Back To The Drawing Board

I've had a love-hate relationship with pencil and paper for so long now. I love the magic they can make together, and yet hate the struggle to find my own inner mojo. Ever since that first life drawing class in college, I've been in awe of the fact that my hand can put on paper what my eye can see. And I've stuck with that - just putting down what's in front of my face. When it comes to translating images in my head, well now, THAT's a different story!

At least until this last week. I spent several hours making a drawing of my own composition, for the first time pulling together elements I found in different photographs to make up my own story. Here she is:

I had a lovely photo of a seated young girl looking at a book. I'd intended to just draw her as-is, but I had such trouble with her hands! I worked and reworked, and finally felt I was in danger of spoiling the whole thing, so I put something in her lap to hide the hands altogether. (I know, I know, it's the lazy way out.) In the process of making this basic change, I had ideas falling out of my brain onto the paper. (EEEeeewwwww!)

I made the thing in her lap into a large flower. To add context, she morphed into a faery seated on a mushroom which I drew from a picture in Somepinkflowers' recent post (thanks, SPF for providing inspiration!) The other mushroom pictures came from my own back yard. It all came together so beautifully, I actually surprised myself! I know it's not High Art, but it does feel like I turned a small creative corner. It's just like Bob Ross used to say: "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents".

~

In other news, I'm finally getting my vacation! Saturday morning I’m hopping the …

for a 10 hour trek to central New Jersey.

I’m packed and ready to go

with my important Amtrak survival kit:

This is my long-awaited retreat. Marble Man got his when he went to the beach with his family last summer. Now’s my turn. While Marble Man stays home to dog sit, I’m heading North for some overdue Mom-and-Me time. I talk to her several times a week, but haven’t been to see her in over three years! We’ve planned meals out, trips to the movie theater, art sessions with her watercolor group

...and who knows what else (certainly lots of giggles!) ? I'm bringing my most recent sketches for a critique. Here's hoping she'll have some pointers for improving my faery drawing exercise so I can do even better next time.

I'll be without a computer while I'm gone, so I'll see you when I return on the 24th. Have a great week everyone.