6 (Yes, Six) Failures

"Palms"

8" x  8"

Oil on canvas panel

Oof.  In the past three days I have painted 7 of these little canvas panels, and I've wiped 6 of them off.  That's not a great average.  After the first wipe-off you just think to yourself, "ok...it's been awhile since I've painted...I'm a little rusty..."  But after the 6th?  You go do something completely different, like make meatballs (and for those of you who know me, the kitchen and I generally don't get along, so going to make meatballs is SAYIN' SOMTHIN').

To quote Winston Churchill, "never, never, never give up".  So, I'll try again tomorrow.  Lord, help me!  And I mean that quite literally!

Failure!

This is a failure on so many levels!

I started out to draw snowflakes, but then realized that I don't know the snowflake law.  I think they can only have a certain number of points.  So I'm pretty sure my snowflakes are all wrong. 

Then, I didn't use a straight-edge of any sort, so my lines are certainly less than accurate. 

Then, I didn't realize how much the blue would over-power the purple. 

Then I discovered half-way into the blue that the pen was less than desirable.  The little tip had pushed up into the body of the  pen too much, and it required me to hold the pen absolutely upright to get any ink out of it.  Which gave me significant hand cramps.  Which led to me LONGING to just FINISH THIS ALREADY!  So the blue lines are less than straight, and less than uniform, and generally sloppy.

It has occurred to me that I could possibly save this drawing by going in and darkening up the purple lines.  But I'm really, really, really sick of snowflakes right now.  And that has nothing to do with the weather!

So there you have it!  Happy winter, anyways!