Taking stock

Since it’s the New Year and everything, I thought it would be good to write down a few things that I’ve been wanting to accomplish and/or become better at doing.

Firstly, actual blogging. It’s been fits and starts for a while now. I don’t know that I want to set an actual schedule, but I’m thinking I can post more frequently than once or twice a month (which is the average around here). December was a good start. Six whole posts all in the same month.

Secondly, I would like to be a better drawer. Doodling shapes and squiggly lines is one thing — and don’t get me wrong, I adore both of those things — but I would really like to be better at actual drawing of real things. Thus, I embarked on a little adventure last night. It really started out as a tracing exercise — I’ve drawn on vellum over a photograph — but it’s still a bit tricky.

Further, as I go along and stitch I need to reference both the drawing I made and the actual photo. So it’s not all just trace and go.

I don’t want to sell myself short because I think there’s a fair amount of skill that I’m using here, but I did not draw from scratch.  Still, practice is practice and I know the more I do it, the better I’ll become. I am casually looking for a class here and there, but nothing right has come up so far.

Her name is Rosie, and that’s all I’ll say until it’s finished — I don’t want to spoil it. I’m saving the harder bits — hands, face and hair — for last. So far, I’ve used just about a skein of floss and three types of stitches. I’m planning on at least two or three other stitches, and a bunch more floss.