Not quite fine art.

Lately, I've attempted to crank up the creativity dial.  Besides venturing into new territory—the fabric flowers and the clay tags, for example—I've also gone back to my roots.

It's been a long time since I've worked on any fine art.  I use the word 'fine' loosely.  Maybe a decade. The last several months I've felt inspired to start drawing and painting again. I've sketched a few doodles here and there, but nothing challenging.  Unless you count that giant photo backdrop of the Cajun cabin on a bayou that I had to paint a few Christmases ago for a church party, which was decidedly not fine art, but still challenging.

I kept shaking off that feeling, but the impression hasn't gone away these many months later.  I don't know what will come of starting back up again—it seems to me that I don't need yet another distraction to keep me from working on my writing projects—but maybe I need art simply for my own sanity.

Who knows.  I've decided to just go with it.

I got a digital tablet last year and I've played around on it a little, but until today I hadn't used it to complete a project.  I don't have the hang of the thing quite yet so my lines aren't very pretty, but I'm sure that'll come with time.

Even if I'd mastered the tablet, I'm pretty sure this still wouldn't classify as fine art since I blatantly copied a print I own, by an artist named Robert Barrett.  I didn't want to waste an original idea on poor tablet technique.  

I tried to find a photo of Barrett's piece, but as it's decades old I couldn't find one.  I did put my own spin on it so it's not exactly like the original.  His isn't nearly as scratchy.  I'll let you decide whether that's good or bad.  I like scratchy.  Just in case you were wondering.

Despite the sloppy lines and that it's unoriginal, I kinda like it.  Oh and yes, I sometimes do religious art.  But mostly I just like to draw people.

I think I'll copycat a few more times and when my tablet drawing is up to snuff I'll move on to something new.