Getting up to date

Here's my contribution for The Way I See it Swap.  We each got assigned a person. I got assigned Camp Fire Lady and Buttercup got assigned to me.  I checked CFL's profile and she had Johnny Depp in capital letters in a couple places and I know she's a big believer in the Camp Fire organization. So I gave Johnny a Camp Fire tattoo.  CFL is an excellent carver, so I was pleased when this portrait turned out so well. 

On the left is my submission for the National Park Swap. What an awesome idea for a swap. When I went to the Evergreen State College in Olympia, I studied Environmental Studies.  We each had to do a report on a National Park or Monument.  I had to do my report on Aztec Ruins in New Mexico. Some one else did Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and I always thought that was such an interesting park. The pictures of the landscape look very foreign. I've never been to the park, but I hope to. This design is from a photo a yellow plant growing out of this black volcanic material with a desert landscape in the background I tried to recreate that in the LTC. I used watercolor pencils for the first time with this card. This has been my most successful application of the pencils.  They haven't looked as great on other cards. Watercolor work is so transparent every brush stroke shows and I'm not very exacting with my colors. I bought a book on watercolor pencils and I hope I get better with time.