Sunday Sketches - Aren't we a Pear?

I'm new to Sunday Sketches, and so excited to put my first post up! I've been checking it out for a while now, but have never actually posted.

I have an affinity for mixed media pieces, but I especially love my water color pencils. They are so forgiving. When I first started with them, I used a brush to blend the colors. I have young children though, and they inevitably knocked the cup of water over, or took it to use with their paints. I couldn't always find a cup to use either. Then I discovered Copic markers makes a clear blender. It has a broad end for larger areas, and a fine tip paint brush end for detail work. A love affair was born!

In the piece below, I used my water color pencils to sketch the pears and fill them in, then blended with a Copic marker. The background, believe it or not, is made from large sheets of watercolored paper that I paint randomly then cut them up to make a "sketch" book. It's more blue in person, but I'm not sophisticated enough to fix it in Photoshop.

I don't always have a full concept in mind when I start a sketch, so I cheat and cut the finished focal piece out and adhere it to my background. I then add collage elements to support it.

I hope you like it! I call it "Aren't We a Pear" - because I'm terrible at naming paintings ;)

And now, for your Sunday dose of funny

Conversations with Mackenzie (age 5)

Her "Mom, can I have a sharpie?"

Appropriate Mom warning bells go off

Me "Whhhyyyy?"

Her "I need to write a note to the birds to tell them (she turns to the birds) to STOP POOPING ON MY SLIDE!"

Me "Sure"

She wrote them a note and made sure to add the consequence "If you poop on my slide again, I'm taking it down and you won't be able to do it anymore!"