Arts & Crafts: I Dug Through The Art Bins...

It's too wintery to go out.  I won't say it's freezing out there--because it is not--but it IS about 40 degrees and foggy and dark day after day.  With the enforced down-time, I've been working on an artistic collaboration with a friend.  It is the first time in years (at least eight years, I think) that I've worked with watercolors.  It was so sad to go through my supply of expensive, only slightly used tubes of paint and to find one after another leathery-dry and crystalized under the cap.  But I got what I needed, at least for the rough draft stage.

So, do you want to see it?  My first watercolor effort in eight years or more?  

I know...after all the build-up, it's a mere sketch.  Still, producing it took all day and rubbermaid tubs crammed full of materials co-opted every last bit of counter space in my kitchen.  

I ended up using watercolor, gouache, watercolor pencils, and micron pen.  It's far from perfect--in fact, it was interesting to note how some of the flaws became more noticeable once I scanned the original--but I am trying to move away from the pursuit of perfection and to actually finish some work.  A novel concept, huh?  With a portfolio filled with many unfinished ideas and very few completed works (those would be the "perfect" ones)  I think I need a new operating strategy.