I still have lots of yarn involved WIPs to share, no worries, but tonight I want to share a rare thing-an almost finished drawing.
Artists are like writers, we are never (or very rarely) satisfied with a piece. Read a writer’s blog and you’ll get it. It’s a constant feeling of inadequacy (“that other guy draws/paints/shades/etc waaay better than me”), second guessing, and sheer terror when Sharpies (or any other permanent ink) are involved. I love to draw so much, especially sketching and coloring things to make them look…I dunno…tattoo-ey…like bold colors and simple lines and deep shadows. Traditional tattoo art is neat stuff. It’s really something to make something come alive on the page with just pencils and ink (see the writing comparison? Writers can make whole worlds out of words alone.) I love it when I can capture someone’s look and features in as few lines as possible.
Anyway, My bffs and my BFF have always encouraged me to draw. I have about 34 sketch pads, a set of Prismacolor markers, Prismacolor colored pencils (even the skin tone set -drool-), countless freaking pencils and erasers, and even a nice little kit for watercolor sketching on the go. Ergo, I am prepared, I really don’t have a decent excuse. I have sketchbooks that are older than my house. I should probably use them, right? And those skin tone pencils. Seriously. -drool-
But I’m terrified of it. I need the practice (or do I?), most of all I need the confidence to just go with it and not worry so much. I read a neat article about a graduation speech Joss* Whedon gave at Somewhere University and the main point was that we are better when we change. Our personalities should constantly change, we should accept when we are wrong, and try to see things in other people’s eyes. Don’t be afraid to be imperfect.
So I drew something tonight and I’m over the moon about it. Bffs gave me a blank play mat** for Magic the Gathering for Christmas, in the hopes I would draw something cool on it. I knew it was a mat when I opened the package (it was rolled up in a nice tube) but was confused when I didn’t see anything but horrifying whiteness when I unrolled it…no dragon? no angel? Nope. Uh oh. “Now you can draw something cool on there, that would be cooler than any of the other designs.” is pretty much what they said. Oof.
But no! (cue the internal dialog, which I will spare you of) I will not worry. I sketched a black lotus*** right away, when they were here. Partly to show them how I appreciated the gift and partly to get my ass in gear about it. (I am a high ranking official in the Court of Procrastination). I liked it a lot, and today I got the chance to color it in. I am using Sharpies (regular, I tried the fabric ones but they bled a lot more and weren’t as crisp) and a blue highlighter of unknown origin. It’s really cool, and I’m not afraid to say that. I plan on putting each of my regular MtG team on there as a representative of each color in the game. That will be me: white/plains, BFF:green/forest, deltafine:blue/water, MAB:red/fire, and RVXB3: black/doom. W has offered to draw me a dalek on there, so I’m totally taking him up on that tomorrow. I’ll ask him nicely to draw the Doctor on there too. ;-)

I’ll post the finished version asap. Now I just need to get back into sketching people.

*the article about Joss: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/29/joss-whedon-2013-wesleyan-commencement-address/
**Magic the Gathering is that geeky nerdy card game you may have heard about. We’re nuts for it. The play mats are a lot like huge mouse pads. They are nice and smooth and make it easier to handle all the cards in play.
***Black Lotus card: http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=600
It’s very rare and super cool. I just like drawing lotuses mostly and the colors are great. Part of what makes MtG such a fun game is the amazing artwork featured on each card. Deltafine even made a chainmaille bracelt based on it; it’s my favorite one.

Isn’t it neat? Doesn’t it look like a tattoo? :-)