Nanowrimo Continued

I'm really having fun working on my novel.  It's in the erotic category so I can be as naughty as I want.
My hands are not happy with all the typing though. It's one thing to type a blog post. It's another thing to type 5,000 words a day, which is what I need to do to finish in time.  I typed 1000 before breakfast.  At least I type fast. So far, the story is happening as fast as I can type, and then some.
You can track my progress on the bar widgets to the right.

I'm still doing a painting a day also, and here it is.

Darn You Lisa Simpson

This year I decided to skip Nanowrimo and do Nablopomo instead. I purposely did not go to the Nanowrimo site at all, lest I should be tempted.  Then tonight it was like the universe conspired against me.
Between seeing a post on Twitter from a friend who said this was her 7th year doing National Novel Writing month, and reading something about 'the more you do the more you can do', and my friend Freakishlemon getting to the 30,000 word point, I was still thinking, "How insane would it be if I started Nanowrimo now, on the 20th day. I mean I only finished it once before and barely in a nick of time.

But the last straw was tonight when I was watching the Simpson's cartoon.  It was all about Lisa trying to write a young adult novel, and procrastinating. It made me realize how much I missed writing fiction and how opportunities were passing me by.  I felt my resolve cracking.

Also, my boyfriend hates Nanowrimo and I didn't want to cause any friction.

Well, I thought I'd peek at the Nanowrimo site and see if my old log in would work. Talk about a gateway drug.  I saw this very night that my local group had paired up with the LA group and they were all on the Amtrak Coastline train on a fancy trip from San Diego to San Francisco and I could have been on it! They'd done some sort of fundraiser so they could go.  And then I realized that Nanowrimo is as much about socializing with other writers as it is about finishing 50,000 words. And I'm kicking myself for giving up one of my dreams just because my boyfriend thinks it's stupid.

So here I am, at the eleventh hour diving in to Nanowrimo with my first writing session almost 1000 words. Usually the big thing that stops me from succeeding at Nanowrimo was being out of town for Thanksgiving.  Well, this year I'm not going anywhere. I may or may not finish, but I'm sure going to put my finger in the pie and have a taste. If you want to check out my profile for Nanowrimo it's here.

Bows and Arrows and Other Pointy Things

Everyone is busy and happy working on their projects.

Working on a basket for boy scouts.

Sal on the right discussing the fine art of straightening shafts for arrows.

Guy making a bow at the December meeting last year.

Cutting out leather for a quiver.

Tom knows tons about woodworking.  Here he is shaving a bow.

Our archery meeting got rained out today. At least I assume it did since the weather page reported 100% chance of rain in Pasadena.  We meet once a month but sometimes when this happens they reschedule to meet twice the next month to make up for it.  So I thought I'd share some of the bow making and archery photos from past get-togethers.

Sal making a yucca quiver.

Finding Inspiration

Every artist I read about says people always went to know where they get their inspirations. The short answer is 'anywhere and everywhere'. This morning I was watching a random TV show about remodeling a bedroom. A real estate agent was tired of the slow trend in housing sales and decided to go to Southwest Asia to get away from it all.  Once she got home she wanted to transform her boring bedroom into one with an Asian feel. In Asia she had met a street artist and commissioned him to paint her a series of four paintings to hang as a set on her wall.  She liked his work but she wanted something in purples. I took one look and thought I'd love to do a series of four square foot paintings in purple and gold.

We all grow up with color prejudices we get from well meaning parents and teachers and friends.  I remember once I went to work in my favorite red and purple skirt.  A friend took me aside and said, 'My mother would never let me out of the house in that." I said, "You mom doesn't let you wear long skirts."  She said, "No, we weren't allowed to wear red and purple together because they clash."  I was an adult at the time and had a good laugh over that.  Sometime in my childhood someone told me the same thing about gold (yellow) and purple.  So I've avoided that color combination because it clashes.  Yet here were these four paintings on this show that I fell in love with.  I couldn't wait to try something similar.

First I put gesso mixed with purple and gold all over four Bristol Vellum squares. I let those dry. I kept out the one I wanted to do for my daily painting and put the rest away.

I love dancing and dancers, so I wanted a dancer on at least one panel. So that's what I did today and I'm loving it.  And surprisingly I'm loving gold and purple together.  Now I'm thinking we all get stuck in artistic ruts of using the same colors we are most drawn to.  I'm thinking of making a bunch of color squares, tossing them in a hat and randomly drawing 2 or 3 for future paintings, to get away from my own color prejudices.

Off to the Theater

I spent the day painting, and tonight we are going to a Robin Hood play.  I need to get ready so I don't keep people waiting, but I'll write all about both when I get home tonight or tomorrow if it's late.

Today's painting: Mask and Pearls

Acrylics on Gesso covered Bristol Vellum

Update: The play was excellent. I mean how often do you get to go to an original play and meet the playwright? Here is our friend Eric looking mighty handsome in his King's archer costume. And that's my boyfriend in the kilt.  He made the new white arrows for the play.

It is a musical and it plays through December.  If you are near Westminster CA don't miss it. I'll have the details for you tomorrow. It's appropriate for family viewing so don't be afraid to take your kids, grand kids and grandparents.
Ticket info: Rose Center Theater in Westminster CA

Madrigal Singers lead the crowd to the opening of the theater.

Ballet Toe Shoe Painting

I like to paint on my front porch where the light is good and there are no cats to jump on the table. Since the Anaheim Ballet does the Nutcracker every year, and they were nice enough to give me free tickets to the ballet in exchange for being in their craft show fund raiser, I have a soft spot in my heart for them.  So this time of year always reminds me of ballet.  So for my square foot painting today I painted a pair of point shoes from a photograph. It's my favorite painting so far (out of the three I've done).

I'm glad I'm done though because it's getting pretty chilly outside, even if it's not even 4 PM yet.

I made a special Etsy shop for my square foot paintings. My grand opening is going to be Dec. 1, 2011 at five P.M. Pacific time.

Using the Table PC Input Panel

I just discovered the Tablet PC Input Panel. I'm typing this post with it in script using my mouse. If a person doesn't know how to do touch typing, this might be useful. Or maybe it your keyboard is old and the letters stick.

Sometimes it can't decipher my scrawl and spells the word wrong. Like 'letters' became 'titters' the first time I typed it. For me this is more of a novelty but I imagine for some people it could be a lifesaver; like if you had a broken arm and could only type with one hand. The program will also recognize numbers. 2b or not 2b. The upper right menu gives you easy to use tabs for correcting, deleting, splitting or joining. Hover over the icons to see how to use them. The tablet is easy to read. I don't even need to wear my glasses. Use the tool menu on the tablet to view other options. If you'd prefer a touch pad keyboard it has that too.