Mickey Mouse Watch Watercolor Illustration
By Charlie

Piece Of Time

Written by Charlie O'Shields

For our prompt of “Keepsake” today, I looked around my house to see what various treasures I could find. It’s funny how some things become a keepsake, while others just stay things in my life. Lovely things I might not be ready to part with yet, but not things I will keep forever. Sitting on one particular shelf, there was a Mickey Mouse watch that Philippe bought for me. I have it on display rather than wearing it both because it was so special to me and also because it’s rather old. In fact, it’s the same age as I am, which makes it nearly 50 years old. He bought me the exact Mickey Mouse watch that came out the year I was born. Though, I was far too young then to wear a watch way back then, of course. Yet, I’ve been a Mickey fan my whole life and had a watch when I was a kid, but I’m not sure what happened to it over the years. So, I love that I share a birthday with this watch, and well, that after all of these years, we’re both still ticking.

Sometimes the word keepsake makes one think of precious family heirlooms, but I don’t really have anything quite like that. The only thing that came to mind once was a brass turtle hotel bell that my mother has sitting on a table when you walk into her house. I remembered this vividly from childhood, so it always makes me smile and feels like something very precious indeed. And though time spent with something can certainly increase it’s value, I have lots of lovely keepsakes that I’ve received over the last few years. For me, anything special I receive from a family member or good friend becomes an instant keepsake in my life. Scanning my shelves today to find something to sketch was a fun trip down memory lane. Sure, there were things I had to stop and question as to why they had survived so long and others that looked suspiciously like clutter. But every so often I was met with something that caused many happy memories to come flooding back to me.

The one trait that all of my keepsakes share is that they aren’t particularly valuable in a monetary sense. But when I look at them through the lens of emotional currency, each one becomes priceless. As today’s world looms around me with so much uncertainty in the air, I realized that these are the things that ground me. No matter what happens in my life, these little treasures will always remind me of what’s truly important. They remind me of times far simpler, times without worry, and times when all I felt in a single moment was simply a rush of love. I thought about wearing my Mickey Mouse watch today, just to have it close to me. But I left it on the shelf instead in the company of my other special memories. And though the watch will continue to age with me, it will still be here after I’m gone. They say that life is short, so I know that I’ll keep right on celebrating my memories each and every day, while doing all that I can to make the most of my own piece of time.

Want To Sketch Stuff With Me? Check Out My NEW Activity Book!

About the Doodlewash

Da Vinci Paint Co.: Quinacridone Red, Terra Cotta, Hansa Yellow Medium, Yellow Ochre, Cobalt Turquoise, and Indigo. Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen (Broad Nib) with black ink  in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. Want to purchase a print of this doodlewash? Send me a note with a link to this post, and I’ll add it to my shop!
 Mickey Mouse Watch Watercolor Illustration Sketchbook Detail

 

Charlie O'Shields

Creator of Doodlewash, founder of World Watercolor Month (July), World Watercolor Group, and host of the Sketching Stuff Podcast. Sharing watercolor illustrations and stories while proudly featuring talented artists from all over the world!

See author's posts

Recommended6 recommendationsPublished in By Charlie

42 Comments

0 Shares

42 thoughts on “Piece Of Time”

  4. Your painting looks like the real thing. I was ready to put my ear to the screen to listen for the ticking. All I heard was my bones creaking. That was a really spectacular gift…Awesome!!

    Reply

  5. I had a watch like that once upon a time. Unfortunately, I have a black thumb when it comes to watches. I’ve never had one that worked for more than a month, even the expensive ones. I was also known to cause mainframe computers to crash just by walking next to them (way back when). For years, I was forbidden to go near one at work.

    Reply

  11. Joe had your exact same watch when he was little, given to him by his surrogate grandma. He still misses that watch which was lost years ago. I have a pink Cinderella watch that was given to me by my grandparents. I still have it in one of my jewelry boxes. I wore it for years which you can tell because the pink band is worn out. The same grandparents also gave me my second watch that I still have too. It is especially important to me because I lost it once on a beach, and a few years later I ran into a woman who asked me if I had ever lost a watch on the beach. She had found it and kept it, and recognized it was mine because my name is engraved on the back. My last name was Cochenet. Not many of us around. So I got my watch back!

    Reply

  13. Oh what a wonderful sketch, for so many reasons! You nailed this one. Obviously your whole heart was in it. 😉 I love the reasoning behind why you own it. So sweet!

    Reply

  14. Thumbs up, Charlie! Love the painting and your post! So many memories to sift through. I still have those, even if I didn’t keep many actual objects 🤗

    Reply

  21. My first watch was also a Mickey Mouse. Mine had a dark brown velveteen strap and if I remember correctly, a hexagon shaped face. But the watch has long been lost and my memory may be foggy. (More than 20 years older than you, my memory is definitely foggy.) As for keepsakes, I seem to be the family keepsaker, by choice. One of my most favorites is the tiny pale yellow jacket that my grandparents took my dad home from the hospital in. Then I, first child of my generation on both sides of the family, also wore it. I took home both of our sons, and they took home their first born, a son in each family. Their daughters wore home the tiny dresses their moms had worn. The yellow jacket is too fragile to be washed, so newborns now wear it draped over their shoulders. The jacket, which we’ve always called a kimono, is now with younger son, awaiting the next generation. I should paint images of the babies brought home in it – that would be cool.

    Reply

Leave Me A Comment!

Discover more from Doodlewash®

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading