Today 6-19-2006

This is my first post. Today I finished a drawing for the Weekly Drawing Site. I haven't posted it yet, as they requested thumbnails, and I don't know how to do that. The subject was "ice".

I have been taking Katherine's Lesson on WC Basic 102: Class 3. I have enjoyed it greatly. I had never sketched from life. Just some self portraits. I try to do one of those a year. So far I have done three. Not very good ones. I tend to draw myself in the worst possible way. I see all the wrinkles, turned down lips, and frowns. I wear glasses to draw and can't see my eyes without them. But most people never see me with the glasses and don't see the resemblance.

In Katherine's class I finally overcame my fear of going into the public to sketch. At first I did some sketches inside my home as the site asked us to do. Then I ventured to my front stoop when it was almost dark out. More "undercover" that way. Then the back yard. The next trip was in the grocery store. Now I have progressed to sketching in the classroom's favorite, Starbuck's, and just this weekend at church and a restaurant.

I had onlookers at church even though I sit in the back row. A friend and her granddaughter kept watching. (I did listen to the sermon and enjoyed it very much) At the restaurant, the waiter gave my sketchbook a couple glances but never mentioned it. So I have lost a little of my fear of being watched.

I still came home and did a sketch of my hubby sleeping. That was a lot of sketching in one day for a person who had never sketched from life but always wanted. Anyone who needs a little push, should visit and work their way thru that class on sketching from life.

I will post the first (which was in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep and looks like a witch) and the second one which is the "photo" I posted in the WC yearbook, but will do that later. The last one I did was horrible. And the face was too long so I put a fold in the paper instead of starting over. It is really scary.

Eventually I will post some of my poetry. Some of it is thoughtful, some funny, and some very spiritual. I write poetry because I like it and it flows from me freely. It is my way of balancing my life. When anything is bothering me, my grief, worry, depression, happiness, etc comes out on the paper. Like having a therapist but less costly.

I have always written, be it ever so humble, even as a child. I remember in middle school, when I was mad at my mom, I would write a letter telling her how much I disliked her. Get it all out on paper, then tear it to shreds. She would have killed me if she had read them. But it got the frustration and anger out of me.

I still do that to this day. My husband went through medical problems with his heart. Some of the poetry expresses the fear, disbelief, and processes we went through at that time.

I hope that all who browse my blog will either enjoy it, get inspiration from it, or find your own peace in it.

"I am using my gift of this day, to use my gifts I've been given"

Thanks, Jeanne