Beauty and Grace

Today, I was able to spend time working on a study for the next seasonal woman/tree pencil drawing.  It's nice to be working on some projects again - I really didn't have time after the mural to do anything but school and holiday stuff.  But now I can incorporate regular (hopefully daily) work at the drawing table.  My goal for this year is to really put forth an effort to do something with my art, whether it's for illustration, gallery, or both.  My "featured artist" show at the Town Center Gallery in October is certainly a motivator, but I've been compelled to do something now that my youngest can entertain herself for longer periods of time.

My daughter snapped this shot of me at work

So, after sketching some ideas over the past few days, I went forward with a study.  I used to be too impatient to do a study - I always just wanted to go right in and do it.  I'm finally willing to accept the fact that I'm never happy with the result when I do that - there's always something that doesn't sit right and I end up re-doing it (even if it's years later).  At last, I'm content with doing the extra work to get a result that I'm happy with.

A glimpse of the study for "Summer"

I've also decided that, now that this is a series, the "mother nature" idea isn't really sitting right with me.  That may have worked for the first one, but seeing more than one representation, the sense of beauty and grace stands out more to me.  

From One Season to the Next

Well, yesterday was a celebration of my oldest daughter who turned 14!  And today, it was back to school. We started with about half the subjects - I like to go in light (for my benefit as much as theirs).

Of course, last night - the last possible night of vacation - I actually sat down to work on something more than just sketching and doodling.  Well, I can't say that it was a new project - it was really one that I'd posted about before when it was almost done, and it sort of hung in that state ever since.  So, since diving into a major new project seemed unreasonable on a Sunday evening before the start of school, I just worked on fine-tuning the old so that I could call it "done."

#1 in the series - Spring

You may remember the "Mother Nature" doodle I did years ago, and this endeavor was simply finishing a re-do of that.  It is the first of a series of 4 woman/tree drawings that will represent each of the 4 seasons.  This first one is spring and I'm really excited about my idea for summer. I did do a little planning in the sketchbook on that one, but I won't reveal anything...yet.

Planning for the next one...Summer

Of course, for better or for worse, drawing and painting (or any other creative process) is energizing to me.  So, working into the night last night has its consequences - it was impossible for me to "wind down" and fall asleep for quite some time.  Not good when I had to get the girls up to do lessons this morning.  Still, I'm glad to be moving on from a lot of planning and idea exploration into actually producing something - it's invigorating.  But, I'm anticipating many more sleepless nights coming up.

Ta Daaaa!

So, here it is – my latest sketchbook doodle.

As you can probably see, it has some characteristics that are definitely “me.” However, as I noted before, I was pleasantly surprised to see this Art Deco-esque sort of character emerge. She’s a little more sophisticated than some of the other characters that I’ve worked on recently.

Of course, probably the first image I saw in the lines was cat-like (what’s with the cats already?!?). So, I played around with other lines until something else started coming through. My daughter said she was mermaid-like at the beginning, but she turned into “Mother Nature.”

I really couldn’t think of a good background, and I was afraid that the small details in the foreground would get lost (like they did for the clowns). So, she stands alone. Her pose reminds me of a conductor of an orchestra, and I could envision her having animals and birds around her. The animal studies I work on would come in handy for this. It’s definitely something to think about for a future completed work. But, that would require a large chunk of time – better left for summer.