Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Back to work in the (now cooler) studio!


Hallelujah!

It's cool enough now to get back into the studio (in our converted screened-in porch) and its wonderful, glorious, splendid, beautiful and very dusty.

And the dust doesn't bother me. That stuffy nose I get from it reminds me of when I was little and so busy that I didn't even notice that snot dripping onto my top lip. I like that feeling. Maybe not the snot on the lip per se, but the single-mindedness and complete involvement in the here-and-now it once demonstrated.

I finished remaking the entry splash to Chocolate Panache. I hadn't been really happy with it but needed something up there so I posted using things I had... now what I've got is more in line with what I had envisioned.

To finish this drawing I had to take a clue from Christopher Paolini's Eldest (which is a shame since the child writing it could be my son... but taking advice where you find it is actually wisdom! And besides, I adore Mr. Paolini, find him quite insightful and I prefer reading children's books whenever possible anyway because they aren't usually filled with filth and I like that I can actually accomplish finishing a book without my eyes rolling back into my head and causing even more permanent damage!)...
Anyway, Eragon said that the finest human trait is determination. I have very little determination. I always poop out when the going gets tough. That old saying, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going..." well, I have always done that. I get going right out of the room and abandon that too-hard-for-me-deal. So I wrote down the word DETERMINATION on my drawings and got busy.

Now I'm in the groove and I like it again.

Is this another last born trait: this abandoning of projects whenever they get too hard or too tiresome or just too too? I'm going to blame it on that. Surely it can't be just my lack of discipline, intelligence and will and of course, those ever persistent voices-in-the-head that whatever you do is going to be nothing but a big failure and waste of time anyway. Surely it must be caused by something I can't control. Otherwise: What a loser! What a complete and ridiculous loser!
Any last-borns have the same problem? What about you middlers and firsts? I know those firsts have all the advantages (except for staying out late when they are teens... that's reserved for the baby).
Anyway, advantageless by my lack of determination though I am and crippled by the coddling I received from my brother because he was the oldest and I was the (apparently very cute and sweet little) baby... (ha ha!) Here we come a wassailing! (p.s., I don't really know what wassailing is. You probably don't either so I'm using that word. It feels kind of slick on the tongue today. But that might be the snot. Who knows.)

Love and kisses and keep in touch! d.
P.S. My older daughter is a great believer in birth order. I have found that she exhibits all the strengths of a first-born but all the glamour of a baby. I think this is due to excellent parenting and someone tutoring her with the sort of knowledge one might some day pick up in a Christopher Paolini book. Don't you think?

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