Purple Dragon

Purple Dragon, DeviantArt Muro, by mouse, lounge chair arm, very, very rushed and unfinished

There's a long story behind this one. I think it is jinxed. Those of you who follow me on Facebook would have seen my many exclamationed post a few days back where I declared I had just lost an entire piece of artwork due to a accidental click on a link while working in dA Muro. Well, that was one of the predecessors to this piece of work.  That one was in sea green and is only in my memory now.  The attempt before that was considerably different and in pastel, also sea green, and has major perspective problems and is still sitting on my art desk awaiting completion.  The attempt before that was a sea serpent, as mentioned in my previous post, and that only made it to pencil.

But this one?  Still not happy with it. In dA Muro you basically have to finish a piece of art in one session.  You navigate away from that page or shut down the computer and everything is lost.  In saving, all you can do is either export as a PNG or upload the entire thing to dA, neither of which allows you to reload it into Muro for editing.

Last night I got Izzy to bed at 9.30am (new experiment to see if I can get a decent night's sleep....and it worked!), so I hurriedly tried to finish this.  I needed so much more time, so I had to slap it together as rough as bags to make it barely presentable (it's not really, but I didn't just want to trash it and never use it, I like aspects of it).

I'm submitting it to the Creative Color Challenge #5 - Lavender Purple, but I hope it is not my only submission, because it doesn't make the grade.

Nutty
(scribbling this down in a hurry, hoping the kids stay in bed a little bit longer)

Breaking Storm

I made a deal with hubby tonight.  I'd take little Izzy for the night (KJ was already in bed) so he could have some free time, and I'd take tomorrow morning to do some painting. He was happy with that.  So I sat in the lounge with bubs in my arms and played one handed on the laptop.  Fortunately I managed to get her to sleep for some of it and could attempt some two handed scribbling with DeviantArt Muro.

I didn't have anything pressing to do, because I've already submitted to the Creative Color Challenge, but I thought, hey, what else could I come up with that used Sea Green?  I was so happy with my 'Crystal Wave' submission, I figured I would play with some more waves and this is what happened...

Breaking Storm, DeviantArt Muro, drawn by mouse on my lounge chair arm

It looks awfully traditional a subject, don't you think? I had fun playing with it though. It is as rough as anything, mainly because I don't think you can actually save in that program mid-creation.  You can only submit to DeviantArt for display or export an image, both of which kill off the ability to edit further.

I don't think it is as successful as my previous effort, particularly since it is probably my first landscape in any medium since high school (that was a long time ago). I am quite happy about the fact that like 'Crystal Wave', I used no references and just built it out of my head. I also think (and hope) that the slap-dashiness of it gives it an energy I don't think it would have otherwise had.

These exercises are certainly teaching me about my own abilities and giving me confidence that I didn't have.  I've always known I could draw, but have always considered myself not quite good enough, as deep down I'm a perfectionist.  During these exercises I've been lining up that perfectionist in front of a firing squad and killing it off (it tends to have multiple lives unfortunately) and not caring so much about the placement of every single line. It's giving me so much freedom.  It is wonderful.

So here you have it.  A not so perfect scribble.  But being not so perfect, doesn't mean it shouldn't exist, and I'll  sign my name to it :D

Nutty
(finding myself)