Skewed Sketch #21

So these are still a kind of warm-up. I think I might try this guy again, perhaps several different times, in several different ways.....

Talker

It's time to align my actions with my desires. One of those desires is to make art, and to get better at it, but that will never happen unless I actually DO it. What do you believe in? Those are the things you should be actively pursuing. They should not just be ideals somewhere in your head or heart, but you should LIVE them.

Illustration Friday: Twirl

Ah, how many twirling dance pictures have I tried to make in the past couple of years. Here is one that I started almost a year ago, when I did the others, and never got beyond the sketch and the spattering. I wasn't sure what to do with it. Almost everything else I do has a lot to do with light, and this was just a spattered sillhouette again a mostly white background. But I thought I'd take a stab at it for this week's topic. Too bad I did some irreversible things early on that didn't work, but my motto has always been, if you don't like something, do something else to it. Well.....I am most definitely not done, because I still hate this, but I think I'll post it anyway, and change the image when (if?) I work on it some more.

This is all in the name of the practice I wrote about in my last entry.

I really need to start some new things. I haven't been doing much art. Too busy with other things, but one always ought to be actively working on the things that one has decided is important.

I'm also really wanting to use my dip pens again. I'm missing the variable lines....and the mess.....

Illustration Friday: Prepare

This week's topic is something I have been thinking about a lot, both in terms of individual projects, but also your whole life trajectory. You have to know what you want, or at least what direction you want to be moving in, and then prepare for that, so that when opportunities arise, you will be ready. It's part of saying "yes" to the universe.

I was visiting with a friend yesterday whom I hadn't seen for a long time, and she has a part time job working for a book-binder, one who does custom jobs with beautiful beautiful original artwork. She was telling me how beautiful all his work is, and how much she loves every single thing in his shop. So how does one go from loving something like that to working for someone like that? Well, she was prepared. Not deliberately. Not saying "I want to work for this guy," but every single time she had the opportunity to go into his shop, she did. She asked questions. She obviously loved it. And one day she said, "I wish I could stay here forever," and he said, "You should be my apprentice," and so she did. She didn't get paid at first, but now she does. It doesn't pay as much as her other job (which she doesn't love), but she made room and made time to do the thing she loved doing.

And we're all doing that with art. We have paper, and art supplies, and we start projects, and make sketches, and do all these things, even when we don't really have time for them. I am making sure that I am prepared for something to happen.