Random Tuesday

Get married in Paris. Yes. (via Cup of Jo)

Choose to be on your own team (Gypsy Ink)

Can I be friends with Victoria Beckham? (via Go Fug Yourself)


3 Tips for Living Transitions Well (Darling Magazine)

Life right now: it’s a funny time. Most would call it a “transition period,” but I just want to call it awkward. Or achy, or uncomfortable, or uncertain. This season is a limbo between what was settled and what will be settled. I am waiting for pieces to drift into place, and am wondering how to thrive while still surrendering to the inevitable chaos of change...Transitions are this way. Often all we want is to get out of them, and fast. We want to know what’s ahead, then grin-and-bear until it’s over. Yet the only remedy for a transition is living through it.

And while we're at it, Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

And finally, here are a few drawings I've done recently - I'm back  to charcoal.

Look familiar? Misery by Jules Desbois

Another favorite, The Embrace by Picasso

Vertumnus and Pomona by Camille Claudel

 

  

Life right now: it’s a funny time. Most would call it a “transition period,” but I just want to call it awkward. Or achy, or uncomfortable, or uncertain. This season is a limbo between what was settled and what will be settled. I am waiting for pieces to drift into place, and am wondering how to thrive while still surrendering to the inevitable chaos of change. - See more at: http://darlingmagazine.org/untethered-3-tips-for-living-transitions-well/#sthash.6yN1LsXN.dpuf

Life right now: it’s a funny time. Most would call it a “transition period,” but I just want to call it awkward. Or achy, or uncomfortable, or uncertain. This season is a limbo between what was settled and what will be settled. I am waiting for pieces to drift into place, and am wondering how to thrive while still surrendering to the inevitable chaos of change. - See more at: http://darlingmagazine.org/untethered-3-tips-for-living-transitions-well/#sthash.6yN1LsXN.dpuf

Life right now: it’s a funny time. Most would call it a “transition period,” but I just want to call it awkward. Or achy, or uncomfortable, or uncertain. This season is a limbo between what was settled and what will be settled. I am waiting for pieces to drift into place, and am wondering how to thrive while still surrendering to the inevitable chaos of change. - See more at: http://darlingmagazine.org/untethered-3-tips-for-living-transitions-well/#sthash.6yN1LsXN.dpuf

Life right now: it’s a funny time. Most would call it a “transition period,” but I just want to call it awkward. Or achy, or uncomfortable, or uncertain. This season is a limbo between what was settled and what will be settled. I am waiting for pieces to drift into place, and am wondering how to thrive while still surrendering to the inevitable chaos of change. - See more at: http://darlingmagazine.org/untethered-3-tips-for-living-transitions-well/#sthash.6yN1LsXN.dpuf

Life right now: it’s a funny time. Most would call it a “transition period,” but I just want to call it awkward. Or achy, or uncomfortable, or uncertain. This season is a limbo between what was settled and what will be settled. I am waiting for pieces to drift into place, and am wondering how to thrive while still surrendering to the inevitable chaos of change. - See more at: http://darlingmagazine.org/untethered-3-tips-for-living-transitions-well/#sthash.6yN1LsXN.dpuf

Life right now: it’s a funny time. Most would call it a “transition period,” but I just want to call it awkward. Or achy, or uncomfortable, or uncertain. This season is a limbo between what was settled and what will be settled. I am waiting for pieces to drift into place, and am wondering how to thrive while still surrendering to the inevitable chaos of change. - See more at: http://darlingmagazine.org/untethered-3-tips-for-living-transitions-well/#sthash.6yN1LsXN.dpuf

The amazing thing about life’s come aparts is that if we’ll keep our eyes open, we just might emerge a truer version of ourselves. - See more at: http://www.gypsyink.com/2013/08/come-aparts-come-togethers/#sthash.VERlNaZI.dpuf

The amazing thing about life’s come aparts is that if we’ll keep our eyes open, we just might emerge a truer version of ourselves. - See more at: http://www.gypsyink.com/2013/08/come-aparts-come-togethers/#sthash.CfCPLflD.dpuf

The amazing thing about life’s come aparts is that if we’ll keep our eyes open, we just might emerge a truer version of ourselves. - See more at: http://www.gypsyink.com/2013/08/come-aparts-come-togethers/#sthash.CfCPLflD.dpuf

The amazing thing about life’s come aparts is that if we’ll keep our eyes open, we just might emerge a truer version of ourselves. - See more at: http://www.gypsyink.com/2013/08/come-aparts-come-togethers/#sthash.CfCPLflD.dpuf

Randoms.

Happy Tuesday sunshine, here is what my last week looked like:

Dinners with friends. Rach left this weekend to start her second (!) year of optometry school. She's growing up so fast.

Siah was my roommate last week - she's wonderful company. Her favorite activities include sitting on Trader Joe's bags, drinking out of (my) water glasses, and helping me make the bed. Dislikes? Closed doors, anyone who is sleeping when she's hungry, and sitting like a normal cat.

I finished Beautiful Ruins this week - I had seen recommendations for it on other blogs and wasn't really sure what to expect. I loved the cover right away...so there's that. Then I found it in a used bookstore and figured I might as well try it - I love any excuse to buy used books. I really enjoyed it though. The format was a little like The Help where each chapter switches to another character's perspective, except in Beautiful Ruins it also goes back and forth in time to pull the story together. Not in a jarring way. I'm not explaining this well, am I? Whatever. It was good - one of those comforting books you read during the summer, you know?

One of my friends had asked me to do some drawings for her. I really like doing these quick sketches on book pages because it doesn't feel as permanent. Like, if I wanted to throw it away, I wouldn't be wasting good drawing paper. Plus the words in the background are more interesting than a white blank page (I couldn't resist).

I'll always love drawing Rodin sculptures (okay, that fourth one is Picasso). I could draw the same one a hundred times and every drawing would look different. Granted, I don't draw them perfectly each time, so you could say that my mistakes just vary, but I like them that way. Anyway, here is the series I did for Laura.

The Little Prince obsession continues...

I realized this weekend that I own five copies of this book. One is on loan to a friend, one is in French (I've translated it for various classes), one is part of a collection of stories by Saint-Ex, and the other two belonged to my grandmother. I'm glad she shared my love (okay, obsession) for The Little Prince. Everyone should read it. It's a lovely story. I mean, how can you not love him when he explains that grown ups just don't understand the world like children do? And he loves his rose. And sunsets. And the lamplighter. Okay I could do this for days, just go read it. Or borrow one of my copies.


In other news:

Look at this painting - don't you love it?? [Cindy Greene Paints]

You're beautiful. [Darling Magazine]

My favorite shade of green [Knit Love, Knit Blue]

Unique world maps? Check. [via Rachel Held Evans]

Silence is powerful. [via Cup of Jo]



xoxo

Finally, A Carousel

One of the girls I work with asked me to do this drawing for her. It took me a long time to actually start it, since I knew it would be one of the more challenging assignments I've done. Plus when I draw for someone else, it's so different because I can't just throw it away and draw something else if I don't like it. SO, that said, I think I'm happy with the result, although I've gotten to the point where I can't even see it as a picture anymore after looking at it for so long. But it's now in someone else's home, so I can let it go!

Here is the original picture I took when I was in Paris, pretty huh? Now try drawing it.

I don't always sketch in pencil first, but I needed to lay out the picture carefully this time

 

Then, because I was nervous to start with the pastels, I tried "underpainting" with colored pencils. Which didn't really do much since the pastels covered it completely, but it gave me a chance to see how the colors would work out.

And now it was just a matter of STARTING. When I showed my mom this picture, she pointed out that I was in the "awkward phase" which made me laugh. It's so true.

Keep coloring, Hil, you'll get there eventually.

So close...

Et voila:

So, it was a good challenge, although the carousel was harder than I wanted it to be. But at least I tried drawing something other than Rodin statues, right?

xo

Create

It's been a hectic couple of weeks in my neck of the woods. I've had to be an extrovert at work, which is so incredibly draining after six days of people, people, people! But thankfully, things are calming down and I'm returning to my quiet corners. 

My roommate is out of the country for the month, so home is extra quiet these days. This week, instead of turning on the tv when I sit to eat dinner, I've been reading Wild (ohmygosh read it) and listening to music (Damien Rice/Amos Lee/Civil Wars Pandora, all are excellent). Then I've been giving myself the rest of the evening to sketch. I read an article once about a study on stress levels and television. They found that stress levels didn't decrease after watching television, but stayed the same. So according to science, sitting down to "relax and watch tv" doesn't always have the effect we hope for. Interesting, huh?

I finished a drawing for one of my friends this week (photos to come!), and I've been working on smaller-scale drawings in between. I love working on huge paper, but it's not always as practical as a 11x14 sketchbook. 


Yes, we've seen this one before, but I drew it again, this time smaller and in different colors. I love the dust from the pastels, but it's always strange how flat the paper actually is once I shake it all off...outside, of course.

Finished and sprayed (the fixative I'm using darkens some of my colors...ugh)

Protective, isn't she?

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating. [Pearl S. Buck]

This sculpture was also from the Rodin museum: Eve, 1881, bronze. The photo I took has a lot of glare because of the angle, so it's a tough one to draw, but it was still good practice. A bit rough, but it's about the process, right Leeana?

Trusting the process means tolerating imperfection. [Leeana Tankersley]

I've done this one before too, but not for a while. I needed something familiar and relatively simple, and hands are fun for me.

That is the great art of life, a mysterious collage of unexpected elements. Even today, we are putting down our layers, one beside another, creating and recreating ourselves. He is making everything beautiful in its time. While we wait, we must breathe and heal and grieve and become. We don’t see the beauty immediately, but as we look back, we find the art in and through it all. [Found Art, LeeanaTankersley]

xoxo