I was on a roll with my art work in November: regular schedule, lots of work happening, feeling good about what was coming out. Then the volunteer program that I volunteer with hit a major bump in the road and I came out of "retirement". I'm still a volunteer, but took up a more active role in the administration which has involved a fair amount of trouble shooting. Things are more stable now, but I expect to be busy for a while.
I'm making time for art though, and just finished a course through Craftsy called Dynamic Detail in Pen, Ink and Watercolor, instructed by Steven Reddy. Well, I say I've finished because I've watched the videos and am 80% of the way through the projects. It's an interesting process that Steven teaches, using an old masters' technique called grisaille. You put the values in using gray tones and then you add the color.
I've done the first stages on a couple of pieces:
You finish up by re-inking the contour lines in the foreground and then adding some hatching and a little white gel pen outlining. So now I have that part to do.
What does it all have to do with healing? It was very freeing, first there was no worry about perspective, correctness, or whether or not the product looked like the subject. Secondly, many stages of the process were meditative and I spent time out of time just focusing and breathing. Finally, as with all art work, the inner artist shows up and makes choices about what to draw, what to emphasize, how to organize, what colors to use, etc. So it leads towards having a personal style and finding one's voice.
