“Believe it or not, I can actually draw.”
—Jean Michel Basquiat
Every once in awhile I feel the need to throw up a realistic drawing on this-here blog so that You — all of you who read my book and take my on-line classes — can see that I CAN “draw.” (The “real” way. The “serious” way.) So here’s a life drawing from last Sunday:

It was a 3-hour pose, and I worked on this drawing for about 2 hours and 15 minutes (red conte crayon, PanPastels). I enjoyed myself so much that I told Steve later I wanted to do life drawing every single day. Starting last Monday.
(I can see now that that arm in the front is a little “off,” but overall, I’m happy with it!)
But it was the process of concentrating, looking, making a mark, erasing a mark, correcting, adjusting, etc. that makes me want to go back and do it again. It reminds me of “life.” That’s exactly what we do each day, isn’t it?
* * *
I’ve been in a tiny funk the past few days. This almost always happens after the end of a big event, such as a retreat or an online class, where I just feel a bit “lost.” I’m trying to be gentle with myself for my lack of productivity, energy, and drive. (Right?!)
Still, I am slowly making headway on my giant to-do list. Almost all of the people from Silly 3 who completed their scavenger hunts have been mailed their prizes. The Squeens’ packages are slowly getting filled. Spanish Silly ends tomorrow. Then I need to figure out the rest of 2011. And schedule that mammogram. And take some walks. And clean the sty we call our home.
* * *
For Christmas I got some cash and bought myself “Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud,” by Martin Gayford. I’m really enjoying it a lot. Lucian Freud said the following, which struck home for me:
“One thing I have never got used to, is not feeling the same from one day to the next, although I try to control it as much as possible by working absolutely all the time. I just feel so different every day that it is a wonder that any of my pictures ever work out at all.”
— Lucian Freud
And that dove-tailed nicely with another quote I found when surfing for Silly 3 stuff the other day:
“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, and each day brings a miracle of its own.”
— Paulo Coelho
* * *
Over and Out.