Photo of the Week - "Feet" and a WIP update

When I learned what this week's theme was to be I knew right away what I wanted to shoot, but I would need a sunny (or at least dry!) day to do it.  The weather cooperated, so this afternoon I took myself out to the barnyard, got down on my tummy without anyone catching me at it, and shot this week's photo of "Feet".   (Back when Jake still milked in the afternoons, I could always tell about where he was in the job by the number of cow legs visible underneath the wall of the holding pen. Judging by what I see here, the milker has just started in on the second herd.)

A while ago I shared some practice watercolor sketches I had done of goldfish - I was so pleased with them that I decided to use some of them in a mixed media collage for my bathroom. First I painted and textured a canvas as a background, then I added the fish pieces. (Smarter people than I am will probably have already figured out that I should have applied the fish BEFORE the texturing, but oh well, now I know that too AND why, LOL.)

I decided that the fish stood out too strongly against the background, so I lightened the color a bit, then added wisps of silk torn from a hand-dyed silk cap over the edges. There are also some painted strips of cheesecloth along the bottom right - I wish they stood out a little more, but I will hit them up with some highlights when the medium dries.

I had hoped to finish this piece today, but there is so much medium holding everything down that I want it to dry undisturbed for a while before adding anything else. I have some little seashells that will be tucked into the folds of the cheesecloth, and also some micromarbles that are begging me to let them play with the fish. I really tried to avoid the micromarbles in this project, but I can't seem to help myself. :-)