Temple of Heaven Puzzle

So last week I was bored again and started poking through my craft box looking for something new to do. I came across the weird felt dessert kits I got in Japan that I will definitely have to do later, but I also came across these wooden puzzles I convinced my mother to buy for me when we were at Michael's a few years ago. I have two, the Temple of Heaven and the Dragon and Phoenix (can't get links to Michael's, but I sure didn't pay that much for them). I also have some cheap-o watercolor palettes leftover from the creation of Louis, the Greatest Halloween Costume I've Ever Made (2010). Louis was the best post-make-up career sculpting accomplishment I have ever done, and I'll tell you all about him some day.

Where I was going with this was Boredom + Wooden Puzzle + Watercolors = Something to Do. I decided to start with the Temple of Heaven because I really like the Dragon and Phoenix and figured I should practice before I made that. I have actually been to the real Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and I took this picture (among many, many others) in 2009:

So I used that for reference in painting. Which was tedious. Painting all these damn little pieces was TED.I.OUS. Also I ran out of the dark blue so combined teal and black for the very top, which doesn't look very good. The white didn't show up at all, so the billions of little pieces on the bottom that I tried to paint white look like I didn't paint them at all, so it looks super-half-assed.

Also, the pieces were quite inconsistent. I probably could have spent a lot of extra time figuring out how to arrange them all perfectly or sanding the shit out of them, but I just don't have the patience for that. I think if you buy a puzzle the pieces should already fit, is that too much to ask? For that matter, let's address the sandpaper they gave with the kit:

Yeah, no. Luckily I have some really rough emery boards that I am not likely to ever use on my actual fingernails, so I used one of those instead.

All in all, I would pronounce this: meh. It occupied my time, but now I'm done with it and just wish I still had a fireplace. It seems so wasteful to just chuck all this wood, but... this is ugly and just waiting for my cats to destroy it. Ah well, maybe the Dragon and Phoenix will turn out better.