Coloring Page Redux

There were a few things I didn't care for in the silhouette of the character, so I changed it. Do you see what it is? It's a minor thing if you don't, so don't worry. I'll tell you at the end of the post if you don't want to scroll down or can't tell. The same thing happened last week. Though I didn't color that one, I did redraw it.

First the amended drawing:

This was a character study, so I didn't do anything with the background. But in coloring it, I thought it needed more. I'd also forgot the earring I wanted to put in . I learned a lot doing this, (it took about six hours to color, which is all I wanted to spend). It's getting easier to think of ambient light and form. Sometimes the blending is a bit better. I'm using an old computer, an old Photoshop and a friend's old Wacom (I love it). I don't know if it was something I did or if it's the computer, but some of the drivers aren't working properly and the computer won't let me uninstall so I can reinstall, so I'm making it work. (yes there are times I get really frustrated over that, but I also figure if I can work under adverse circumstance, if they get better, it'll be a breeze. Besides Rodin was poor, blind and taught himself to draw, often using the the charcoal from his mother's files. If he can, than so can I with the amenities I've got). Anyhow, it's not the best, it's not the worst. And it was fun and I LEARNED a lot...

There are somethings more successful than others, and I got a bit tired. I'm glad I get to do this for myself now. If I were doing it for someone else, this wouldn't be done by a long shot. still I like the sheen of the shoe, some of the reflective lights and shadows. The quality of the colors. It's not a bad overall effort.

I reworked the other drawing as well. Again can you tell the difference (not fair I know, it's way down below, but perhaps you've printed it off and can see the differences? I'll let you know about the changes underneath.

Give up? His arm and her foot were too small in the original. I cleaned up a few of the forms, and some of the stuff with "Bruiser". On the original Pirate drawing, the shirt came out obscuring the teddy bear silhouette. I thought it much more interesting to see the teddy's outline and I made him a small bit larger.

In the coming weeks I'll be trying to incorporate my love of animals and environment again. I have some friends on Facebook who love certain kinds of creatures, I figured I'll try to incorporate those drawings on my page. Yeah, it's a blatant thing to try to entice them here. But also it's great practice and I love doing them. The more you do the easier and more thoughtful it gets. I really believe it's important for us to learn to live together. The old and they young, the human and the rest of the world, as well as all the different kinds of people. Feel free to give suggestions if you'd like to see a subject drawn out (get it, get it?! It's an artist joke!). I may or may not be able to get to it right away, but I appreciate the feedback, your taking the time to read my blog. Next weeks coloring page is for my daughter who is into sloths, from a friend of mine who lives in Costa Rica. 

This week's coloring page

Every once in a while I think it's great to multi task. Another art of life is knowing when to push yourself and when to let what's given be enough. I'm so loving the class on visual story telling I'm taking. It has cemented some of the things I've done and am doing, and opened up others. A very exciting thing. I have a bout a dozen projects in various stages (and the AWFUL thing about when the creative juices flow, is new ideas and concepts waft their way to fore, and it becomes a sifting/organizing thing as well. Note to self: Clean up your internal files!). Anyhow, there were two additional assignments, and I wanted to do them, but how to justify the time because the goals of getting my books out there in the next few months is a looming thing?

MULTITASK! So the character assignment of the kindly grizzled, peg legged sailor has become a coloring page (I will post my colored version next week, I would love it if people shared!). The scene will end up being my new blog header (remember the promise to change the illustration out every few months? This way I can keep that promise to myself, and practice what I've learned in class. Incorporating your art is a part of your job as well. Prioritizing is important, and it shouldn't take precedent over family, but it has to be one of your major considerations. One of the things I've been able to embrace in the difficult last year, I can make my work, my art a priority again. I hope you enjoy it!

Thoughts on this weeks COLORING PAGE

I like to think other people are enjoying my blog, but it's one of those things, it's never a certain thing. And like any creative endeavor, it must first serve the "self". I decided a coloring page is good because there are goals I've worked in. I need to be more comfortable and adept in my drawing as well as produce more work. A coloring page seemed a great way to keep myself accountable. If people liked my stuff and wanted to feed their creativity or weren't comfortable with drawing, it's my way of saying thank you. I hope they like my stuff so well they consider purchasing my images from my stores on various products or books, as it supports what I do. But if not, just seeing what I do in the vast scheme of things, still is deserving of a thank you (especially when you let me know and dialogue). But this is digressing to Monday's post.

I'm taking a FANTABULOUS, GLORIFICATORY, ULTIPRIMABARNONE THE BEST COURSE. A friend had gifted the School of Visual Storytelling's first course. Just as Will Terry's Photoshop course renewed my drawing (I couldn't see well enough to do ANYTHING, and though I had the equipment, didn't really know or understand how to use it. I think I will be learning about this particular piece for the next fifty years, but having a rudimentary knowledge was changing. I'm working again).

(Jake Parker and Will Terry are wonderful teachers. They are wonderful artists/storytellers. It's rare to find people who can do both. And they are a sheer joy to riff off of, and watch. Truthfully Monday and Wednesday nights are the highlights of my week).

It's the same with this course. I know and knew quite a bit. Some of it is embedded in me. But not KNOWING why something is done and kenning it makes my work a hit or miss at best.

I will say this. I don't believe in false modesty. I'd been rutted into not touting my own horn so I either come off as not having confidence or being so full of myself, there's hardly room for anyone else (that's an incorrect thing, I work ALONE a lot and I'm passionate, so it does get overpowering and perhaps intimidating even for me, lol, but put it in context and realize I do want to hear what others are saying, but want to hear something different inside my head. Also don't tell a thing like it's fact without being able to back up your reasoning. Sorry). Anyhow, this is long winded.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can draw. It took a lifetime to get here, don't know if it's a gift or an effort or more like a combination. I say that because it's a "nice" thing, but not everything.

Drawing in Photoshop is only BEGINNING to feel natural, and the programs and Wacom aren't working properly and I can't reseat them. So I don't know if it's ME (don't like the feel/glide of the pen on the Wacom surface) or the computer, the Wacom or a combination.

I suck at perspective. My design skills are less than mediocre, most of the time, and my coloring skills can be wonderful. Or not. Yes I can spend the next ten years muddling through that, but a CLASS with people who know their stuff, is ever so much more quicker. I still have to put in the time, but you know what, pointing me in the best direction is a great saver of all the things that aggravate me.

If you don't know what you're good at, you can't "sell" yourself. If you don't know what you need to improve, you can't do better, very much not really, because it's only a half-hearted stab at the problem(s).

So the coloring pages have become a good way to incorporate what I'm learning in class. I don't know if it's going to change what I do so much or wildly. I will have to go through the process to find this answer. Applying shaping and design concepts, line of action, proportions, leading the eye (something I knew about but didn't understand as fully as I do now, and as I say DOING something isn't the same thing, so it will take a lot of practice). I'd started the pages as a way to up my traffic, and get new people here. Selfish reasons, I need the lucre.

But now there's a real purpose to them. Not only being accountable to the commitment to DRAW, BUTT IN CHAIR. But also to speed up my process, improve it so I can work faster, more visually and show more perception. But now to incorporate all the things I'm learning in this class so it becomes second nature. That embracing your fear thing? That's the shtuff I don't do so well. In order to communicate on the level I'd like to I will have to master it.

One of the tidbits from class the other night that I got, and will become a centerpiece for ALL my work (easier said than done). When you're writing or illustrating, you want your reader to participate with you to that end. If you make it so difficult they have to THINK about it too much, you've not connected. That's not to say you can't be BUSY (think of getting lost in those I Spy books), but you must remain focused on what it is you're trying to convey. So with this long-winded explanation, the first coloring page to this end. Do let me hear about it!

The pas de deux part of the two fer (and a coloring page)...

This may seem off topic to a blog on art, and I've had people sometimes defriend me in the social cyber sphere because I've got opinions and share them. Okay sometimes A LOT. But that's what an artist does, I think.

Artists, whether they be into music, paint and pixels, words on a page, movement or any other expression are meant to EXPRESS. I'm arrogant enough, I want what I manifest to be worth my time in this place called Earth, so I work hard not just at that whole art thing, but the people thing as well. So this might SEEM off topic, but for me it is intrinsic to art--- especially my art. And this is from someone who is very uncomfortable with feeling and fearful of just about everything. I just work every day to get over it, sometimes more successful than others.

I've said this before, I will keep saying it, because I keep forgetting it. In order to create anything worthy of art, I embrace my fears. Sometimes I'm ham-handed in my efforts, sometimes it takes me a WHILE to get it. But anything worth creating has taken that wrangle and effort. I could say the same for my life.

This was recently brought home to me again, after another particularly brutal time, prior to these events.

I had complained of a hurt a bit ago, because I'd shown up at one of my favorite libraries and received the kind of reception I often get, and dread. In all fairness, it was bad timing, it was a hot day, there was a whirlwind of activity (which is true of most libraries nowadays and they work UNDER BUDGET, most of them are stressed, because they are a dedicated lot. Really, because of my movement around the last few years, I've visited a few libraries and I had been worried about the libraries. Now I'm worried for the librarians. The economic stresses have reached well into their structure and the full time job they used to do they must do in less than twenty hours, and still be gracious to people and meet all the public needs of their job. Usually with less staff.  So if you can, VOLUNTEER, your library will love you for it! But I digress).

In another life I might have gone off on such a thing (more likely it wouldn't have happened, we would have both been in a much better place). Instead I walked away hurt and vented a little at home and online and felt bad.

When I found an old friend volunteered at the library, I almost didn't go, but I have determined I was going to give people the opportunity to make their interaction with me about something other than appearances. And I needed to confront my fears, again. And besides, I could just ignore the offending person. Except a BUNCH of wonderful things happened. First I found my elder daughter's first teacher worked there. Then my friend came in, and I got to thank her so much for mentoring me when I really needed that beginning push. She encouraged me along the way, and I was able to give her a hug for having missed her for so long.

And that wasn't even the wonderful, WONDERFUL thing. The person who hurt my feelings came up and asked if I illustrated, I informed her that I wrote and illustrated and we'd met. Her whole demeanor sagged. She'd thought she'd recognized me, and she felt horrible for the way she'd treated me and apologized. She wanted to take the time to view the book I'd wanted to share before Nana's Gift, and the things she said more than made up for the initial hurt. I left the library bolstered, elated and mostly restored.

Except I'd not been gracious and had been extremely defensive. At first I felt exonerated and happy, I'd been right, I really was someone she would find good in and want to have around (have you noticed I love kids and books?!) But it quickly wore off and flattened. I really didn't like the way I'd dealt with her, even if it was still too raw and she'd originally been off to a bad start. Goodness knows I've done that so often. The best is when people could see my humanity and not only forgave me for it, but embraced me. I determined I would not only apologize, and explain to her how it hurt, and that what she did MATTERED. I want to know that about myself, so why not do that for someone else?

Then the truly great thing happened. It was work, hadn't planned on taking the walk, it threw a wrench in my timing, but it was exactly what I needed to do.

In the course of the apology I found we had so many things in common, I had been correct, I'd caught her not only at a bad time on that particular day, but there had been struggles on lots of levels that immediately made me glad I felt the remorse. She told me about an event, that I ended up attending and the speaker was inspirational. The speaker needed help getting her book published, and I'm happy to have met her and hope to help her in her goal.

The librarian was a fount of information, I know she'll help in some of my goals (I want to be able to get my e-books into the libraries, but it's a process, as well as get the word out about my books and efforts). I had an idea for a book I hope to work jointly on with her, because I know absolutely it's a necessary thing, and I have a feeling we'll have a great time working on it.

So what's this got to do with art? Art is about feeling, taking chances, bracing and then embracing your fears,  and then articulating all that so you can take others on a similar journey. Art is about empathy. If your life is not empathic to a certain degree-- how can you hope to make art? That doesn't mean to run out and become Mother Theresa (though we probably could use a few more like her). But it does mean, suspending judgment and ask more questions. Don't take things at FACE value (you'd not talk to me, because truth be told, the thing I hate is people who used to know me wanting to know whatever happened to me-- lack of funds and care darling-- and others dismissing me, because I've lived close to the bone and after 56 years, it shows. I don't need pity but I'll take your empathy and I will return that gift polished and shined).

Doesn't matter how fearful you are, learn and push yourself to live fearlessly, and you will be able to create something that people will respond to. It will make you an artist. I thank everyone in my life good, bad and even the indifferent (you haters, you know who you are!) because you've made me the artist I am.

For those of you who read this and are disappointed, I'm sorry.  You can see more of my work on my Facebook Fanpage or at agywilson.com. For the others, live fearlessly (not stupidly, don't do anything that will imperil you!) but by all means let me know if and how it affects what you create.

And now for something completely different, this weeks coloring page...

Filling a cup, planting a garden, washing a kidlet...

So if we are buddies on Facebook, or you follow me in any way shape or form you probably know I just moved, and well, I'm a-aching all over. It took more than the usual few hours and a cup of steaming hot Joe to wake me up, because I still have a bit of sludge between the ears. Some days are like that, and it's good to just give in, and let whatever needs to heal do its magic trick.

Many people often say to me they wish they could do art. I also know people (adults even who are brave enough to admit) who love to color. It's a calming thing for them, and it's not the "stress" of having to create something whole cloth, yet satisfies their need to be creative. And yes, I think that's a creative outlet. In an effort to keep people interested in my site, draw a wide variety, I thought I'd try posting coloring pages. It's also a way to keep me drawing (and encouraging one form of it or another EVERY day) and accountable. If I know people like this and respond to it, I will continue to create them, and my other things as well. I will ask, if you decide to try my coloring pages that you leave a comment, let me know what you think of it, how well it's reproducing, etc., and any other thoughts, including things you'd like to see. No guarantees on that one, but you never know, and I'm always looking for fun stuff and ways to stretch myself.

Fluff and stuff, is what I'm doing today. This would amount to stuff, and not fluff. Fluff was frittering on FB mostly, but I did make some friends from the online class, "spoke" with a few others and that was more stuff.   I sketched out the beginnings of a coloring page, for this blog. If I get 'er done I will post later. What I decided to do was to post my Mermaid rubberstamp drawing from long ago, along with a few details from what I rerendered in Photoshop... you saw them earlier, if you're familiar with my blog, but why make you scroll if you don't have to?  I hope you enjoy (will post a few other drawings today and tomorrow for the idea of coloring, if you like).

This was the original drawing (originally for rubberstamps). If you know how to scan and share, I'd love to see what you do with her (nothing NASTY, you guys, I love my imaginary friends as well!) I will post a couple of older drawings tomorrow for coloring and a new original by weekend.
And...
Remember to leave a comment if you decide to download, or have a particular subject or image in mind. Hope you enjoy!