Christmas
Wordless Wednesday: Sleigh Bells
Categories: Animals, Artwork, Christmas, Horses, Weather, Winter, Wordless Wednesday
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This Is Why Most Artists Are Starving.
When I first started using my Wacom drawing tablet, I was positively delirious with the joy and sense of unlimited creativity it inspired. I immediately embarked on an elaborate Christmas card project that was going to be the most splendid image I’d ever produced.
In retrospect, I wish I’d given myself a bit more time to learn about the software before I started a large-scale project. By the time I realized that there were some things I should have done differently, it was too late to change them without having to scrap the whole image and start over.
Also? It turns out that drawing and painting digitally rather than with actual pencils and brushes does not magically make you a better drawer and painter. Quite the opposite, actually. In other words, if you have never drawn or painted a stone bridge before, and you’ve never been much good at drawing people, you may not want to start off your digital career with a “painting” of a couple sleighing merrily over a stone bridge. Ahem.
My personal forté is drawing horses, so that was the easy part. Look at my pretty horse!
I just wish the rest of the card were coming together so effortlessly.
A few weeks ago a friend from church asked me if I’d draw a tattoo design for him: a lion laying down with two lambs, a sort of metaphor for himself and his two sons. That was a fun little break from trying to learn how to paint stone bridges, and when it was finished I asked him if I could use the basic lion-and-lamb design for my own purposes. He said I was welcome to use it for anything except another tattoo, so that became my second digital Christmas card, and the first one I’ve actually completed:
Alas, creative drive is a fickle thing. The new Star Trek movie has just come out on dvd, and I have this awesome idea for creating a music video with some clips from the film. Learning how to draw people has suddenly been unceremoniously shoved to the back burner of my creative mind, even though the Christmas card has the potential to earn money and the video is just me goofing around for free. That’s the trouble with the artistic brain — it’s so freaking undisciplined. You don’t even get to choose what it’s going to get all worked up about.
So…my goal is to have both cards finished and printed up on high-quality cardstock by Thanksgiving, to give away and to offer for sale, but this cursed video thing has taken over my head and I may or may not get the sleigh pic done in time. Which would be a shame, because it really is going to be quite lovely when it’s finished.
At times like this I really sympathize with all those great artists who died broke and alone in rat-infested garrets. I think creativity must be a form of insanity, the way it skews your priorities and hijacks your brain for its own passing whims.
But I can pretty much promise that at some point I’ll be posting a Star Trek music video to YouTube. It’s gonna be sweet.
In The Week When Christmas Comes, Part 2
For some reason my interest in blogging is in an (almost certainly temporary) waning phase. It’s not that there’s nothing going on in my life; actually I think it’s the very fullness of my days and the expanding network of connections to the people around me that have made me less dependent on this forum as a social outlet.
I’ve no plans to stop blogging, but it’s no longer the emotional necessity it once was, thank all that’s good and merciful.
Anyway.
After we’d opened our presents Christmas morning and had some breakfast, I dropped the kids off with their dad and his parents and then headed over to spend the rest of the day at my friend Jenny’s house. That was really nice, and the food and company were great. In the afternoon it started to rain, and I was worried that it might turn to snow or ice and keep me from getting home that night, but I was having too much fun to leave until about six when it started getting good and stormy. I got home with, um, minimal and easily reparable damage to my silly little car, stopping on the way to pick up Luke, Elizabeth and the piles of loot they’d gotten for Christmas from the Silkotch clan.
The day after Christmas my uncle Vaughn came up to Anza for a visit. He’d been living in Colorado, but my grandfather passed away a year ago, and Vaughn and my father are currently in Victorville in the process of putting the estate in order. Vaughn stayed with us Friday and Saturday night, and even came to church with us Sunday morning. It was a nice visit, but I’m afraid he got an inaccurate impression of typical Anza weather. The longest deep-cold snap I’ve ever seen up here finally broke the day AFTER he left; we spent most of his visit huddled around the woodstove for warmth. This mobile just wasn’t made for that sort of climate. I can’t wait until I’m able to completely replace the walls with something sturdier than cardboard and aluminum foil.
We’ve had no real plans for New Year’s Eve. Just today I found out that there’s going to be a party at Casa Gamino, and I’d be tempted to go to that since I can take the kids, if Steve’s band weren’t playing there that night. I suppose eventually that sort of thing won’t impair my enjoyment of a night out, but I’m not quite there yet.
Jenny and I had decided that if nothing more exciting presents itself between now and then we could all get together at my place, so that’s currently the plan. I went shopping for supplies today, so if something better does come up for New Year’s Eve my pantry will be fully stocked with snacks well into 2009.
In general life is very good and very peaceful, which I much prefer over having lots of drama to blog about. I feel like I’m on a path, and I can’t see where it’s headed, but I can see that it’s definitely headed SOMEwhere, so I’m just walking in faith and enjoying the view as I go along.
If I don’t post again for a while, HAPPY NEW YEAR! May it be filled with love and joy and health and peace for all of us.
In The Week When Christmas Comes, Part One
Sorry about the radio silence. I’ve been really enjoying the holidays this year, and loving the freedom to try new ways of celebrating.
The kids’ Christmas Vacation (excuse me, “Winter Break”) got off to an early start this year on account of being snowed in for what would have been the the last three days of school. By the official beginning of the break they were suffering from a nervewracking mix of cabin fever and Christmas anticipation, and it seemed like I was dealing with one ridiculous squabble after another. I recalled that we’d had a similar situation last year, and had solved it by letting the kids have one early gift to keep them occupied. I decided that that was worth turning into a tradition, and we busted out the jumbo tub of Tinkertoys that had originally been meant to be a Christmas gift. Brilliant! They played happily with those and the bickering ceased.
And by the end of that day they had created this:
It’s the Enterprise 1701, of course. Just brings a tear to a mother’s eye.
Our traditional Christmas Eve consists of opening one gift each and then watching The Muppets’ Christmas Carol together. I LOVE that movie.
This year was a bit different: we each opened our gift and then we went to church for an evening candelight service. That was wonderful, and will definitely be a regular part of our Christmas Eves from now on. Then we came home and snuggled up and watched The Muppets’ Christmas Carol, and I cannot remember a year when I’ve felt more deeply attuned to its sweet message of love and thankfulness.
And then the kids went to bed, and I stayed up till the wee hours wrapping the last of the presents and putting them under the tree along with the various items that don’t get wrapped. We always have several toys that are arranged, unwrapped and ready to be played with, beneath the tree after the kids are asleep. These are things that are either for Luke and Elizabeth to share, or there’s no question of who they are meant for.
We had another new twist this year, and frankly I found a bit baffling.
I’ve never ever told my kids that Santa Claus was real. I’ve told them the stories, of course, and we read “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas” every year, but I’ve always said that it was just a fun story people like to tell.
Last year, when Elizabeth was at the age when few kids still believe anyway, both of my offspring began peppering me with questions about how I really KNEW that Santa wasn’t real. I stood my ground on his fictional status, but they seemed unconvinced.
This year they specifically stated that they wished to receive one present each from good St. Nick himself. The implication here was that my blatant unbelief had been keeping him away all these years, and that I was to Knock It Off immediately and let the jolly old elf do his bit.
Fine. Who am I to squash my children’s holiday fantasies? I bought a whole ‘nother roll of fancy wrapping paper, snuck it into the house, and on Christmas Eve I wrapped one gift for each child plus one for the family in this Special Santa Wrap. Then I faked guy handwriting as best I could for the To/From tags. If I’d been a bit more on the ball I would have taken the tags to church and had an actual guy write them out, but one can’t think of everything.
I actually slept in pretty late Christmas morning, and the kids let me because they were happily occupied with the contents of their stockings and with the unwrapped stuff. Come to think of it, that may be why we started doing it that way in the first place. Sometimes an extra couple hours’ sleep is a gift unto itself.
Speaking of which, I’m off to bed. To Be Continued…
Categories: Christianity, Christmas, Family, Friends, kids, Life, Love
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