Too much is too much

Apparently there is a "Nope, too much" setting in my brain.

March was Girl Scout cookie month, and with that came a lot of stress and a lot of time out of doors in cold weather. With stress comes a lowering of my inner defenses, and so the inevitable thing that followed was getting sick. Which got worse because I refused to believe I was sick.

And I had a deadline for an art commission. And as per my previous post, was dealing with lots of fear.

So April started, and with it CampNaNo, which I had signed up for because I can do anything, right? Why not be able to write, edit, and draw, as well as try to maintain the house and track my kids and do Girl Scouts and everything else? My brain, on the other hand, said, "Oh, you want to write, too?? Yeah... no. Let's work through this fear and finish these drawings before we do much of anything else. And hey, how about getting over this cough?"

I am happy to report the drawings are done as of yesterday. Looking at the pictures I see soooo many things I'd fix or change, but there comes a point when when I have to say, "It's as done as I can get it done, and I can accept this level of doneness."  Re-working a picture too much just ruins it.

My head is finally clear, the cough is an afterthought now instead of all-consuming. And hey, my characters are now talking to me again and I have enough energy to go pick up the house.

It's two weeks in, Camp Nano is well on its way and a couple of my bunk-mates are over half done with their monthly goals, which is awesome!! Yay for them!! Today is April 16th, I'm starting today!! Better late than never, right? I'll get written what I get written. It may not be my original goal, but I will make progress.

I may not be able to do as much as I think I can, especially when sick. But it seems I'm happier when I listen to my body and do what I CAN do. And happy is good. :)

Here are pics of the 18x24 charcoal portraits I've been working so hard on the last month. No, it doesn't take me that long to finish a piece, it takes me about 2-4 hours per face. It's been an interesting thing, this project, because it's a church thing. And I really didn't want to mess it up, so I had to talk myself into drawing, and convince myself to sit down and do it, and I had to have faith that I *could* do it, because I really was that nervous about failing. And that was what took up most of the time: convincing myself to do it. That being said, I'm glad I did it.

I'm extremely nervous about putting these up, but here they are anyway. Women of the Book of Mormon.

Mothers of the Stripling Warriors

Daughters of the Lamanites

Queen "Lamoni" (because she doesn't have a name)

Abish (Queen Lamoni's servant) - this pic was taken before it was finished.

Sariah