OK folks,
Although I applaud each and every one of you wonderful people that has been able to keep up with the EDIM challenge, and I love French Toast Girl for contributing the great idea to try it, I have fallen woefully behind in my Every Day in May sketch Journal plans.
I fretted about this- even posted about it on the EDM forum, and the fabulous, smart, encouraging people there told me I was worrying too much and to not let it stop me from moving forward.
I decided that I would approach this as a
SOME Days in May challenge, and do the best I could.
Turns out, I was slightly in denial when I thought I could do this in the month of May. It is one of my busiest months as I gear down for the summer, with the wrapping-up of two of the classes that I teach, my daughter's end-of-the-school year activities and my volunteer efforts. By mid-month, I was realizing that, even though I loved the whole idea of drawing everyday, I was having trouble keeping up with my day-to-day responsibilities of life in order to keep the EDIM challenge going. My priorities were getting a little skewed.
SDIM makes much more sense to me right now.
I altered French Toast Girl's
Every Day in May logo, and I hope she will think it is funny and not be offended by my lightweight approach to the challenge. It seems to be the right thing to do for me anyway....
I have been able to get a few drawings done since I last posted, so I will upload them and include them in this post.
The first one was done as a demo for one of my classes. I was showing how you can use a water wash with Conte' crayon. This particular drawing was done on watercolor paper, drawn with a black Conte' crayon, and then clear water was applied to create the different tones for the wash. I worked from a stock photo, so it is not from life.
The second illustration was done when I spent last weekend at the Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando with the Girl Scout troop I am the Asst. Troop Leader for. I know it sounds crazy- why weren't we camping, right? We were actually spending our cookie money proceeds on a trip for the troop.
The Nick Hotel had some built in activities for the MANY Girl Scout troops that were there. Parts of it were really fun, but being in that crazy Orlando atmosphere made me know that one night was all I can really handle of the Mousetown. Too many people, too much indulgence, and "fun" found everywhere
outside yourself (the worst part, in my opinion).
One of my biggest goals as a parent is to help my daughter find ways to beat boredom besides automatically going to TV, computer, Ipod and Nintendo DS. I feel that, if she can learn to find more interactive ways to create her fun, it will be beneficial to her later on in life.
I was listening to a podcast episode of
This American Life a few days ago, and they mentioned that the average American watches 25 hours a week of television. I seriously can't imagine that, but that is what they said. As a family, we watch less than half of that and it STILL feels like too much to me. I'm not dissing TV. I do admit to liking it. I just think that if we cut down on it, it frees up much more time to do something useful and creative. Ok, I am stepping down off the soapbox now, I promise!!
