Interesting perspectives

Today's effort for the "People reading" series was from a picture of my Facebook friend, Yevgenia, who sent me a photo of her reading a book while lying in a hammock. I wasn't initially drawn to it, because I didn't think there was enough of a background there, but the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to paint such an interesting perspective—a person lying horizontal and holding the book above her.

It definitely turned out to be a challenge, and I ended up having to rotate the photo and my paper in order to capture it properly! But I think I caught it pretty well, and I love the stripy hammock as background.

"Yevgenia Reads"
pencil and watercolor in Bee sketchbook

I wasn't planning to paint today—I had designated it as a chore day, and had a whole list lined up. But when my yard guy knocked on the door and told me that there was a leak in the main water line from my house to the street (mushy feet from stepping into the flower bed to weed), that pretty much changed the day to one of standing by while a plumber and his helper dug a trench in my front yard to replace my ancient (1948!) galvanized pipe with a copper one. So, since I couldn't leave the house, I painted.

They didn't finish, they'll be back tomorrow, so I may get another painting out of it if I can't use the water and I can't leave the house!