Mia and Daddy Ink

Greetings! It was quite the busy week mainly art-wise. Started the week with an art lesson with my main girls Gigi and Micah. I came up with an idea for a multi-media sketch which combined pen, watercolor and color pencil ON tone paper. Phew. First of all, I've never watercolor painted on tone paper before so I was a bit curious how this would turn out. Luckily, it worked. The subject was a cool firefly flying out of a jar piece. Surprisingly, my youngest student Gigi did fantastic and her sister shockingly stumbled. Turns out, a severe lack of sleep the last few nights really was the main factor. She let the lesson get the best of her sadly. Two days later, we did a group lesson adding two more to our class. Before class, I was requested that we do a Snape sketch. Upon arriving, Micah did a 3rd attempt of her firefly picture and did beautifully. She realized later that her original piece was actually totally fine and maybe tossing it in the garbage was a bad idea?

Anyways, my oldest students Micah and Vivian did a great job on their Snape sketches and didn't want me to start painting with their sisters. Sorry kids, but I gotta paint with the littles.  They did a unique platypus that I purposely picked because Gigi told me a few days prior, are her favorite animals. Because she nailed her first lesson earlier in the week, I thought she'd like to do this one with her buddy Lydia. They both did a great job in watercolor and overall, the art lessons for the week went great. Always humbled when everything works out and the kids show improvement. I also love that they are great listeners and take the advice and instructions seriously.

After art lessons, Mia and I went to HAWS to donate her $405.00 that she raised for the animal shelter. Everyone there was super nice with her and she even got a tour of the entire place. Before her tour started, she got a really sweet kitty to take a photo with. This beautiful black kitty with orange eyes named Salem. Mia said she was the softest kitten ever. The woman who took us on tour introduced Mia to everyone on staff proudly telling them about all the money she raised. Mia played with a rabbit, plenty of cats, some dogs and even a rat. Mia mainly enjoyed playing with the rat, Moose. They had a little pen for Mia to sit with the cute little creature and she could have totally spent another hour with the rat. She enjoyed all the hugs she got from the woman's bulldogs as well before we left for the day. Despite Mia remaining quiet throughout the day at HAWS, immediately after departing, she goes "BEST DAY EVER!!" Animals have such a special place in Mia's heart and I'm so glad we got to tour HAWS together.

Saturday, Mia and I went out to Ink Spot Tattoo to get her drawing of a red panda holding a pineapple with her signature tattooed on my left forearm. Mia did a great sketch and I was honored to have my tattoo artist permanently ink this one on me. He did my Hawaiian half sleeve which turned out great so it was a no brainer he'd do this one. He put on Netflix for Mia as she drew in her sketch book and glanced a bit every once in a while to see how the tattoo was going. I was thrilled to have her with me and loved watching her work with him picking out the colors and size for the piece. She did a great job on her cat and flower sketch she left for him. Who knows when my next tattoo will be, but I'm stoked she created this very special tattoo for me.

Today, I washed off the plasma before applying new Tegaderm which will stay on till for a few days. This is such a clean and safe way to recover and heal from tattoos. Especially where I work. Speaking of which, Mia got PLENTY of great compliments on her tattoo she drew and I couldn't wait to come home and tell her all about it. She was hella stoked. Watched a bit of the Chelsea vs Leicester match which ended in a 1-1 draw. Bummer. They need to continue to improve to climb up the table. Come on CHELS!! Fiorentina got a great win today and the Torrent drew on the road in NY. Awesome come back!

This week, tomorrow Mia finds out who her teacher is, which of course will lead to finding out which friends will be in her class. Tuesday is Picture Day followed by some painting with my students on their picnic table. Should be fun. Wednesday is another art lesson day. Thursday is the coaches meeting where we'll receive our rosters, equipment and jerseys for the season. Can't wait to start soccer. That's all for now, thanks for reading!