A Little Cowboy Portrait and Garden Woes

I just finished this portrait of my niece's little boy, Read.  He's a cute little ole' cowboy!  It's been awhile since I've done a realistic anything, let alone a  portrait, so it was a little challenging but not too bad.  It's cut out of wood and then mounted on an 8 x 10 wood backboard for framing.  I used to do woodburned portraits for a living years ago.  This one isn't woodburned, it's airbrushed and I've never actually airbrushed a portrait before..  I could have (should have) accented the highlights and deepened the shadows now that I see it from this perspective of a photograph.

And my lettering leaves something to be desired....I'm no Sara!  I just kind of free-handed it on there and didn't try very hard I'm afraid. Lettering, eh, not into it.  I've already sealed it, though, so it's done and I just have to accept it. Airbrushing doesn't leave a whole lot of room for expression like brushwork does, though.  In retrospect, if I had to do it over, I'd probably brush paint it so there would be little more character in the rendering. (Stop it, Laurie, it's finished..gah!)

My niece Kris works with my sister Nancy who has a very successful tax and financial consulting business and she did our taxes this year.  In typical Laurie style, I assume that she might like something more personal than cash for payment. I hope that assumption isn't one-sided!  Maybe I should've asked.....

Well the deer ate my ENTIRE garden and started in on my precious purple phlox. Right down to the stems.   Man, I was just like, ERRRRRRRR.  They even ate the tops off my giant sunflowers and my morning glories. The only thing left is a bumper crop of passion flower vines.  By the way, passion flowers are super cool looking, but they spread like alien freak plants.

Between the early flooding, the hail and the cold followed by record heat, draught, and now deer, it's not been a good year for growing things.  If that's not bad enough, my cherry tree has no cherries, my apple tree has no apples, my mulberry tree has no mulberries and my pear tree has maybe six pears.  What in the world... ?   I don't know if it's crazy weather or if the honeybees have taken a hit and things just didn't get pollinated. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any honeybees this year. I bet it's because of that damn electric company and their toxic herbicide program. I'd rather have growing thngs than electricity.  We didn't even get any black raspberries this year and those are always copious.

Ah well, whine whine wah wah wahhhhhhh.  I'd better get out into the studio and make something before I depress myself and everyone around me!  Gah!

Have an awesome whatever day this is!

Laurie