The rose bush will not look anything like it does right now. I will be softening the leaves and working on shadows and highlights to define the bush. The roses will end up a soft red, using the complement color of green to add shadow and calm the brightness down. Green mixed with red depending on how little or how much red or green you use will give you nice shadows and soften harsh colors. Usually, when I shadow I use a complementary color or a purple color, this keeps the colors vibrant. Using black for shadows sucks out all the color and makes a painting look muddy.

Everyone in my house is getting sick, and I have been busy cooking and cleaning like mad and trying to cheer people up. It sucks when one gets sick in the summer, so I try and help out. I don't fill sick yet; maybe I won't get the stomach virus this time around? However, I usually end up getting sick when everyone else is on the mend. I am a typical Mother; we put off illness to care for others.

I've been able to grab a few hours to paint a little bit here and there. Today I was able to sit quietly for two hours straight!

I went back over the background with cerulean blue and covered all my lighter areas with a light wash of cerulean blue (light blue) which gives the painting a dreamy quality. I define the flower beds and rose bush. I worked fast with a lot of wet on wet work to get the bleeding color for variation of foliage in the middle ground flowerbeds.

My second layer of paint is now finished. I will start adding details to the house and deeper shadows. I haven't worked on the cat Cleo yet. I will be working on her in the end when everything is finished.

E my granddaughter, 9 years old, soon to be 10 submitted a drawing of one of her favorite Pokemon's, Cascoon.