Have my new cast on now and the swelling has gone down so I’ve got some use of my fingers on my left hand now. I’ve worked on a few drawings, and it got me thinking about my working process, where ideas come from and how I know a work is finished.

After a few false starts and fluffing around with unsatisfactory stuff, I embarked on a larger drawing. I had completed a piece some time ago that had stayed in my mind, this swirling mass of smaller animals and creatures. It had almost the look of a flower from a distance and up-close weird creatures swirling into or maybe swirling out of some dark place-maybe Hell. (not deliberate, just happened that way)

Well, I thought I might do another version of this, maybe a bit lighter in mood, (not Hell) , rainbows maybe , working in some colour.

Now the only problem with working without pre-planning an idea is that you run the risk of spending hours on something that doesn’t work. A risk I take all the time. (Like to live on the edge)

I got part-way through and discovered the blue was going to be too dark and there was not enough orange. When drawing like this I put the colour on first before the graphite pencil because it gets smudgy and grey if I colour over the graphite.

Getting further along-probably should have left the white surround

I ended up with the red and yellow too close together. Now, I’m pretty easy-going with most things and can make most colour combos work, but red/yellow is not one I go near.

It reminds me of eggs and tomato sauce. I’m not a fussy eater, eat almost anything but if I have eggs, not a drop of red can go near them. Having grilled tomatoes or baked beans with my eggs, ok, but they need to be separated and not touching the eggs.

Funny how some quirks are, I’ve never been hungry enough to really test it.

I suspect my inbuilt politeness would take over if someone served me up eggs with a huge dollop of tomato sauce, just smile and gag it down….

Anyway, I thought I’d keep going with the work, considered leaving the background white (probably should have), darkened up the middle so it didn’t look so red. Kept coming back to it, I haven’t dithered so much over a work in a long time, am thinking the unexpected colour combo put me into unknown territory. The finished work looks too ‘worked’ for my liking, but it needed to be finished for some reason known only to the creative gods.

That’s how a work goes sometimes, it just won’t leave you alone, you’re trying to solve the puzzle till, suddenly it’s done, successful or not, and you can leave it be.

I still can’t get past the eggs and sauce when I look at it.

Got this idea of swirling small creatures and butterflies on a frame of some sort.

What did come out of this was an idea for lots of small butterflies or creatures swirling, lots making up a larger whole, something I could manage in clay with a reduced use of my left hand. (Thanks, creative gods!)

They’d have to have a framework for attaching to, which was a bit more difficult to make, but it might be just the right time to explore little creatures.

Got a fancy red cast now, so best I don’t drop egg on it.

Silver Linings

Bugger!