So. The next step was to meet with a bunch of doctors and other providers. But it seemed like a long time. And it was, really. Diagnosis was on Wednesday, March 25. My day-long appointment with my medical team wouldn’t be until April 2 – a week and a day. Jesus.
Every day started to seem surreal. I have this very serious disease but I feel physically fine and normal. Also there’s this PANDEMIC going on. People are dying right and left. We’re working from home and can only leave the house for essential purposes.
I haven’t left the house except to go on a couple of bike rides and walks, and for medical appointments, since March 20.
A friend of ours has been posting these wonderful watercolor tutorials on Facebook for quarantine entertainment. I had mentioned to The Mighty Sam that I thought it looked fun.
On either March 31 or April 1, The Mighty Sam presented me with a watercolor set!
So I started messing around with it right away.
Of course I did tried a little cat and a seagull right away. My next attempt was a seagull.
I am not very good at holding images in my head. I can imagine stuff vividly but my ability to translate what’s in my brain to something on the page is spotty. So I looked at pictures of seagulls and scallop shells to do this.
Watercolors are very weird to work with. Because they’re transparent and smeary, they end up doing a lot of cool effects just on their own, which is really fun. On the other hand, since they are so watery and smeary they are not very forgiving. So you have to sort of plan things out in advance, and then work fast!
The Mighty Sam suggested I paint Agador when he was looking really mad that time he was fixin’ to jump on my lap but saw that Aloysius was already there:
So I tried that. Obviously the result is very watercolor-y, but I think it captures the essence of his kitten anger.
I showed all these to my SIL, who requested that I do Frank Zappa. I’ve never been good at drawing people so I kind of balked a little. Well, I don’t really think I’ve ever been good at drawing ANYTHING, except maybe a few stylized animals that I practice and practice and practice on.
Then I looked at some pictures of Frank Zappa and he has really good, strong features and is mostly nose and hair, so I thought I would give it a try.
I had been going to make the background all magenta and hot pink, but I did the hair first and so I decided against it. My SIL said that this is recognizably Frank, so I’m happy about it.
I am now working on a picture of an octopus.
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Another thing I’m going to start on now is sewing some cloth face masks. The Mighty Sam bought me a a sewing machine and some supplies. Everyone is supposed to wear face masks now and I think this is going to continue even after things start opening up. And it’s really hard to buy things like that now, what with people stockpiling and hoarding everything.
Elastic was impossible to find, though, so I’m going to start with just fabric ties. I also couldn’t find any good thread, but I did find a little sewing kit that has a bunch of tiny spools in it. As long as they’ll sit on the sewing machine spindle they should be fine.
Somehow I think I missed the watercolor of Agador. You absolutely NAILED the expression on his face!!! I love it !! And I agree, that is recognizably Frank Zappa. I just showed it to my husband with no context whatsoever and he said, “Frank Zappa!”
Thanks! This has been really fun. I started painting some watercolor postcards which is fun because I can then just send them to people.