Putting it out there.

 

Yesterday was perfect. The weather wasn’t too hot, the sun was shining. It was the first time in quite a while that I had a clear head instead of living in an seemingly ever-present allergy fog. It was so good, that I didn’t even curse under by breath as I scrubbed my 4 year old son’s poop-hand-smears of the bathroom wall. (This kid has an incredibly disgusting way of making his presence known in the world. I long for him to be able to wipe his own butt with more competency and precision.)

Anyway, after completing the writing portion of the children’s book I’m working on, I was bestowed a scanner for Mother’s Day, in order to upload my illustrations. The first one I tried was grand. With a little lightening, it appeared book-worthy. Feeling euphoric, I moved onto the next and that’s when shit fell apart. It was terrible. Not just run-of-the-mill terrible, but like it made me question my-purpose-in-life terrible. You’ve been there.

I start doing all this research and several things become clear.

1.) My little paint set from Target is for potties (no offense Target, I thought it was awesome initially, but obviously not made for what I need) and

2.) If I’m ever going to burst forth as a writer/illustrator combo, I need to be putting more things out for the public to see. Which means I have to do other creative things, since I can’t post anything to pertain directly to the book-in-progress. (Shhh. It’s kind of like a secret, but not really.)

So here is me resuscitating my blog. Also, since I was living on a sunbeam yesterday, I decided to paint a drawing that was lying on my desk cluttering, as usual. Why I had used orange cardstock is beyond me. (Probably because it was closest in the scrap bin). Then I spent a delightful time mixing paint colors for each ring around the blue flower and when it dried you can’t even freakin’ tell.

So this is not my best work, by far and I didn’t even Photoshop out the mistakes. I’m always encouraging my kids to not expect perfection and just to keep at it. It’s easier said than done, (because frustration) but I’m telling myself that it will be fun to look back at this and see how far I’ve come.