Self Portrait

Because I haven't done a lot of art in the past six months, I have had a hard time getting back into doing it. I posted (below) about the Zentangle art that got my motivation going again.

So, I decided to start a portrait of my friend's grandaughter. And, everything that could go wrong did. For whatever reason, being out of practice, fear of not remembering how to draw, or something else, I could not get the portrait going. Last weekend was conference weekend and I like to draw while I watch conference. So, I tried during Saturday's session, and I got nothing. I finished the day feeling discouraged and frustrated.

On Sunday, I decided that maybe I needed to try something else. I have drawn my children. I have drawn my husband. But, I have put off drawing myself. With all of us, I would have the whole "set" of our family. But there is something about having to look at yourself up close (and see lines and wrinkles, knowing fully that you have to put them in or it won't look like you), and I was really afraid I wouldn't like it.  It took me a long time to even pick a photo that I wanted to draw.

So, Sunday came along and I abandoned the other portrait and pulled out mine (which I had sort of sketched out over a year ago), and I got to work. It worked out amazingly well. I still pick at it and see things I want to change, but overall, I really like my portrait, and it is nice to say I have now done our whole family. And, remarkably, it only took 3-4 hours to complete the drawing. Maybe I haven't forgotten everything I learned after all.

Here is my portrait:

And, for fun, here are the portraits of my husband and children - all of us together in the blog post. :)

Zentangle

I have taken a loooong time to get myself going back into art again. Summer was so busy and I had gone almost 6 months with no drawing, no quilting, no creating. And, I could feel it. I think I need to do things like this, for my emotional well being. It is amazing how much better I feel when I do something creative.

Well, one day I saw that Blick Art (an art supply store that I love) was doing a "contest". It was really a drawing, so no talent was needed. They wanted people to turn in a piece of art each day, which was an entry to win some art supplies. I pretty much never win drawings like that, but I thought that maybe if I entered each day, it would help get my creative juices flowing. The theme was Zentangle, or Tangle art, or Zen Doodle (It has many names).  The concept is kind of like doodling. You make shapes, you fill them in with patterns and designs. There aren't really rules to it. If you google it, you will see all kinds of quality - some are absolutely incredible - animals and such that are drawn with amazing detailed patterns that give their skin a really cool texture, etc.  Mine don't do that. Some days I didn't have a lot of time to draw, but I did manage to submit 12 or 13 of them to the contest. Not bad. And, yes, it did help get my creative juices flowing again. It was fun to try out, and the idea is that you use the process to relax and to get yourself feeling creative (Thus, the name ZEN doodle).  I am glad I tried it. I didn't win anything (bummer) but I did at least jumpstart my art again.  Here are some of my favorites (I like the butterflies the best, which is funny, because I am not even a big fan of butterfly things)  Enjoy.

I apologize for the massive size of the photos.  I am trying blogger from my ipad, and I haven't figured out how to make them smaller yet.