Digital Divingboard

For some reason, I keep these digitally enhanced images around, thinking I will create "great art" from them once I get a handle on the medium-of-the-week. Lately, this has been colored pencil. Some will one day become works-in-progress, but for now, I just like looking at them again and again. Not diving into them head-first, I keep a lot of creative inspiration at arm's length. I wouldn't say this is necessarily cowardly or fearful, just careful -- a trait I'm not usually known for in any way.

These were all created from one photograph of a garden pinwheel that was worn and frayed and fascinating to me.

This one is entitled "Swimming Upstream" as it brought to mind some particularly determined fish. It looks like a watercolor already, so I don't want to mess it up with my clumsy interpretation.

"Stairway to a Different Star" (above) led to its counterpart, "Tall Buildings", left. I like the strong graphic qualities of these and the fact that they are a break from my usual obsession with realism. A palette-cleanser, I believe. These are probably screaming "acrylic" to my deaf muse. I had bad experiences with the "zen of acrylic painting", as I refer to that two-year art school period of high frustration.

Working in watercolor for years and not progressing to my satisfaction, I thought I would try other mediums. Still fiddling with oils, I realized my drawing skills were fading fast and turned to graphite (my first love from long-ago formal art classes) and then to colored pencil.

Because I worked with textiles in historic costume reproduction and restoration for over a decade, I love color and texture. That is what compels my desire to take the "seems too easy" digital images and create them manually as well.

Quetzal. This one reminded me of the tail feathers of an exotic, mythical bird. This one reminds me of an oil painting, but would be fun and deceptively challenging in any medium.

I like the in-your-face punch of primary colors and plan to made the black shapes into a silhouette of an artist in this one called "Primary Occupation."

This is "Afternoon Nap."

I think it is time for one.