I love Jen's drills! I love Jen's drills! Just finished Day 3 so I'll download what I have done up to now. I'm adding one exercise where my cat Céleste decided to help and put her paw prints all over the sheet. Anyway I digress... I'm looking forward to the next 11 days. I always learn a lot in Jen's classes. Thanks, Jen for coming with such fun classes!

Everything is a bit mixed up and I just now figured out how to add comments between photos! I'm going to post the two illustrations of the barn door side by side. My oh my! I'm surprises and delighted at how much progress I did in a little less than 14 days! i've got way more confidence, I've learned to know my brushes and what they can do, and practiced, practiced, practiced everyday like a mad woman and it was great fun! You are right, Jen there's nothing like drills to improve our skills! I've been enjoying this class so much and took a few days and evening to work on the drills ( I should say to play with the drills). I'm going to make a nice sampler page and post it here when it's finished. I'm definitely going to continue so I improve where I still need work. Again, thanks Jen for putting this amazing class together! You put so much care in your classes and it shows and I totally appreciate it! I'm looking forward to your next class!

 

And I can't resist, I have to add a photo of my assistant Céleste the cat who was there with me a good part of the time, either nestled in my arms (great practice to learn how to paint while holding a cat) or sleeping nearby, offering her moral support.

Lastly, one great take away is learning to know my brushes. I've accumulated many over the years and also enherited the ones from my dad and from my brother when they passed away. So I appreciate event more what I have. I'm planning to try more drills with my «petit gris» brushes (I think they are squirrel hair) from Raphël (France) and some of my Chinese brushes for calligraphy. I particularly learned to appreciate my Windsor and Newton brushes that are a mix of sable and synthetic fibers. I have 3 round brushes (no. 1, 4 and 6) and one flat brush (no.4). They were a gift from my brother, just a few months before he passed away. So they are even more precious to me. 

I redid the exercises using Dr. PH Martin vibrant watercolour inks on cotton paper. it's not watercolour paper but it absorbed the ink nicely. It's a totally different feel with the inks!