One in a million sweet duckling paint along

Hello friends, thank you for meeting me up here on this post. When I was painting this duckie, it was seventh day of Chinese New Year, I mentioned it in the beginning of the video. I was going to talk more about the culture but I think I didn’t. On that day, the seventh day, we always have a vegetarian day. Reason for that is the over consumption of meat during the six days of New Year celebration, and the body really needs a break from the proteins, and it is very strictly observed I would say about 100 or so years ago in China. Nowaday no one really talked about that anymore. But I remembered my mother did observe it when we were young, and she cooked this seven vegetable stir fry every year, which I hated. I wanted to tell everyone here it is very hard for me to hate vegetables, I usually prefer vegetables than meat. Also thankful for my mom and dad for introducing us to lots of very good stir fry since I was young. I can even eat salad, salad is a western thing that learned to eat in United States. However my mom’s vegetable must have some kind of mint vegetables in there, and we all think it was awful. And the seventh day we eat that vegetable dish for dinner and lunch. I guess it’s a day of cleansing. Today the celebration of New Year is over, lasted about 10 days, it was always very sad for us, time to go back to school or work. It was always fun and memorable though. I try to keep the practice here at my home. Traditions are great, provide us with a time frame to make memories.

I know it is not St Patrick’s Day yet, but I was going to talk about the real feeling of luck, because that is all Chinese New Year is about. And guess what we didn’t, mainly I didn’t in the video. But I really love the Chinese traditions of exchanging greetings, and sending out good intentions and good vibes. Spreading joy and fun especially for childrens. I do believe that if we want to be lucky, which I don’t really know what that means, but prosperous, with good health, happy state of mind, we must do what we can to spread that with others. It maybe as simple as not slamming a door when you are in a parking spot to hit the car next to you. Do you realized when a person does that, she really is spreading unhappiness to others. Imagine a person coming back to the car and realized there is a big scratch, be it intentional or not, the unhappy and sad feeling may come back to you in some other ways. How nice it is if we can all realized that we can spread joy and love, not destructions and unhappiness. Sometimes it might take some self control and self awareness, that maybe at certain situation, we ourselves can be very angry, mad, anxious, ready to spread destructions along the path, but I hope that we can somehow take a deep breath, and try to be as kind as we can. Maybe least we can do is to keep quiet, wait till the destructive period is over, and be able to do better. If you want to know, I have to learn this myself, and I don’t claim to master that very well, but I try everyday. My husband knows very well that my fuse is so easily set off than his, and that I have to try harder. And I really prefer to make other happy than sad, especially if it is by choosing not to do something or do something nice. I am learning and I can tell I am making progress. And I do believe that as we do so, we make the world or at least those around us a bit more less anxious and more at peace, more happy. Hopefully the spirit of happiness will linger around us. It is something that of course we need to work on all our life, therefore choosing to be lucky and have good luck, and goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, as our ancient King David so beautifully put it.

Ok, so since this was something that I designed long time ago, it was not many details I had to work out. Mainly my green color mix, Indigo, Prylene green, sap green, cadm yellow light, and for the yellow the main part of the duckie I used yellow ochre, but I bring the color up brighter by using cadm light mix in, and quin burnt orange and burnt umber, and then some payne’s gray for some shadow. I think it is relatively and hope you try it.

I have changed my mind on what to do next again, I think beginning of next week I will do a problem solving video, mainly how to gadge watercolor and how to master the amount of pigment and water, and the science behind watercolor mixing. Maybe if time permits I will do some demo on doing a flat wash too. I have been thinking of you guys, and I am so glad Marty sent me a pic of his Owl that he had done. He did a great job. However I think talking about color without the setting of a painting maybe very useful. So I think it is important everyone can go watch, so stay tune.

Hey you guys have a very nice super bowl tomorrow, I am not so big a football fan, but I am so glad our own Salt lake boy won the gold in figure skating. I really love all the comments you left me, keep those coming. Be patience with yourself, time is on your side, and only time can make you good, make good use of your time and one day you can look back and appreciate what time and your effort did for you, and you need not ever look back again. Meanwhile keep those brushes wet. I have been working hard on tech problems, may have it all figured out. I love learning. Talk to you soon.

Kathy