like. so keep digging!