TEAR-GLEANING HULA

It seems drawings I spend a lot of time on, deciding to make a real work of art turn out to be  disappointments, whereas the ones that were really whipped out in relatively little time often surprise me.

The time last year, for example. I had wanted to try out the markers bought at a nearby stationery store. I pulled out a wedding special photo I wanted to draw and saw the markers I had...dabbled on colors here and there...it was the first time I'd done anything without a pencil under drawing. But when I was finished--and it was within an hour--I think the sketch felt more motion than the ones before it, altho' it had been something simple, to experiment with brands I had never used before.

I need to explain. The groom was from Hawaii, and the special music had been a hula praise about God's leading. The mother, notified she had cancer, had undergone treatments and got well enough to attend the ceremony. The father, who officiated the proceedings, was in tears by the end of the music. So you can see it wasn't just any old hula dancer I wanted to sketch!

And I'm glad God let me do so--even if it was the first time ever to do it without a pencil sketch to guide me. I decided from then on I wouldn't use that step--I found out afterwards that a lot of artists don't. I didn't know that.