Finished some art: Chinese New Year Monkey deco

My local art group is doing a Chinese New Year deco, and I chose to do the Dog and the Monkey. Well, I think we started this back in March, like whenever Chinese New Year actually was...and I finally finished the Monkey. I had to get my butt in gear because one of the people is auctioning off her finished book to raise money for Heifer International, and the auction is Dec. 7th. It's a good cause, the philosophy is kind of "If you give a man a fish," etc., only it's a cow or a goat. Something like that. Helps end world hunger. So the Monkey page, eez feeneeshed. I'm happy with it. I tried to draw a monkey but the head looked more like the swamp monster or Creature from the Black Lagoon, so I just used my monkey stamps instead. I have three monkey stamps! And I think I need more. I love monkey things.

I did paint the backgrounds and was really pleased with how those turned out. I have to admit my dumbness, though. I painted on this watercolor paper that I've had for like 5 years and never use. All the pages are glued together and I didn't know they were supposed to be like that when I got it, so at the time I called the store and told them and they corrected my ignorance, that it was a "block." Oh. But they didn't tell me how to get the pages apart! And I felt too stoopid to ask at the time. Now I would be like, "...and?!" So today my Mom's helper showed me how to separate the pages because she used to paint watercolors and has used this kind of "block" before. Now I can finally use it! And it's really nice, thick paper. This is what comes of being a "self-trained" artist, I guess. Moments of foolishness and complete ignorance. That some people will mock me for. That's okay, there's other nice people like N. who showed me how to do it and didn't laugh at me or anything. HA!