The Color of Water

I finished a book a week or so ago.

It's called The Color Of Water by James McBride. And it is an a fantastic book.

It's about a man who had a white mother and a black father.  His mother raised 12 kids by herself for most of her adult life after both of her husbands died.  In this book not only are you hearing his memories of his childhood and so forth, but also the story of his mother's past (something she never discussed with her children before).  It opens your eyes to the kind of hardship no one ever thinks about and what faith can do to a person.

I loved this book, though it was sad at some points, though there was some humor in there which earned  brownie points from me.

~~~~~~~~

As a project, I drew portraits of Ruth (the mother of James McBride) and James (though his portrait didn't turn out as well as I wanted it too).

I took a picture of it to share with you guys.  (Though keep in mind, it's not the completed project.)

This is my own picture.  Do not take it and say it is your own.  You need consent to use this picture!

I took this after I had finished Ruth.  She is my first finished woman portrait ever drawn successfully.  (There was this one a while back, but it came out really bad [because she had exposing teeth].)

After I took this picture, I darkened her hair a bit, fixed the chin, and shaded a bit more so she did look so monotonous.  Then for James I did some drastic fixes on him.  I made the top of his head taller, fixed his hair, narrowed his face, and touched up on his eyebrows and eyes.  The major problem I had with James's portrait was that his eyes were drawn farther apart than how it was suppose to be drawn.  I didn't realize this until I was done shading, and I knew I couldn't fix it without completely starting over. (BTW I didn't trace anything [people sometimes think I traced my work for some reason but the canvas is poster board sooo...], I just eyeballed it.)

If you'd like to compare portrait to actual picture then here are the pictures I used:

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! I THRIVE ON CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM!

If you'd like to read this book, then click below to buy one from Amazon.

Click Here!

If you'd like to buy it from Borders, then click here!

Or you can just go the the library and check it out there. :)

~Ally-Cat

PS

If you haven't noticed yet, I've added a little side note saying that I don't own any of the pictures I get off the internet. Please read that!