What a busy day. I started my taxes (I have to have them done early so I can file my daughter's FAFSA (Federal Application for Student Aid) for scholarships....which means a lot of number crunching before I take it to an accountant...providing we DO take it to an accountant (although it was my husband's idea he seems to be dragging his feet when it comes to calling the guy), I figured and paid the OH sales tax for the books sold in Ohio on Amazon, went to the Thursday group, finished sewing on the larger beads on the larger quilt I was working on...and did some other stuff.I needed to upload the most recent sketchbook entries before I got too stacked up. Again, the theme is "Highly Prized." I chose my sketchbook out of the stash that I had sitting around. I'm trying to use up things that I have rather than going out and buying new. I used water soluble oil pastels (if this doesn't sound like an oxymoron!) and then washed over it with a brush. The pages of this sketchbook are so thin that they make the pages wavy. What is it? Well, when we go to Florida to visit my husband's family, I love sitting on his mother's deck drinking coffee, eating pastelitos de guayaba and watching the water. Her condo is RIGHT on the beach at Siesta Key.
This is a quick work of the view out my kitchen window. I love the grasses and sedum heads, along with other plants in my garden in the winter. This is done in Derwent inktense pencils and I'll probably come back and do some more with it.
This little dealie is my bookshelf in the breakfast nook. I love books....and this shelf holds a portion of my cookbooks....I mean to shade in the white areas with gray.This last sketch...I sort of got carried away....and it has the marks of using up what I have. I wanted to do a sketch just of my eyes...but it turned out being my whole face...well, sort of my whole face..I don't think it really looks like me.
One of the things I have been struggling with is giving people who are older....as in middle aged and older the appearance of being so. For some reason, the cheeks I draw end up being rounded and smooth, wrinkles are hard to put in...
Of course the other problem was...my eraser. I couldn't find my art gum eraser and I used the one I had in the bag with my drawing pencils....only that eraser had been sitting in that bag ever since I was in high school....even pink pearls don't stay nice and happy for 30 years. I erased the mouth....and now it looks like I had a cup of hot chocolate.This whole process has been giving me pause...all right, this whole process PLUS the Sketchbook Project. I foolishing joined the Sketchbook Project last year...I got the moleskin sketchbook, paid my fees....and promptly misplaced the sketchbook....so I've been trying to fill in in . I have to send it back on Saturday. It is JUST awful. Horrible. I feel like my head had been full of grandiose ideas which are not coming to fruition. Of course, I meant it to be the thoughts and images I had while going through this cancer journey I am presently on....most of the pieces are just pencil sketches...and I'm not happy. There are blank pages I will try to fill tomorrow. And...I looked at Cynthia St. Charles' blog and the last two blogs are filled with her gorgeous images. I feel like just chucking the whole thing in the wastebasket and not returning it. Do go and look at hers.
Of course, this always brings back the other question...can I improve, or am I just kidding myself. Should I just get rid of all my fabrics, tools and art supplies? It certainly is daunting.
3 comments:
Don't give up! NO NO NO! In my opinion, I think it's great to admire other artists / their work and to learn what you can from their art, but comparing your art to someone else's is never productive. Your voice is your voice and it's wonderful. Embrace it. It may never look as _______ (fill in here however you'd like) as someone else's, but that's not the point; you're you. You get real pleasure out of creating art and that's reflected in what you do. And that's what also makes your voice shine and makes your art very worthwhile. Please stick with it. Let it make you happy.
P.S. My "authorization word" was rest spas. I like that!
I like rest spas too. I think I need one...What I REALLY need is to finish up this thing (thank you God for giving me a couple more days on the Sketchbook as my daughter DID inherit one gene from me...the procrastinator gene and I have to help her on a scholarship application due...tomorrow...
What I think I NEED right now is a finished quilt project I'm happy with...I need another pair of feet! (referring to Standing on Sacred Ground which makes me happy every time I look at it. That's when I think I can really do this.)
Don't give up! You'll feel better about your art when you're not so overwhelmed with other things, like the taxes. I echo Vivien: It's not good to compare your art to that of others. I love your blog and your work.
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