Knowing when to stop is not my strong suit.  However, this is not a bad start:

April 29, “A Good Composition,” Acrylic

Aaaaaaaaand…I should have stopped there, but I could not bring myself to put down the palette knife.   This resulted:

April 30, “A Bad Composition,” Acrylic

Hmmm, ok, the orange helps, but I’m not satisfied:

May 1, “Repair Work,” Acrylic

At a loss.  At least it can only get better from here:

May 5, “Still in Process,” Acrylic

Ok, stop.  Just put down the palette knife and stop.  right.  here.

May 9, “Finished,” Acrylic

Essentially, I ended up where I started out, so maybe I should have stopped at the first day.  I should mention that these are acrylics.  It’s my first try and I spent half the time spraying down my palette trying to keep it from drying.  It was a good effort and a fun exercise in speed painting given that I’m used to oils.  Here are a few more acrylics:

March 9, “City,” Acrylic

March 9, “Burst,” Acrylic

March 9, “Sound,” Acrylic

And then changing direction completely, I made the following drawings from my daughter’s watercolor dribblings.  I worked with whatever hapless forms ended up on the paper.  After staring at the each blob for a while, an image would eventually emerge.  Then all I needed was a ballpoint pen to bring it to life.  By far, this has been one of my favorite exercises all year.

May 7, “Lanky Bird,” Watercolor & Ink

(Note:  This is the first time I have given myself a 10.  I can’t help it.  I just love this little guy.)

May 7, “Fish with Underbite,” Watercolor & Ink

May 7, “Fido,” Watercolor & Ink

May 7, “Ralph,” Watercolor & Ink

(Note:  I was going to give this one a 6, but the name Ralph is spot-on, so I threw him a bone and gave him 7 Van Gogh’s).