I art because I am

To me good art is something that is alive. Something that stirs one's soul or captures a particular moment. Something that looks like it should be breathing regardless of whether it is a still life or a statue or even a splattering of color. Obviously the life doesn't come from the subject, it comes from the perception of the artist.

I think I see myself as an artist the same way 5 year old might. It's not a mater of being good or bad as much as the fact that I create "art" and therefore I am an "artist". Art is a way of expressing myself, coping, having fun, and capturing things that capture my imagination. I know that has nothing to do with books, but since I enjoy both I've decided to share both.

I thought at first that colored pastel paper would be a difficult medium to work with simply because normally I draw on white papers using a pencil to draw in shadows and line.  With colored pastel paper some of the shadow is already in there and my job is to bring out the highlights and deeper shadows.  To my surprise I like it very much!  And I thought that for a first attempt at drawing something on my own it was pretty good.  (I once copied the work of a master in a drawing class, but that was only once and at least 4 years ago.)

I choose black and white pictures thinking that they would be easier to draw.

Art draw from pictures looks flat because, duh, you're drawing a 2D object.  To lessen this effect I try to imagine the actual image of what I'm drawing, and since I'm so familiar with one baby's face in particular, it's easier for me to picture the sparkle of wide-eyed innocence and the curve of soft, adorable cheeks of other babies in my mind.  It's still not quite the same, but better than just copying the image.

You may also notice that I drew everything twice, once on scraps of regular printer paper (courtesy of our local library) and then on pastel paper for the actual drawing.  I did this to avoid roughening up the pastel paper through repeated erasing and pencil indentation by becoming familiar with the picture and any trouble spots I might encounter.  I also drew a grid on top of the original paper and each drawing to increase my accuracy (i.e. erase less, it all comes back to being a little lazy and saving the paper :)

Here are my later attempts:

My favorite!

And, speaking of little ones . . .  I think someone just woke from a nap!