Interesting

Where did the week go? For me, it flew by in a whirlwind of being busy - - a little too busy without enough downtime or restful sleep. I fought with feeling tired and a little overwhelmed all week and did not find the time or energy to draw or paint at all yesterday. While I might only spend 10 minutes total on these activities on a busy day, I always feel like I've missed an opportunity when I skip a day.

I slept in this morning. With that and the weekend, I feel much more refreshed.

Earlier in the week, I did several more value sketches. Three were of people from Skchy. The unfinished one was the start of one from a photograph of black raspberries and foliage in my yard. What was interesting was that I partially shifted over to "drawing a person" rather than drawing the value shapes and values. I didn't realize it until I was done. It takes a lot of mental discipline, at least for me, to stay in the world of shapes and value, which is why I think it's a good skill to hone.

The other thing I noticed is that it's easier to approach an activity with a "fresh mind" the first time I do it. When I try to do the same thing the next time, it's like my brain goes into a "been there and done that" state and it's hard to stay true to my self-imposed assignment.

In other art-related news, I finished my August Art 4 Shelter painting.

#252 - Sunset at the Cabin - 5" x 7" paper 

The things I like about this one are the paint colors, the sunset, and the implied boat. I didn't go "overboard" on putting in too many details of the boat. Once I was done with the painting, I could see that the direction of the paint strokes of the water would have worked better if they were more horizontal.