Weekly Happy Things, volume 5

This Introvert Drawing Club exercise

It’s quite hilarious how I forgot entirely how frogs arms/legs look in my memory version. I only did the one comparison that night, but plan to do more just for the fun factor.

Getting to snuggle baby goats (again)

Last year I got to venture out with a friend to visit her friend who raises goats in her backyard. I tried to find the post to link to last year’s photos but it turns out I never actually got that post out of draft form. Oh well. This year we got to go visit them again, and it was the best therapy ever. This little gal’s name is Nutmeg, and she was just 10 days old in the photo. The goats get held a LOT by the children, so they’re used to being picked up and cuddled, and this sweet gal just nestled in for a nap right in my arms. I can confirm it was the best thing ever.

(Funny enough, that never-published post was titled “I came alive again in April” and I should probably remember that for next year when I get down in the dumps mid January thru March)

Trying my hand at the “starter pack” trend

… minus the terrible A.I., of course.

Visited a bog (that’s actually a fen)

Cedar Bog in Urbana, Ohio is just flooded with gorgeous Marsh Marigolds in bloom right now, as well as lots of other plants in bloom. It was well worth the $5 admission fee and the drive to get there and I can’t wait to go back as more of the greenery (and more native plants) start coming in. I took my camera AND sketchbook with me, in case I decided I wanted to sit and draw instead, but I had so much fun playing with taking photos (the first time I’ve done this for a few years) so it was delightful to get to play with photography for a bit of a different hobby.

Winging it on this drawing

After spending the first quarter of this year trying to actively get away from being on my phone so much, I seem to have fallen back into the same pattern/habit these last few weeks. So this week, with some encouragement from my husband, I trudged to my desk and attempted to force myself out of this rut and create something instead of consuming. I struggle hard with perfectionism, and wanting to make things look just right, and that keeps me from trying drawings that are more complex or, in my mind, harder to make work. This is stupid, of course. I can’t get better if I don’t practice the hard things, and I’m never going to make the good stuff if I don’t get all the bad stuff out of the way and just play. That’s all art is, anyway: play. So, I decided to put these Faber-Castell Pitt brush-tip markers to use and do some playing with coloring and layering and blending and whatever else I could do with them. And then had to begrudgingly admit that, despite being hyper critical of my handiwork, it was definitely time spent better than doom scrolling.