Yes, art has been happening!

I've been doing tons of art--it's been great. I haven't been great about blogging about it, though. Here's what I've been up to.

I've had three pieces accepted in the last two "BIG Arts" juried art shows on Sanibel Island. I'm batting 1000! These were my first attempts to show things at art shows since I was a kid and submitted things to children's art shows. I know that rejection is in my future and will be good for me, but it's nice to have success early on! The most recent show is going on right now, until the end of April at BIG Arts. If you're in Southwest Florida, stop on by! My piece is called Sunset Shadows. Here's a photo.

One thing I like about this is that it's a black and white sunset picture. It really gets you to focus on the shadows and not the brilliant colors that you might ordinarily see in a sunset. There is a tiny bit of red Conte' crayon in the sky and the reflection, but it's barely visible in person and hardly at all in this photo. Also, I love the ripples. I'm a big fan of ripples.

Another thing I've been doing is the 100 Days Project. If you've not heard of it, the idea is just to do the same activity every day for 100 days. By the end, hopefully it's a habit, if you want it to be a habit, and hopefully you've improved at whatever it is. It can (and should) be pretty simple, so it's something you can keep doing every day without too much trouble. I heard about it on a blog in early March and started it on that person's start date, but I'm not following along with anyone officially. I decided to focus on comics. I've always wanted to be able to show a person or a place or a scene without having to take photos and work forever trying to get all the details right. I'm not a casual drawer, but I'd really love to be. Kate Beaton, of "Hark, a Vagrant" fame, occasionally does little comics about things that happen during the day, and I love them. They're just little sketches and they tell exactly what they need to. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to take one thing from my day, even if it's just a thought, and put it in my little 6"x6" sketchpad. I've been having a ton of fun. The drawings are at times absolutely terrible, but I do feel that I'm getting better at drawing from my imagination. And, to keep me honest, I'll put them up here. I tried to put up the lot from March 6 through last night, but I think it was too much for Blogspot to handle. I'll do a few of posts of several comics each. I know it's a lot today, but there won't be this many in the future. I'll only do one or two a day, and I'll try to post pretty regularly. I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading!