Recap of first week of 30Day Challenge

It's been a challenging week.  And re-reading my blog posts so far in January, I realized I had not clearly stated some of my goals.  I want to simplify and focus my efforts.  That became clear this week with the experiments with different paints.  I have too many choices.  One of my painter friends who is very productive works with sumi-e ink and brushes.  While trying to make sense of all the different paints and why I had them this week, I really started to envy her simplicity of materials.  One ink, one paper, one style of brushes.  Walk into the studio and go.  I am sure it's not really that simple but faced with my tendency to try out every shiny art thing that comes by, well, it seems that way.

And I want to make my own fabrics.  I am really tired of running out of a particular fabric because I didn't buy enough to start with or the size I originally cut isn't working when I get to the collage state but what I have left isn't big enough to redo the piece...  You get the idea.  If I make my own fabric, then I can always make more.

batik I'd like more of

  For example, there's the blue batik above that I was using as background/sky/starscape on a piece.  The project I was creating it for specified a size that I ended up not liking.  (18x30 portrait, for the curious).  First I didn't like it having to be portrait because I was doing the PNW myth about Raven stealing the light back, like Prometheus.  But I struggled on because I was excited by the idea.  When I got to the final collage stage where all the pieces were to go together, it just was not going to work with that ratio.  I needed more width for that height.  And I had no more fabric.  So that piece is on hold until I can find a reasonable substitute or I work out how to make some close enough to make it work.

Another goal that I really didn't articulate well is that I want to shorten the time needed to make a piece.  Part of that is paring down the different parts of my process and part of it is simplifying what I do so that I gain unconscious mastery as Steve Barnes puts it.  Then I can stay in that flow zone and zoom along like a kid riding a bike with no hands.

As part of that simplifying, I'm boxing up unnecessary supplies and will be selling them on Etsy or donating them to local art groups who do worthy events.  Simplifying, focusing, creating my own materials so everything is simpler and my supplies are fewer.  We'll see how it goes.

This next week, I hope to finish the paint samples with the dragonflies and start doing some dragon and bird sketches.  The bird ones will be based on photos I have taken on birding trips while the dragon ones will be based on 50 years of reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy.    Another of my unspoken goals for this month is to do a dragon pillow for a 4 year old of my acquaintance.   And I think that's all I can attempt without losing my focus.