Ruff Edge Design: Still Working Out the Details

I don’t like feeling overwhelmed. In fact, few things put me in a bad mood like feeling overwhelmed. Luckily for my kids, I’m pretty good at staying “underwhelmed.” : )

Being overwhelmed is not the same as being busy. I’ve been very busy lately. I’ve been so busy, I’m finding it difficult to get inspired when it comes to doing anything even close to creative. When I’m overwhelmed, I don’t know where to start. There is so much coming at me and so many choices to be made, I get paralyzed. Over the years, though, I’ve developed a pretty good strategy for staying on an even keel in the realm of the whelm. (Yes, “whelm” really is a word. It means “to submerge; engulf.”)

How do I do it, you ask? By narrowing my options to as few as possible and then just getting started. (By the by, I’m very good at getting started, but not equally as good at finishing.) I implemented this strategy at teatime today.

Like I said, I’ve been so busy that I’m finding it hard to get inspired, and this is especially annoying at teatime, when I’m supposed to be doing something creative. So, I reached for the item on the top of one of my piles, telling myself that I would deal with whatever it was. It turns out that it was a Dick Blick Art Supply sale catalog. Good, I thought, I’ll finally look through it, then throw it in the recycle bin. It didn’t quite work out that way, though. A few pages in, I found myself inspired by this Tracy Hetzel painting.

About two hours, two dozen Prismacolor pencils, myriad shavings, one sketchbook page, one-and-a-half-cups of tea, and innumerable comments on Stella’s drawing later, I ended up with her (got any name suggestions?):