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Thank you for being a part of my life!

I decided to create a journal about having a dog, the ups and the downs, the good, the bad, the goofiness, the messes, the fun and the unconditional love that only a dog has to give. When asked why I wanted a dog, I guess that would be my answer. For the unconditional love that only a dog can give. People simply don't know how to love unconditionally. 

I considered what my steps would be if I were really going to adopt Lovey and I figured the first thing I'd do is go shopping, right?! 

I found a sweet, pale-pink collar, a bright-pink plush toy in the shape of a bone and a bright-pink leash to match the toy. Then I found a couple of beds with polka-dot material and the sweetest little pink bow on the front (wonder how long it will last before she has it chewed off?). 

Knowing I had a two hour drive to go get her and bring her home, I figured I'd be nervous. After all, I wanted her to not just like me but love me! I got there early. Lovey and I played and walked and loved and petted while the woman at the shelter explained what to do when we got home…

• Introduce Lovey to her environment by walking her around on the leash and letting her sniff and smell. 
• Show her where her food and water bowls are as well as her beds. 
• Let her wander around, but keep the leash on so that you can keep a gentle hold on her to keep her from walking into anything. 
• Take her outside and let her sniff and smell around the yard. "Show" her to her potty spot.
• Introduce her to the feline nation of 3 cats! 

I took it as a good sign that Lovey whined when I walked away to go do the paperwork. Once it was all completed, I gathered up my dog and set off for home.

Who knew 2 hours was a lifetime when you have a scared puppy in the truck?! But we made it home, safe and in one piece!

Next up, I'll be journaling about Lovey and meeting the cats.

I actually drew the gloves from life rather than using a photo and as you can see, my line drawing is very basic and slightly different from the photo reference. I've not added any detail except the knobby material with the dots that help me to get a better grip on things. I haven't indicated any shadows.

If you're new to drawing and journaling, you would be fine if you stopped here and started to add color.

 If you're adventurous…you might want to add a little more detail. I used broken line to indicate the stretchy texture of the cuffs of the gloves.

A note on lines…as humans, we like to see variety. Variety holds our interest longer and makes what we're looking at more intriguing. By using broken line, I allow the viewer to complete the lines with their own eyes.

I've also used the line to indicate the direction of the soft waviness of the fabric rather than just drawing straight lines.

By the way, notice the hole in the tip of the finger? I added that because I smeared the ink line at the top of the finger.

To "camouflage" the smear, I created the long string and the small hole.







This next step is optional. I've used Carbazole Violet and Ultramarine Blue to create an underpainting of the shadow shapes. While this step is not a requirement, but it's lots of fun!

The purples and blues will disappear as I paint the greens of the glove over it.

The reason for painting this layer is to begin to build in the shapes that give the gloves their soft shapes and to show dimension.

It also gives me a "shadow map," much like a road map, to know where I need to put my darker colors when I start to add local color.

If you opt to add this underpainting, make sure the layer is dry before add the next layer of paint!







Using Sap Green as the base, I added Azo Yellow to get the "spring green" and Ultramarine Blue to get a darker green for the shadows.

In some places I added the colors and let them mix on the paper and in other places, I added color that was mixed on the palette.

Notice the thumb areas that looked quite blue in the image above after the underpainting layer.

Once I added the darker paint, it made the thumb areas appear much lighter in value.

Values are relative to what is around them. In the image above the blues and purples were the darkest value. In the image to the left, the greens are the darker value which makes the blues and purples much lighter.









Again, this next layer is optional. I like to play in the dirt! Therefore, it only makes sense that my gloves would have dirt on them from a morning spent out in the garden, but I don't want dirty gloves in the house where I did the line drawing. Instead, I used my imagination to create the dirt on the gloves!

Using Carbazole Violet, Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue, I daubed the colors together to give the appearance of dirt clumped on the fingers of the glove.

Next, I painted in a light cast shadow. You can see over near the thumb where I had a couple of bleeds because the paint wasn't totally dry.

If you decided to follow the tutorial, be sure to add your cast shadow before moving to the next step!















Once the dirt layer on the gloves was DRY, I added splotches of dirt around the gloves to give the impression that the dirt fell off when the gloves were dropped on the flat surface.

Note: If you try to add a cast shadow AFTER you put down the fallen sprinkles of dirt, it's quite possible you'll have a mess on your hands because the dirt color will lift and mix with your shadow color—we want dirt not mud!!

I've also gone back and added more splotches to the fingers of the glove as well as down into the cuffs and crevices of the gloves as the dirt would not be just on the fingers.








Next, I had to decide what, if anything, I wanted to say on the page. Once I had the words figured out, I looked the page over to decide how I wanted to arrange them on the page. I added pencil lines to give my guidelines for the lettering.

Since my right brain does not know how to spell, I wrote my letters out in pencil before coming back and inking them.

Final Page Watercolor and Ink

I echoed the pattern in the gloves in the large G to tie the two pieces together. After all the paint was totally dry, I went back into the gloves and strengthened some of the line work to give the gloves more dimension.

At the very end of the project, I noted that I had once again smeared the ink in the word "dirt." Rather than trying to get the ink up, I opted to add "sprinkles of dirt" around the word to help camouflage the smear.

It is always fun to take the plain and ordinary and elevate it to something extraordinary!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and if you decide to paint garden gloves, please leave a link in the comments so that I can see. I also hope to see you on an "Imaginary Visit or Trip!"

He seems to have one very large and very bright eye. 

Every time that eye gets closer to me, I hear the words, "Open wide," in my left ear. 

I would be hard pressed to tell you exactly what his eye color might be as it's usually so bright I have to shut or overt my own eyes. 

He seems kinda tall and skinny with a dark complexion, but again, that's me trying to see past the glare. 

After a particular long visit yesterday, I came away with the impression that he was very intelligent. 

Maybe a bit otherworldly?

Still, I would have difficulty describing him to you.

So I drew you a picture instead!

When it comes to the page, I usually have a vague plan in mind of what I'm trying to capture/create. The day, not so much.

We had a loose plan to have lunch at Carmine's, an old establishment that's been in Ybor City forever and to go to the movies.

Tin ceilings and concrete floors are just part of the "ambience" of Carmine's, but they do not make for good acoustics. Since it was Father's Day weekend, there were several groups in the restaurant, each talking over the other in an effort to be heard. Add to that a two-year-old who desperately needed a nap and it was bedlam.

We couldn't hear ourselves think, let alone speak, so we left before they came to take our drink order. We knew finding another place to eat wouldn't be a problem. There are plenty of great restaurants in Ybor City. If you go hungry, it's your own fault. 

We wandered down the street to Hamburger Mary's and it was blessedly quiet. A bonus of this new venue was our waiter—he was quite a treat! It was obvious he liked people, cutting up and having fun. Of course, at Mary's, I think that may be part of the job requirement.

Back to the sketch…looking around, I spotted the window above across the way. It was partially blocked by an overhang, but I could see enough of it and decided to go for it. At this point, I would sketch the window and add just a splash of color, but not color the whole thing. 

Nothing would do but for the waiter to sit down beside me in the booth to see where I was looking as he could not see the window from his perspective while standing up. Leaving the booth, he turned to ask, "Do you want some crayons?"

"Nope," I responded, "brought my own." 

The food was excellent and Mary's typically has great cakes and when I inquired about flavors, I was told there was no cake. NO cake?! How could this be?! 

The waiter offered me cookies, brownies, a bun with frosting and several other combinations. He even offered to step down to another restaurant to get me a piece of cake. Now, mind you, most of these were offered with a heavy dose of sarcasm and a large dollop of humor. 

When I informed him only Mary's cake and no other would do, he threw up his hands and walked away muttering (again, all in playful jest).

In the end, he surprised me with a Hershey's® chocolate bar when he delivered the check. What a cool (and sweet) thing to do!

Between goofing around with the waiter and sketching, we were nearly late to the movie. Eek! When we left Mary's, this was as far as I'd made it:

Because I was too busy playing with the waiter and not spending enough time concentrating on my sketch, there are a number of "structural" issues with the sketch above and when I finally got past the overhang, I was quite surprised to see the top of the window looked nothing like my sketch.

In fact, it wasn't until later that I figured out what the problem was. Rather than letting it stand, I pulled out my white Sharpie poster marker and extended the white window sill over to the right. 

We hurried to the ticket counter and purchased tickets for How To Train Your Dragon 2. I walked into the theater waving my sketchbook up and down in order to get the page dry so I could put the book away before the start of the movie. (Great movie and highly recommended!)

After watching HTTYD2, we decided to see Edge of Tomorrow (an excellent movie) with Tom Cruise. We haven't watched two movies back-to-back (at the theater) in years, but it was fun and made for a very enjoyable day. Besides, it looked like it was getting ready to flood outside. 

Adding a ticket from each movie to the right side of the page serves as a reminder of what we did. All in all, a fabulous day and the sketch will make it easy to remember as I flip back through the book. 

You can see the "corrected" window sill in this image. 

Despite the imperfections, I find they don't detract from the memory in any way. If anything, for me, they add to the "patina" of the page as they speak to my divided attention.  

The journaling was added last as I recaptured my thoughts of the day, but I wanted it to appear as though the chocolate and sticker had been added last. 

Rather than get aggravated about the change to our day, we managed to embrace those unexpected moments and add them to the day and the page. It made for a far richer experience.