Looks like I am going to be doing some illustrating soon. Isn’t that the great thing about life? You can find ways to do all kinds of things you love to do, and if you can’t find a way via tried and true methods, you can make your own.
To that end, I am practicing my birds. I have chosen to work with plump, cheerful, brightly colored Fairy Wrens. How can you not love a bird that is shaped like a scoop of ice cream?
I love round birds.
I do wish I had really learned to draw and paint properly. I do all right for someone whose entire art education was the elementary school art class. In 3rd grade, or so, a girl who was very good at drawing horses drew one for me. I traced that horse over and over again. I traced that horse until I could draw that horse. Then, I put a horn on his head, and expanded my repetoire to unicorns.
I’ve applied the tracing to just about everything in my life. That and the lesson I learned from monkey bars. If you keep trying to get across them, eventually you will a) build the strength to make it all the way, b) build up the callouses required to really have fun playing on them, and c) be able to help someone else learn.
Unless you’re trying to do/get something immoral, or illegal, never give up. Keep tracing that horse. Keep swinging across those bars, even if you do fall on your face a lot.
If you need me, I’ll be looking at pictures of birds. And the landscapes they live in. Sadly, you can’t just draw the bird.
The Outside Lane 