A Few Of My Favorite Things - EDMs #48 and #99

WOW! I finally did it! I don't know why, but my computer let me upload some of my art work for the first time since last November. This is a sketch of the Lamy Safari fountain pen that I bought in September. I've had the pencil sharpener for about 15 years and must get a new blade for it if I am going to get a good point on my colored pencils. The little bit of eraser is dirty and brittle. I added it to the sketch just before I replaced it. I spent a good deal of time on this piece and was actually content with it when I finished and decided that I would post it.

Being content with any of my art work is a novel experience. No matter how hard I work on them, or the positive comments I get from others, my sketches always seem so primitive, unpolished, or - heaven forbid - overworked! I just finished a post card size piece yesterday, (you can't see it yet because I'm sending it to Anita Davies), that is only partially overworked! If called upon to describe my artistic style, I would say that it is "colorful, tending toward realistic, but overworked."

Perhaps it is because I am a "beginning artist" - in spite of taking classes, reading books, studying catalogs, talking to artists, going to workshops, and owning every expensive art supply that Joe, Jerry, Dick, and Daniel ever advertised! I have been told that it is a temptation of beginning artists to "overwork" the products of their artistic endeavors. Well, duh! I figured that out all by myself! I do despise being so predictable and ordinary! At least predictable anyway...

Enter Kate Johnson (she has a new last name now, but my book has "Johnson" on it) and her marvelous talents, delightful students, and her encouraging entourage of faithful followers. The alumni of her online classes give glowing reports about the things they have learned, the improvement in their art work, and the fun they have being part of the on line alumni group. I am not being cynical, but completely serious. I have been collecting Kate's books for many years and have loved every one of them. Now I have the pleasure of becoming one of her faithful followers for real - in "cyber time" none the less.

I am about to begin my first online class with this esteemed artist and teacher and I can't wait! It starts on Tuesday and I have spent the past two weeks "overworking" the computer by reading blogs, setting up my Flickr account, figuring out how to post my art, negotiating links, tags, and art sites written in languages other than English. Gosh, that only leaves me a day to round up all my pencils, brushes, sketch books, tablets, erasers (oops, I shouldn't have mentioned that), bags, containers, boxes, tins, kleenex, paper towels and rags!

Let's see - shall I use the Prismacolors, Derwents, Neocolors, Faber-Castells, or Graphtints on my first sketch? Wish me luck - I hope I don't overwork it!