Playing Around

I haven't been very conscientious about my goal to do some kind of 8x10 art on a weekly basis. Last night one of our cats woke me up around 3 am (she has not been going outside due to the nasty winter weather - she doesn't like ice between her toes and she has major Cabin Fever!) and I wasn't able to get back to sleep. I figured I might as well get up and do something, rather than lying there wide awake, so I cut up the rest of the canvas I bought for the sketchbook and played with some acrylic paints. Here are the two designs I came up with. Obviously, they're not really finished pieces in themselves, more like background designs or elements I could cut up and use in another finished piece. I think I'm going to have to treat these weekly pieces more this way, or I'll never do them. I'm going to leave the rules Wide Open - the only requirement will be the size. They might be on fabric, paper, or a combination of the two, so long as it's weekly and art. I'm not going to go crazy trying to make a "finished" piece, just play and experiment with some materials and techniques.

These were done with watered down acrylic paints on canvas, with copper acrylic paint stamped over it. In some places, I went back over the copper acrylic paint with the watered down pinks and greens to soften the look a little. I'm not sure what they'll end up as!

Another thing I did this week was revisit some of my children's book manuscripts (I came across them while reorganizing and straightening up). Now that I've put them away for a while, I can look at them with better perspective and a fresh eye. One of them (The Timid Seahorse) I completely rewrote in the middle of the night (it wasn't the cat's fault that time - I don't know what woke me up) but when I was done, I thought it was so much better and I couldn't wait to find a prospective publisher. Unfortunately, in the light of day, the manuscript didn't seem as magically perfect, and I began to have doubts again. Maybe I should run the whole thing by some other writers to get some feedback. In any case, I think it is good enough to be read by a wider audience and deserves some greater effort on my part. I also reread my board book proposal, a Halloween poem called "Halloween Countdown" and I definitely think that also qualifies for publication. I need to figure out what my next step is... Anyone out there know an agent or editor? I could use a miracle...