Last week’s Art Journal Adventure prompt was “wing it”. Finding time for art this week was a major challenge. We are all adjusting to a new routine. My four kids are in three different schools; the oldest has to catch a bus half an hour earlier than last year, which means pulling our morning routine half an hour earlier. It’s a chaotic transition period. I feel like I am either chasing my tail constantly or trying to catch myself up throughout the whole day. Exhaustion is the dominant theme of my life right now. We will keep tweaking things until we get the schedule running like a well oiled machine but, until then, my free time for art is severely curtailed.
Therefore, “winging it” is exactly what I did with this journal page. I decided to not put much thought or planning into it, to just use my art journal as a decompression tool and enjoy the process rather than focusing on the outcome. Winging it made me think of bird wings and feathers so that gave me my subject. To ensure that I didn’t get too fussy or tight with my drawing, I decided to “wing it” again: I dipped a chubby paint brush in black acrylic and drew the wing with my non-dominant hand. In retrospect, using my left hand maybe wasn’t the best idea. After filling in the negative space with black acrylic and letting the whole thing dry, it was time to add colour. I did so by just splashing some pigment rich watercolour paints into the feather shapes and letting it run all over the place.
It is just as well that I was not focused on the outcome because the outcome is pretty rubbish really. My ten year old tactfully told me it was “not the best”. I like the idea of a wing made of rainbow feathers and might return to that at some stage. This page, however, is what it is. I “winged it” for sure.
A Pict in PA 
How I love retirement 🙂 I can well appreciate your busy life and sense of harried-ness. What I admire is the fact that you don’t let your art time go because of that. Winging it, by the seat of your pants, whichever way you do it – you do it! You learned something, got a good idea for a future piece and kept your hand in – that’s what it is all about surely? Full of admiration!
Thank you. I like your attitude and appreciate your pep talk.
I’m always impressed by your determination to not let life interfere with art time! And even if you’re not happy with how it turned out, it sounds like you very much needed a break this week. Hope everything settles down into some sort of order soon!
Thanks. I’ve learned through the years that I cope better with everything else in life if I can squeeze in a little bit of “me time”, which for me means art time. I’m back to work this week and still transitioning to the boys’ new schedules so I’m desperately trying to figure out when I can do something arty. I know I’m going to need it.
I’d say so! Hopefully the weekend will bring you a moment or two of quiet time. Good luck! 😊
I certainly hope so. I’m 100% done with this week already and it’s only Wednesday morning. I’ve two evening meetings to get through this week too. I wish I consumed caffeine.
All that without the crutch of caffeine?! I certainly couldn’t do it! 😨
I’m sure you could if you had to. And I can’t complain really. I’m hardly working in the coal mines of life. I’m actually very lucky and privileged. It’s just this first month of the school year is utterly exhausting with too much crammed in.
Ah, you’re probably right. But I wouldn’t want to be within a country mile of myself while I adjusted! In fairness though, I have cut back considerably these last few years. Keep on trucking!