A Quiet Moment of Reflection

There are some days when I just don't want to speak....just write and listen to all that is going on inside of me.   Today is that day....a quiet day of reflection starting out on my back deck, a cup of good coffee and my journal.   Life is good.  Especially when you slow down and listen.

Walking Towards It

I've been away most of the week so would you believe I haven't painted since last weekend??? Shocking I know.  I have messed around in my journal during my travels and this is one of the faces in my new journal that came out of my time away.    I used a magazine model as a reference and you know how those models are...

Their features are so pronounced and unique that its hard not to look either almost character like or in this case a little sinister..lol.   She looks like she is giving someone a glare like you've just shit in her cornflakes and she finds it not in the least bit funny.  :))  I do like her lips....full and pouty kinda Angelina Jolie like.   The eyes are a little witch like.   and the writing I just screwed up totally..lol.  But if you put those things aside...not too bad overall!  Journals are our place to play. If things don't come out like you want then the hell with it, move on and go onto your next page.  It's not going to stop me from doing another page and another......

Just like I wrote here...I had a vision and it seemed too hard and so far out of reach....until I went and walked towards it. I know I can do it....I just have to practice and it will get to be more like I envision.  If we stand in place, the dream or goal doesn't get any closer.  If we walk towards it, even if we take the wrong road or a short detour, we are making progress. It's all good. :)

 

 

 

Can't Sleep Make Art Art Everyday Month Day 30

And so here it is, the end of Art Everyday Month!  Where did the time go? Like an impatient child, time keeps going and going whether or not we keep up with it or not. It moves on whether we are ready or not.  I'm ready for December and so happy for the month that I've had in art. I've learned a lot, I've created a lot and the challenge has  taught me a bit about endurance and routine.  Just like anything, you can make excuses after excuses as to why you can't do something. If you spent a few minutes a day doing things in the same amount of time you complain about not having time do it--you will  be surprised in a good way that you can you accomplish sometihng once your obstacles are removed!   Last year at this time I wrote an article in Cloth Paper Scissors about just BEGINNING (A Beginner's Guide to Beginning  Jan/Feb 2010).  Half the battle is creating good habits and  setting time aside everyday to do what you love alongside with doing what you need to do.  Are you a morning person or a night person. I'm a night person. I just am.  I will get up early though and do stuff but right now, I do most of my work late in the evening just because that's when life settles down, I get home from work, chores are done..yadayada.  

Last night, I couldn't sleep.  I was tired but I couldn't fall asleep.  I grabbed my new journal that is going to be dedicated to faces, and started in that with just a few simple tools.  A couple pencils, pen, marker and eraser.  No magical set up or items and I just started drawing this face. I don't even really care for how it came out, I"m not good at drawing profiles.  But that's all right because one day I will be good at it.  I'll keep on trying and late at night when I can't sleep because too many things are buzzing around my head, I'll have something release my feelings into.  I'll keep this up and other creative techniques I've incoporated into my creative routine so that maybe this time next year, I'll not only be writing about beginning things, I'll be well into a new career path and full time art life. It's going to happen. I can feel it :)   Stay tuned and lets see.

I hope good things come to you with your new creative routines that were forged this month and you continue to be inspired by the friends and connections you have made  during the challenge. I know I will and I am :)

 

Warning, Drawing in Bed Can Be Dangerous!

So yesterday was a good day. Not that I won a blue medal for accomplishments but I did do a fair share of work on my day off and didn't have to hang my head in shame for laziness. As I mentioned in my last post, the morning was full of 'bizness' research, marketing, and updating the shop a bit. Okay and a whole lot of reading blogs. But I surfed in between the bizness work, I swear! By lunch time, I decided to get my arse up and out of the computer room to start the cleaning adventure and I got pretty far, vacuumed, dusted, swept,mopped the floors (I hate that job), cleaned the counters, and did the laundry AND watched my dvr'd episode of American Idol (guilty pleasure) while doing all the chores. By two o'clock, I was ready to hit the thrift highway--and just maybe a trip to Michael's might be in order as a sort of reward for my hard work. ..lol...(((got to justify my trip or I might be put into craft rehab))). Those 40% coupons are all I need to see to cause me to fall off my supply wagon. I only went to 2 places, Karen's Attic and a thrift store near my work called Yesterdays. It's been several months since I have done any thrifting at all. Did I find anything?? A cute man cashier at one of the stores . I bought things there just so he could cash me out.. LOL. No just kidding, I really needed the small glass container, 75% off angel, and shabby chic painted pot that I found. I spent 6.42 cents so I could be cashed out by a good looking man. Am I pathetic or what??? LOL
I did some more artwork later in the evening, painted some backgrounds while watching American Idol results show, and then went to bed surrounded by my supplies and drew this portrait of someone (not me, it would have a lot more gray hairs and a the makings of a double chin if it were me). I've always had a hard time with eyes, and noses. And Lips. And Hair. Hell, I have hard time with the whole damn face. The reason why you don't see 2 eyes is because my attempt and making it symmetrical turned out very very very bad. Looked like a devil woman. I still need some work , it's hard to draw in bed. By the time it was said and pretty much done, I had graphite all over my arms and on my sheets...LOL. Guess I know what laundry I'm doing today. I had the worst time sleeping last night. I woke up about 10 times and that's with not being fall asleep until 1 am. I started off in bed at 9:40 and my eyes didn't close for another 4 hours. I'm sure an overload of caffeine played a role in my lack of sleep. Anywhoo--I decided to get up for good at about 5:15 am as there are lots of things on my agenda for today, too. I'd like to get a hair cut but not sure if that's going to be in the cards or not. I need to straighten my hair before I go and that's an hour job in itself. Reason for that is I want to go shorter and in order to make sure the "straight" style will work, my hair has to be straightened by me--the hair stylists never ever can do it right. I've had yet to have a good blow out by a hair stylists. Of course, my not paying more than 20 dollars probably has something to do with it...LOL...you get what you pay for, I guess. My thin, curly hair looks like a hot mess when they get done straightening it, so I've long discovered, I'm a lot happier when I just do it. Later on today we are leaving out for the weekend so I guess I need to pack as well. No rest for the wicked!

Here's hoping you have an artfully great weekend!

Taking Control of the Clutter

I'd thought I'd share tonight my newest prototype for some illustrations I want to do. I haven't quite decided if I want to do them in pencil, pen, watercolor, marker--or what so this is just a practice picture but one that I want to expand on in future "collections". I made this "Doodle Girl" using pen and colored pencil--but I really think watercolors would have worked too. Maybe working in every medium is just fine too, that's what I have been doing lately anyway!

I'd like to work more in collections or themes but not sure if that's possibe right yet as I'm loving trying everything. Most of the time you can spot a particular artist by the style of their work, a musician by the sound of her voice, a guitar player through the his unique riff, a drummer by his beat. I'm not sure if I have my voice or beat just yet but perhaps my style is evolving.

Jane commented (sooo sweetly) on my last post, that I should look back and see how far I've come in the 7 months that I've been doing this so I did just that tonite. I reorganized my pictures and uploaded them to flickr and I think I have them pretty close to the order I've created to them in my
collage set. Please check it out and let me know what you think so far. It does make me feel better seeing how far I've come despite my own personal adversity.

Speaking of that--thank you all for the sweet and empowering comments you left me from my last post. It does make me feel much better to know I have several people out there that are cheering from the sidelines when I need it :)

This weekend I had a need to reorganize things a bit. I had a collection of boxes and packing material for my swaps and etsy sales sitting in a corner of my bedroom and that collection kept growing and growing. I'd lay down at night and it would glare at me from the corner it was housed so I finally broke the boxes all down and stashed them in a somewhat empty closet out of sight. Phew--major improvement. Your bedroom is supposed to be your santuary but it was become a warehouse!

I then moved on to my book shelves. I have a three piece built in with two cupboards in the center that sits in the corner of my living room. At yard sales over this last year I have bought a ton of books (I said bought...not read ;), I also had been given a bunch over this year between cookbooks and regular books, childrens books----books books books. EVERYWHERE. In addition, I bought 114 National Geographic magazines for my collages at a yard sale for 10 cents each. Those were sitting in a box by my couch and another box in my dining room. I had no where to go with them with only 3 closets here, no attic, no basement, no shed--so I had to figure out something. So..bookshelf cleaning I did. I tore out everything, put several up for a "future" yard sale and reorganized my knick knacks on the shelves making room for all the magazines. Phew--those two projects alone took me 4-5 hours. Then came Josh's room---did the same thing with his bookshelf and we got rid of a bunch of things, set some aside for sale, and reorganized what was left. 5 pm Sunday---finally done. What a blessed project! You have no idea how good I feel though now that it's done! Oh, I forgot, I also reorganized my "dining room studio"..LOL..Hopefully come Thanksgiving I will be able to see my table (because I'm having guests), I really have no choice which is a good thing. Sometimes I need a little motivation.

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The moral of the story is, when things spiral out of control or you have a lot of negative vibes screaming at you, even if it's coming from inanimate objects, it may be best just to remove that negativity. Don't procrastinate because it will eat at you until it destroys you! Yes, pile ups of books, boxes, paints, papers, can destroy you....LOL..or at least hamper your creativity or dampen your motiviation.

I'm reenergized now--so much I even colorized my 12x12 paper tonight.. LOL Whooooohoooooo call me crazy!

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Have a great week!

lucy