Journaling the personal

One request Brenda made of all the workshop participants is that we bring a few items of a personal nature to draw and paint during the weekend. She wanted us to have something meaningful about which we could journal, that we could turn into a "sketch journal" entry by putting art and words together. So Friday afternoon, we all pulled out a set of items and made a drawing, and were supposed to wait until Saturday morning to paint it. My first two items, however, were rather simple to draw, so I went ahead and painted them too, not knowing that she wanted us to wait so we could first have a lesson on shadows and reflected light and incorporate that lesson into our painting.

So, this first picture is my quick-and-easy one, that I finished without benefit from that lesson (as is obvious from the inaccurate, made-up shadow!). Oh well.

The cat is from a small collection I have on a table in my living room; my mom gave me one, other people have brought me some from their travels, and I have picked up a couple as well, here and there. I currently have them displayed all sitting in a circle around one of those collectible pill boxes made in the shape of a birdbath, which seemed like a natural place for a bunch of kitties to congregate. But for this painting I had another idea--Mom also gave me this pill box with the Eiffel Tower on top, and--shades of Godzilla and the Empire State--they just seemed to go together!

So, I learned the shadow/reflected light lesson later, and you will see the results soon. The backwards leaning of the Eiffel Tower was a simple error in perspective combined with slanted paper, but it serendipitously worked--doesn't it look like the tower is rearing backwards with alarm from the advent of the GIANT CAT?