Tag: drawing

Back to Work – Let the Stress Begin!

I had all of last week off – 10 days total – and in that time period we celebrated two Thanksgiving, did a whole lot of baking and cooking, saw friends and family.  In between, I managed to sketch and / or watercolor everyday.  In that time period, I had a lot of fun and found myself feeling really glad to be painting again.  Of course, some stuff was pure rubbish, but others produced a sense of satisfaction.  Even better, I could begin to see progress.  The connection between mind and hand and color and paper is beginning to return.

But now – can I keep this up?  Certainly not at the pace I was doing it.  But I have made a decision:  I will use my photos as the basis for sketches and paintings, and try to turn out two a week minimum, perhaps three.  When will I do it?  In the mornings, while I drink my coffee, and instead of looking at the depressing global situation, I’ll look at lines and colors instead.  Seems like a good deal, if you ask me!

 

Projects, or, Wonder Woman Does Not Live Here

3-365-corner-of-the-world-autumn-rain

We have been enjoying rain for the past several weeks, and it shows.  Colors are more intense as the winter grasses emerge, the cold is shaking the leaves into color, and the subdued light intensifies the beauty of the trails nearby.  Of course, post-production helps, too.  I’ve enjoyed the weather – wind, rain, clouds, sunshine, cold.

The variety of weather has really helped, too, as this past week I’ve been dealing with dental problems and dental pain.  I didn’t know my teeth could be so annoying!!  However, things are calming down, and thank goodness for dental insurance, and good dentists.

Around here, there are a lot of things afoot, and not enough time to do them all.  I have been doing the following:

I thought I would be able to do it all, and still work my silly schedule, but it may be that I will need to scale back a bit.  I really want to do all these things, but find that an 11-hour day is so long that by the time I get home, I can just function.  This means eat dinner, do the dishes, and either fall asleep or watch a bit of TV, and then fall asleep.  How dull, eh?

What I am finding useful, though, is to actually schedule my creative time.   This means sit down and decide what I want to do on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  If I don’t, I get distracted, and other things just won’t happen.  And trust me, there are lots of things to distract me (besides aching teeth).  If I stay focused on my projects, I become a recluse and don’t get out of the house.  Friends and family help to keep me human, not a raving, obsessed something.

Turquoise

This morning I was going through a number of the blogs I enjoy reading. One is Cole Wardell’s. When I got there, since my last visit, she had a fun display of her art supplies. Pencils encased in wood! Watercolors! A knife!

On my desk, I have a container of Prismacolor medium pencils for drawing, still unsharpened.  Now all have points. They will come with me to work, and this will be my creative project focal point for today. In between whatever I do, I will get something done with these pencils, if only to remember what it is like to have one in my hand for something other than writing out notes.