koukla carolyn

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.
                           Psalm 138:8

I have done more painting and sketching this week than I have since July. I basically forced myself to draw after work this week, even though I would rather sit and watch tv. Another reason why I think I was more productive is that I have changed my schedule at work, now leaving an hour earlier. You see, I am a morning person and find it extremely difficult to draw at night. Now I am not quite so tired when I get home and it is a bit easier to get out the sketchbook.

I did read something on Nina Johansson’s blog which I liked. She is now doing weeklong spreads, so as to spread the sketching over multiple days. The whole idea is that even if you are really busy, you probably have time to add to a sketch little by little over the week. And at the end of the week, you still have something to show for yourself. I think I will try this out as well and will start tomorrow.

Dried Maple Leaves, watercolor and ink (5×7), Carolyn Pappas 2008

I have been putting off trying my new M Graham watercolors for weeks now. I think it was the same sort of thing that people face when they start a brand new sketchbook. I think I was afraid that I would somehow screw something up or forget everything I’ve learned about watercolor thus far. Last weekend I just bit the bullet and did this little painting of some leaves I found in my parking lot. They were dried to a crisp and the colors that I ended up were hardly realistic, but I wanted it to look sunny and happy. I painted this on a watercolor greeting card and am going to send it as a thank you card for someone who gave me a very nice gift.

I am excited about this weekend because I am anticipating a lot of time to spend on my artwork. I also have a few days off from work coming up this month, so I am planning on doing a lot on some of the behind the scenes projects that I’ve been working on.