A Breather

I am a highly distracted person.  Obviously many of us are from time to time but certain things heavily affect me for long periods of time, and it can be extremely difficult to really pull oneself out of these sort of mental stupors.  Most of the time I can only relieve myself for short bursts, but they are welcome none the less.

I get so wrapped up at times, more inwardly than not, on how awful this world can be in general, that it helps to have an escape or two.  Being the distracted person I am, I keep anywhere from several to I-lost-count.

Working in conceptual art and design I maintain a growing personal library of images.  One that I had started to categorize just for personal use is a folder labeled "INSPIRATIONAL".  These are just people.  Some are well known, and some are just anybody, so their names don't really matter as much as they are just...there.  Some are artists that I look up to, and others are just reminders of human beauty in different ways.  I purposefully render them all grayscale (if they are not originally) to get rid of any distracting color.  The idea, I guess, is for me to just see not just visual values but a value range in life forms, and a sort of underlying idea of why they are important images to me.  I usually try and keep track of sources but I thought I'd just share a handful without commentary.  I kind of needed to pour through it this morning to gather my senses again.

If that makes any sense.

ANTICIPATE

February.

I have been waiting for a kick-start like this for MONTHS.

 I don't know if I should be disappointed with myself or not that it takes a month-long, once-a-year little internet get-together to get be back into a drawing groove, but I CAN say that whatever it may be, it is most certainly welcome in my life right now.  A little more than a day before the February challenge is on...

Though constraints to a fun thing can sometimes damper a mood and are the first thing broken, I've decided to give my participating self a theme to abide by.  And to expand on it a bit: a hard list to follow.  Specifically - I will be drawing nothing but fan art.  I'm talking about the most unabashed, rolling-in-absolute-stinking-fandom-type fan art.  It's something I sort of cast aside in my quest for more life drawings and color studies, and I seem to have cut out all my fun and why I used to draw so often as a teenager.

So there's the question of the hard bit:  I am ONLY allowed to draw a piece if it includes an element I avoid drawing, be it because I am particularly annoyed by it, or haven't practiced it much, or shy from for various reasons.  These include, but are not limited to:

-cars (ugh)
-guns and other weaponry
-cows
-boobies
-detailed urban architecture

Etc etc.  I'm already cringing just typing some of those (I'm looking at you, "cars"), and some I really just don't draw much of at all.  I'll be posting my full list of "achievements" in my challenge thread, which you can find here, but of course I will be posting the daily art here as well, in case wading through a labyrinthine forum is not for you.

Also - just gotta dance an excited jig over here - my inspiration for the month HAS ARRIVED EARLIER THAN EXPECTED.  Specifically to help me in the "boobies" department: