Finding my Joy

This cheerful little girl certainly helps whenever I am feeling down or stressed. Her copy next to mine. Another series to work on together? In the meantime I am going back and continuing to work on our last series of fantastical creatures designed by her and refined by me. Some of those are coming out on the blog and on Etsy later this week. Taking a break from them to work on other projects was a good idea as I learned from these other projects. Learning comes from all sorts of areas in life. Schooling, books, experiences and time all influence me equally. 

My flower next to her copy. 

My Creative Bug is my Daughter

On a lark I signed up for a free trail and then a month of Creative Bug for the month long drawing class with Lisa Congdon and it has been great. Thankfully I am already a longtime Micron pen fan and I was able to dive right in and get to drawing. Then during our vacation day this week after being home and working while the kids played nicely together (I'm serious really I could get used to this growing up and maturing business) I put on the first video lesson for Alex and she was transfixed. She loves art and drawing and she is very much in sponge mode lately so she just took everything in. I am looking forward to seeing what she does with the material.

Winter dry skin, printmaking and drawing as an alternative.

Spending so much time drawing lately. Last week I decided to take a break from printing because all the handwashing was drying my hands out so bad they were at the point of cracking and bleeding. Eeek! I got some Gloves in a Bottle to help but I think I got them a little too late to help me out until I focus on some serious healing time. I hadn't made the connection of why I tend to draw and carve in the winter and print in the spring and summer and fall until now, maybe dry skin is why. Because I cannot escape the horrible dry winter skin. On the plus side that means as I give my hands a chance to heal by not handling ink and not washing them quite so much I can focus on drawing and generate some ideas and just generally enjoy that time to just draw. It's been pretty fabulous.

Time to Carve (again)

Not much of a break from carving when I am in the zone. Winter skin has forced me to step back and take a break from printing because all the extra hand washing and ink is hard on my already dry winter skin. Giving myself some time to heal. But as long as I don't cut myself carving does no such damage to my skin. I still have plenty of time to sketch every day when I am out of the house. But carving is something that I can only do at home and I need to use that time whenever I feel the push. I am feeling it. This is not a collaborative piece but my own simple design based from my sketchbook.