Coloring-Totally Addicted

I guess there are worse things to be addicted to. 

I have been interested in coloring for a little while and passed my request to my sister as a birthday idea. I am so glad I did. She found me the perfect book. Flowers, bugs, bees and vines throughout. 

I started on page one Monday with 12 cheap pencils I picked up at Job Lot. Soon I realized it was too limiting so Tuesday I ended up getting a box of 50 pencils and a sharpener. I asked the girls if anyone had a pencil bag they would share and I was in business. 

I had originally thought markers for the bold color I was picturing but this book has teeny-tiny leaves and detail that only a very sharpened pencil could handle. I also found that with shading or layering of pencils I extended my colors well past the 50 I had. 

On day one I found myself immediately drawn to this bird. I do not know a lot about birds but the few basic ones and this one which my Nana used to show us in her yard when I was a kid. I might be wrong but I want to even say a Red Winged Black Bird was her favorite. I also took this as a sign she was here with me. My guardian angel saying Happy Birthday. A great way to start.

I have worked on this during the quiet times of the dayshift and sitting in my bed at night. I had girls in my bed to visit, color in their own books and do homework. I had a dog snoring with her head on my knee while I colored. Ava and I soon found we needed a "chandelier" as there was not enough light in my room for our projects. I quickly fixed that by hanging one of my favorite paper lanterns over my bed. Another plus as that lantern has spent 3 years in a closet.

Happily I can say the first one is done. 

2 pages of tiny leaves and flowers. At first I was thinking it is only coloring not my art but after a while I felt like I was using an artistic part of my brain that I hadn't in a really long time. I have added a cool surf channel on Pandora and think I have found my chill place. I may have even found myself singing while I color.

I might make color copies so I can hang some of them up but I decided not to rip them out of the book. It feels like it should be kept whole like a journal. The book is just too beautiful to disassemble.

On another note-I have decided not to discount myself and look at it more from this angle:

I started with her art and made it mine.