Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Elephant in the Room

Another baby step has been achieved! Actually, baby elephant steps. It's a big canvas, so that makes a difference in the shoe size I'm going by. The layout for the painting is done to size - all the characters and writing are in place, I just finished printing out fifteen 8 1/2"x11" drawings and Scotch taping them together like a puzzle to tape onto the 30"x40" canvas. When I showed it to my daughter she gave a happy gasp when she saw it. That's as good as a thumbs up, so I'm on my way to the fun part ---- painting.

 Here it is: Step 3 ..... (click on pic to enlarge)
Background to be added later.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Drawing a Blank

It's 8:15 Saturday morning. I have a "to do" list that trails from my computer to the mailbox - and to make matters worse, underneath that paper trail are deep trenches of quick sand. As I start on my favorite "to do", the earth suddenly pulls me in, slowly.... as if to warn me "Think about what you're about to take on.... is this REALLY a priority???" "I don't know," I ponder, "but my heart is tugging at me to do this particular thing." That's my problem here. You know that saying "If it feels good it must be right"? Well, that's a crock! The truth is "If it feels good your decisions could be vastly tainted."

Bottom line, all I want to do is draw, and the 30"x40" blank canvas standing on its easel is the to do that I'm drawn to (no pun intended). I don't want to take the 17 boxes of Christmas decorations out of storage and bring them into my house. I don't want to clean my house so that I can put up my 8,000 pieces of Christmas paraphernalia. I don't want to work on my weefive.com website where I have to struggle with learning how to put up a shopping cart so that I can start taking orders. I don't want to organize the paid bills and paperwork that pile up each hour. I don't want to cut my husband's hair that looks like he's homeless cuz I've been putting it off for so long. The truth is I don't want to get dressed. . . I don't even want to brush my hair!
I just want to sit
in my big cozy chair
in my cozy warm robe
with my pencil in hand
and draw the fun characters
that will adorn the blank canvas
that will hang from the wall
that sits against the crib
that my grandbaby sleeps in.

So, that's where I've been, and that's what I've been doing .... and, as promised in my last blog, here are some pencil sketches that I've come up. I can't WAIT to start the painting!!! ........ but I HAVE to until the time is right - after I've trudged through the difficult quick sand and crossed the "to do's" off my list in sequence of relevance instead of instant gratification.
YUK.
Oops! Gotta go. My husband's calling me. . . barber apron around his neck, comb and scissors in hand, waiting patiently so that he can cross "Have Susie cut my hair" off of HIS list of "to do's"!