We're almost there

I got in another hour on the painting yesterday after the last storm.  Deepened and darkened colors and contrasts.  I am almost ready for the last phase of putting in the little lines.  I want to add a little more transparency to the petals on the right, and I think I want to darken the upper and lower left corners, maybe give them just a little personality.  Then I'll remove the masking of the pistil & stamen section and put in the faint lines in the petals.  Two or three more hours should do it. 

And, voila', a Christmas card will be born. 

Yesterday my grandsons and I did a little project.  They had brought a couple of the pumpkins you get in craft stores, and wanted to put something on them.  Their decision was their favorite Pokemon characters.  So they printed them on the computer so we'd remember the colors.  Then I drew the images directly on the pumpkins with a sharpie, and then they painted them in.  After the paint was dry we went over the lines again to sharpen it up a bit.  They had a lot of fun and it was exactly what they wanted.  There are more characters on the opposite side, but that picture didn't turn out as well.