It's been a while! I've been doing so much the last couple of months. Since I last posted a journal entry here, I won NaNoWriMo (by finishing the second 50,000 words of this two-part story, FINALLY!), finished my 3 art classes at the museum school, had Christmas with my family and Lee, moved from Richmond back to my parents' house in Connecticut, had a lovely visit with my friend Catherine, started a new job baby-sitting and giving art lessons to a family of 3 boys, went to another friend's wedding events, AND after a painting hiatus surrounding the move (about 5 weeks all told), I just got back into painting yesterday. I'm working on a portrait of a golden retriever wearing a baseball cap, to advertise the pet portraits business I'm starting up. Lots going on!

It feels SO good to be painting again. When I don't paint for a while (or draw, or write, it happens in all 3 instances) I feel worried that I can't do it anymore, like I've lost my mojo. Thankfully it's just a matter of making myself sit down with the brush in my hand and being gentle with myself instead of super-critical. When I had the golden retriever outlined in paint and was ready to begin painting, I had no idea where to start and felt like every option I had was wrong. Then finally I just started--I think it was with the shadow under his cheek--and went slowly, then picked up speed and confidence. It's going very well, if I do say so myself!

This sounds so simple, but it is really striking how my paintings have improved once I started being more mindful of which colors I mixed and put on the picture. Seriously. I used to be pretty careless with the colors I mixed ("That's close enough" was the phrase) and boy did it show. Now I always ask myself how cool or warm the color is, how dark or light (value), and what effect I want to get. Sometimes the questions get subconsciously expressed, which makes the results seem magical.