Mermaid Collection Finished!

I am so happy to say I have finished the Mermaid Collection! Four 8X10 line drawings done in ink and prismacolor pencils. I am so excited to show them to the lady who ordered them. It was a wonderful collection to work on and I had so much fun doing them. Here are pictures of the final results of the art work.

That doesn't define you. Then what does?

During a conversation with a friend today the following question (more or less) came into play, "What defines us?" I made several attempts to answer this question, but I still feel like my one word answer didn't give the question justice. So, after hours of mulling it over in my mind here is the conclusions I have come to.

What defines us? Is it our experiences? The things we have done or the things done to us? Maybe it pertains to our accomplishments or misfortunes: a college degree, marriage, divorce, procreation, wealth, bankruptcy. I have a college degree. I’m married, have kids, been divorced; does that define who I am. Not hardly. Perhaps it’s your title. I’m a wife, a Mother, a Woman, a Student, a Writer, an Artist. Sure, these are all things that describe me but these titles do not define me.

How about the furnishings in our homes, is that what defines us? Our clothes? Our jewelry. What about our skills?

Does any of this truly define who a person is?

After much thought, I’ve come to the simple conclusion. Defining who you are is not the same as describing who you are. The character is what defines a person. But the character is an enigma. It is ever changing. As you grow, so does it. As you meander through the experiences in life both good and bad, those experiences are what shape your character. Not in the experiences themselves, but in our reactions to those experiences. That is what defines our character, and that is what defines us.

Think of your character as a large unrefined piece of marble. Every experience in life, every choice you make chisels off pieces of that marble. Sure choices, the ones made with conviction and resolve fall like sure strokes upon the marbles face, each landing in the perfect spot taking away just enough to gain a glimpse of the masterpiece beneath. The strokes of the hammer upon the stone refines the marble, refines your character. From that first stroke, that piece of marble has changed. Never can it go back to what it was before, it can only move forward with what it has. And if the artist makes mistakes, just as mistakes happen in life, the design is not lost it is just redefined.

Coffee Please

A new day dawns, but the sun stays hidden behind a heavy bank of clouds. Oh how I miss the sun. The feel of its warmth on my face as I bask in its glory, but no, there is no sun. Only an endless sky of grey. I can almost feel their giddy anticipation as they wait to expel their watery contents on the already flooded ground.

But the rain stirs my mind and I have a chance to produce. With yesterdays rain I had a chance to finish the second stage of the Mermaid Collection. First stage was the pencil sketches I posted before. The second stage was the line art done in ink. A painstakingly long task using various widths of ink. I think I used up at least four pens drawing the lines.

As much as I would like to begin stage three, adding color, I think I will spend majority of the day revising Soul of the Lost, and writing a paper for school. Stage three of the Mermaid Collection may begin this evening or tomorrow. Either way I have high expectations for the day. Lots of coffee and tons accomplished.

Stage 2 of Mermaid Collection:

New Sketches

The sketches are done! I spent better part of my day getting these cute mermaid sketches finished. A friend of mine wanted some line art done for her daughter for her birthday. Her daughter has Autism and loves to follow lines on maps. After seeing works like the Jellyfish one to the left she thought her daughter would love my line art.



So here are the four sketches I have come up with. Behind the sketches I will put the water like what is above in the Jellyfish picture. I am excited to get them started!

Deadline

So I have set my deadline to have my editing done by January 23rd so I can enter Soul of the Lost in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest (ABNAC). Now that I am full into revisions I honestly don't know if I will be done by then!

Class is beginning again on Saturday. I have a article summary due that same day. My first day of first grade observations is on Thursday and I have some mermaid sketches to do for a friend who wants to purchase some line drawings for her daughter's birthday by the end of the month.

Revisions are going slow. As soon as I think I have one chapter done I realize there was something I missed. First time I read through I am looking at the content. Does everything add up. Does the chapter make sense. Is there a plot point I need to add. Dialogue I need to fix. After I have read through I make note of words I have used again and again. "Slowly, and quickly" seemed to be my favorites in chapter 1 & 2. Not to mention my love of adverbs. So many have already been cut or changed to stronger verbs. Then I get to the dreaded passive voice.... UGH!

I know all this hard work will pay off, especially when I go to write the sequel and I remember not to use so many adverbs and to avoid passive voice like the plague! No matter what this is a learning experience. If I make my deadline that is great and I can enter Soul of the Lost in the competition. As much as I want to enter it into the competition I worry about it too. Once it is entered you can't submit it for representation anywhere else. So from January 24 till the end of June (if it were to go that far in the competition) I could do nothing else with it.

For now I will just keep plugging along and we will see where the chips fall.

Clear Blue Sky

At least once a day I find myself drawn to stare out the window for a few minutes. I watch the breeze as it rustles the tall tree tops in the distance. The cluster of birds as they flutter across the sky. Or any other movement that catches my eyes. Today I was met by an unexpected surprise through my window view. Blue sky! Though it is a measly 35 degrees out, the sky is a brilliant robin's egg blue. From where I sit there isn't a cloud in sight. Not a single white puffy cloud or the dark dismal gray ones readying to dump their heavy load on my little Washington town. Not that the rain is unexpected, on the contrary the blue sky is the unexpected, and the sun! During the summers I long for winter, even for the rain. Once the winter gets here, spring and warmth is all I can think about. Play dates at the park. Pick-nicks in the grass. The sound of my children's laughter as they frolic and play outdoors exploring the rich environment around them. I can't wait for the time of nature walks and the sporadic after school ice cream treats. So come on Spring. I miss your warmth, and splendor. I miss the sound of the birds singing, and children playing. I miss the pink cherry tree blossoms, and when the wind blows them away making it look like snow. So Winter, though it is only the beginning of January you need to be on your way. I've been cooped up inside for far too long and it is time for Spring to come back!

And now that I have wasted a good hour of my day staring out the window and writing about it, it is time to get back to work. I have pages and pages to revise and a house desperately needing some TLC, not to mention a deep clean. My goal today is to get through at least two chapters of revisions.

Finished

I feel like this is a good of time as any to begin a blog to help chronicle how things are going, not just with my writing but with my other artistic endeavors. Well the first draft of Soul of the Lost is done. 80,000 words! And now revisions have begun. Of course that light I saw at the end of the tunnel while coming to the end of Soul of the Lost is shrinking in the distance now that revisions have started. So far I have added nearly 10,000 words of edited material and I am hardly into the novel. Oh well. The extra work it takes to hone my writing skills and polish this sucker into the beautiful gem I know it is will be well worth it. Then it will be time to get the sequel started~