This work is from October 10th. We had a skinny hipstery model pose for the class. We did the drawings in class and then had to finish them for homework. I didn't draw her tattoos. I used the new cheap paper I bought, thinking that it didn't really matter, since these were just practice pieces. But the paper is really bad and doesn't take paint very well.

On the second one I started putting hair on her head and then "erased" it because it was turning out lame. So that looks stupid. When I was doing the drawing of the second one, the instructor asked me if I'd ever worked with figures before. I said no and then remembered that I had, in acrylics, and I told him that, and he just said, "Okay." I have no idea whether he thought my drawing was bad or good. I think it's fine.

The first one has some proportion issues but it doesn't matter. This was actually the second one I worked on in class. When I brought in the "finished piece," the instructor said I should have made her skin black to contrast with the background better. But I'd started the skin in class and added the background afterward, as instructed. And the model was white, so there.

I've missed the last two art classes because of work, so who knows what we're working on now. I'm doing a landscape that I started in class three weeks ago but I don't like it very much. It'll be up soon.

This was based on a photo in a J. Crew catalog. As I was doing it, Andy looked at it and didn't say anything, and then I got all defensive and accused him of thinking it wasn't good and we had an argument about how I was obviously frustrated and it doesn't matter what he thinks and I shouldn't need him to validate what I'm doing. And then I finally got him to tell me what he thought, and he said that it looked like I had gotten frustrated with it, and that just made me angrier.

In class, one of the students -- a kind of weird, awkward middle-aged guy who is both very interested in watercolors and completely unable to use them -- told me he liked it and asked if it was Michael Jackson. I said, "No, it's not, but it does look like him, doesn't it." I'd already thought that it looked like him, myself, but I didn't like thinking about it.

The instructor thought it was fine, just a little heavy under the neck.

For the first class, he had us go out and buy a piece of fruit. I bought an apple for fifty cents. Then we painted. I'm pretty happy with how the first one turned out. It was more careful than the second. In the second one, I just wanted to experiment with how wet I could make the paper and still end up with something I liked. I didn't stop until the instructor started whispering, "Stop!" to me, but I probably should have stopped even earlier.

The most challenging thing about watercolor for me is going to be knowing when to stop. One thing I like (or at least, am accustomed to) with acrylics is that I can just keep painting and painting. It will be difficult, because I won't always feel like putting down the paintbrush, but learning restraint will certainly be beneficial.