Rolling the Dice

This morning, just before I started, I was debating how to take the Paige and Webb sketches to finished art. Yesterday’s attempts to paint the sketches were disastrous this close to a deadline. I knew if I continued painting I would get there in the end, but there was no guarantee that it would get them in time for the Walden Tassy Award deadline.

Last year’s Paige and Webb sketches were done in pencil and then I scanned them in and added color in photoshop. I know that is the safe way to do them. As I talked about it with my husband, I told him that I could roll the dice and paint them, or play it safe and copy a process I had done lots of time.

He suggested that I play it safe so I could reach the deadline.

And then I got to my desk. There on the top was the watercolor paper I had printed off last night: a purple grey square of color with a black line drawing. I decided that I was going to make a small bet and just try painting this paper. If my idea to paint on top of printed toned paper didn’t work, I would cut my loses and go to the graphite and computer color.

As I started painting, my daily painting practice began to sooth my fears and anxieties. My paint was already set up. The brushes were at hand. And my recent painting experiences paved the way to having it flow. The tone of the printed neutral grey was showing up beautifully in the neck of Paige (the giraffe) and spots of it poked through in the mottled backgrounds.

Flow happened. Before I knew it, I had two paintings done. They came together just like that (snap). I rolled the dice and won! And I even have a whole other day before the deadline! What a blessing! It’s the hand of God in my life today.