The Creative Color Challenge #4 - Sea Green/To the Sea

I had big plans for this challenge - sea dragons and serpents.  I drew a roaring picture of a sea serpent, twisting slimy, scaly body, ready to be traced down onto pastel paper and brought to life by my pastel pencils (I needed a little more detail than I was capable of with my soft pastels).

Didn't happen. A combination of illness in the extended family (took out my Tuesday art day), lousy weather, and an abundance of sleepless nights thanks to my little five month old baby blew all my plans out of the water.  I'm too tired to think. Also the due date for this challenge was earlier than the previous ones, removing Saturday morning from the equation.  It wasn't going to happen and it didn't.

It had me depressed for a bit. It has been a real challenge for me to both find time to do these challenges and actually complete them. I've managed three and to bow out on the last one was just crushing.

But I stumbled across something yesterday.  I've been playing around Illustration Friday, looking for like minded souls and their blogs, when I found myself on someone's DeviantArt page (definitely a place I have to explore more thoroughly) and I remembered that I have a DeviantArt Account. I have never really used it, only joining a long time ago (apparently five years) to comment on a friend's work. So I faffed around until I remembered by username and password and broke into it. While poking around in there (telling myself I really should find something to upload), I discovered Deviantart Muro, a drawing program they supply with their site.

I'm not new to graphics programs, I have Corel Graphics Suite and have played around for years, but I was feeding little Izzy and had nothing better to do (apart from my crochet, I guess ::grin::) and started playing.

It was fun :D They have some interesting basic brushes and I just let myself doodle with no real design in mind, something new to me that I'm enjoying immensely.  That was yesterday. This morning I played around a little more and came up with this...

Coil, DeviantArt Muro, drawn by mouse, mostly by my left hand

I thoroughly enjoyed playing with the colours and intend to play more. But then it occurred to me that I could submit some digital art to the challenge, so tonight, while little Izzy was asleep (in my right arm, of course, so I had to draw with my left hand - fortunately I have developed some ambidextrousness), I chose a sea green and began to draw to see what would happen.

Crystal Wave, DeviantArt Muro, drawn by mouse

Forty-five minutes later I had the above. Kinda impressionist, alot scribbly, it's got some hard edges that prompted the 'crystal' in the name, but I'm quite happy with it.

I'm finding that the more slapdash I am with my drawing the more energy there seems to be in the paintings. I think 'Coil' is literally writhing, and 'Crystal Wave' has movement that I wouldn't expect from hastily dashed lines.  I'm really happy to have discovered this new medium. It gives me even more freedom to play.

Nutty
(so happy that even though she hasn't managed a pastel piece, can still submit some work)