The Lesser-Known Sick Little Pig

OK, I'm past my moment of self-doubt, but still it's been a rough week! While I haven't exactly been sick for the past month, I haven't exactly been healthy either. I've been drained of all energy with sniffles for a day, sore throat on another day - nothing that sticks around for any length of time or escalates into a cold or flu. Nothing just floors me or is excuse enough to step away from what needs doing and crawl into bed. Yesterday, my voice just up and left (sigh).

Needless to say, those spare moments that I normally would have crammed with doodling or some creative effort have been spent lying down, trying to regain some energy for my evening job. I did, however, make it out to the studio the other night and, at least, did a little drawing. The subject: farm animal; the medium: chalk pastel.

Even though I've expressed my desire to work with more natural colors, a blue pig immediately popped into my head. Soooooo, I went with the old familiar expressive color palette. It's kind of a stange little picture and, in retrospect, it reflects back on my own health and attitudes in recent weeks - the little pig sure looks sick (color, pose and facial expression - or lack of).

Of course, I chose the color, but I find this little pig representative of some other realizations about my drawing skills that I've been pondering recently and will elaborate in the near future. For now we'll just say that chalk pastel is not a comfortable medium for me. But, realities such as that are what drove me to create my little drawing game - it would force me work with materials outside of my comfort zone.