After about a month of preparation getting the house ready and getting moved out into the RV, we’ve actually hit the road!

Well, at least we’ve left our driveway. We’re now in the parking lot of the local community college having a late lunch at about 3:45 p.m.. After that, will be hitting the open road, westward bound.

The adventure begins!

When the kids go to sleep, I have a chance to work on my own art projects!  I have always struggled to capture realistic facial features in any medium, so I decided I would tackle eyes first.  I am so impressed with the amount and quality of art tutorials available on the internet today.  I simply searched for “oil pastel eyes” and found several pages of links and information.  I was especially impressed with one particular video that I watched several times and was eventually able to copy. 

Eye Study #1, in progress:

Eye Study #1, oil pastels, complete:

Tonight, I decided to try another approach which used pencil and watercolor.  The video I watched was a time-lapsed video of artist Mark Crilley drawing and painting an eye.  I was able to pause the video every few seconds and add to my drawing. 

Here, the artist is showing his chalk pastels that will be needed for the next step.  Sadly, I do not own chalk pastels.  Oh, well.

Eye Study #2, pencil, watercolor, charcoal:

This study needs more work.  The addition of chalk pastels would soften all the edges and lines for sure.  I am happy with the general shape of the eye, but I am still working on those pesky eye lashes. 

We are catching up on a bit of office work this morning. For the trip, I’ve switched to a notebook computer and am also using a Canon portable printer. The setup works pretty well!

My initial estimate of when we would be able to leave turned out to be more than a little optimistic.  We’re now aiming for a departure date of 7/28.

We’ve been living in the RV since 6/28, so this is already our longest stay in a single location.  Hopefully we can break this record in a location other than our driveway.

Stuff to do before we go includes finishing moving our stuff out the house, sorting through what we want to take with us on the trip, and cleaning out the garage.  There are also a couple major RV mods than need to be completed before we go.  There are plenty of other little things to do too.

So hang tight, we are leaving eventually, I promise!