Sometimes when the world is on fire, it’s the things you would never expect that get affected the most.
For example, most people probably wouldn’t immediately think of “audiobooks” as something that might get delayed due to so much of the United States being on fire this year. Yet, that’s precisely what’s happened with me. I had finally replaced broken equipment and was making some real headway with my audiobook production when the wildfires across the US started. Thanks to them, my voice is just off enough (and my lungs are dicey enough) that I’ve been forced to delay production.
Sigh.
I do have a small sample of “Blood of Olthetta” that got recorded before the fires hit, however. While it hasn’t been edited at all, I think I’m going to include it in an upcoming newsletter as nice bonus content for subscribers. So, if you haven’t yet, go ahead and subscribe so you can hear it before anyone else!
However, this delay has given me a chance to do something else. Why the bug bit me at this particular time, I’m not sure, but I’ve recently been taking an online class in drawing to try and hone my visual art skills.
Why is a writer looking to make himself a better drawer? Mostly because I find drawing fun also and want to be better at it, but also because I think it would be fun to draw scenes from my books someday and share them here on the blog.
I am a long way off from being that good. However, in the interest of sharing cool things about myself, I thought I’d show off one of my assignments from class.
The above picture was for the lighting lesson, where we learned the five basic categories of lighting in a drawing. I drew this same picture five times, lighting it in different ways each time. This example was for moonlight.
I was afraid I had rushed the moonlight picture a bit too much, figuring that moonlight would benefit from being dramatic, and I could achieve that with broad, fast strokes. But, the instructor said this was his favorite of the five, so yay!
If you’re wondering what exactly this is a picture of, I’ll explain. The tooth is a tyrannosaurus rex fossil I keep in my office. The goblet was a birthday present from years ago. And the candle is resting on one of the notebooks where I take handwritten notes from story brainstorming, albeit an empty one.
Exploring a new creative outlet, or rediscovering an old one, is always a good time. In this case, it’s almost both for me. I used to draw a lot more but was never very good at it. Now I’m rediscovering my love of the medium and acquiring some new skill at it at the same time. I think it’s going to be a fun time.
Feel free to share a time when learning something new helped you to reconnect with something you love in the comments.
