Kuan Yin: Day Three

August 5, 2018August 5, 2018 Sarah Joyce BryantLeave a comment

For my creative practice, I completed step one and step two of adding color to my #KuanYin oil pastel from Lucy Chen’s #EverAfter2018 lesson.

Today I proved to myself that if I just sit down and start at any time, I will get something accomplished. I did not want to create anything today. I was very, very resistant. So, much later than usual, I decided to just sit down and start the video. Two hours later, I had made quite a bit of progress. I also learned that I love working with oil pastels a lot, and the ones that I am using are just the Pentel Arts brand that I bought for about $6.00!

Day Twelve: Find Your Flow

June 12, 2018June 12, 2018 Sarah Joyce Bryant1 Comment

Since I finished Nina Rycroft’s Face Shapes class yesterday, today was the perfect day to watch Karen Abend‘s next #FindYourFlow video on resistance and procrastination. In the video, she discussed self-discipline and self-awareness as ways to help with resistance and procrastination that comes up when implementing a daily creative practice. One of the suggestions she had was daily revisits to the thirty-day plan I created at the start of the program in order to come up with daily commitments and intentions based on that plan. It was incredibly helpful (and I loved the accompanying PDF she gifted us with) because when I reviewed the plan I had created, I realized at its core was a desire to focus on character development. This realization helped me decide that, moving forward, I would continue with Nina Rycroft’s illustration classes and move on to the Guide to Drawing Eyes class.

I wasn’t sure how exactly to make it more than just a bunch of eyes on the page. I wanted my practice to be a bit more fun than that…so, I decided to create characters based on each eye shape.

Today’s sketches are based on Nina Rycroft’s round eyes. She suggested three different round eye types, so I created three characters based on those. I kept the noses and mouths the same (for the most part), and kept them in the same location on the face. I used the same oval-shaped face for each character as well. When I was done with the rough sketch, I let my intuition guide me on what to do next. On the first character, I tried a new graphite pencil over the blue pencil, but it didn’t feel quite right, so I decided to use a Sharpie art pen to outline the characters rather than a graphite pencil. When that was done, I still felt the need to add more, so I decided to add color! Since I’m working on basic sketch paper, I had to choose an appropriate medium, so I decided to use watercolor pencils and then add a very light wash with a waterbrush. The paper held up nicely, and I’m really happy with the results.

Art · Find Your Flow

Day Four: Find Your Flow

June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 Sarah Joyce BryantLeave a comment

I love having the support of the other members of the Find Your Flow group. Yesterday, I was feeling incredibly frustrated, today is no different, but some of the suggestions from the group helped me work through it today. I’m not happy with my sketches…again, but when a member suggested that I do the sketches, then set them aside to revisit later, that made sense to me. I thought, how amazing would it be to have a sketchbook full of various characters to explore in July. Wouldn’t that be better than none at all, even if they weren’t the best sketches…yet?

So, for today, I continued with Nina Rycroft‘s Face Shapes Skillshare course, and set the goal of drawing six faces for each face shape. Today’s lesson was heart-shaped faces. You can see the results below. What I learned today is my perfectionist side is getting the best of me…and…I have yet to find a decent eraser. I mean, is it really too much to ask to have a decent eraser? (ha! ha!). It is probably user error, but me and erasers don’t get along. I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Members of the Find Your Flow group got our weekly video guidance from group founder and leader Karen Abend. This week is about our fear of sharing our work, and also comparing ourselves to others. She led us through an exercise in allowing our inner critic to raise her objections and then time to allow our inner love to raise her voice in rebuttal. A braid of various threads is emerging for me. The first thread is that I don’t know how to have fun. I don’t even know what “fun,” is for me anymore. Some of this has to do with my life being filled with lots of serious things that have demanded my focus for many years – a son with special needs, a chronic, sometimes debilitating dis-ease that rises up unpredictably. Some of it has to do with giving up certain vices that I thought brought me joy – the biggest one being alcohol. Fun used to be going to bars and getting drunk or even sitting on my back patio with friends and getting drunk. It helped free my social side – something that is almost non-existent without alcohol. Even though I stopped drinking heavily and socializing many years ago, I never redefined what fun was for me. I just stopped. When I completed the inner critic exercise this morning, what came out was a series of reprimands about having fun, that now is not the time for such frivolous things, that if I take the time to have fun, I will lose everything. These are serious times, and there are lots of serious things that demand my attention. How dare I take the time to have fun?

Then I gave voice to the loving side and what she said is so important I wanted to share it all with you.

You are pure magic. Look at what you’ve already created without a daily practice. Can you imagine where this could go with some focus and daily practice? The possibilities are endless. Listen to what the others in the group have to say – they are the messengers. You have created the life of your dreams already. Granted there are a few things yet to evolve, but you spent a large part of your life doing the “right” thing, you deserve this time to create, grow, and nurture yourself. This is your next step, it is why you are stuck. I needed you to see beyond the scope of full-time jobs and tangible, measurable results. It’s time to leave that world behind. It is no longer part of your journey and you’ve been carrying that much too heavy burden for much longer than was necessary. Set it down here and now. Feel the weight of it as it releases from your body and lands on the ground. This lightness of being is what freedom feels like. Set it down. Journey home without it. It no longer serves you. I cannot wait to show you what I have prepared for you. It is already yours – the journey can be light or heavy – that is your choice – but you will get there either way. Why don’t we have some fun along the way? Set your burden down. Let’s go!