Happy New Year and Confession

First of all, let me wish you all a new year full of good health, love, and happiness.

If you read my challenge of September below, I was supposed to have been one of the participants in my challenge. I thought it was one of the best challenges I have ever come up with. I couldn't wait to get started, and started I did.

Now for my confession. When I was a young child, my mother bought me some science books that incorporated Disney characters throughout the book. I would open these books, grab my pencil, color pencils and papers, and draw the characters. I would get lost for hours doing this. That was the memory that came to my mind when I came up with this challenge.

Alright, so what happened? Well, I decided that I would do this again. I grabbed my toddler's favorite book and started sketching. I drew the characters but was stumped on what to do about the background; then... I saw our designer, Kathleen's, artwork. (Click on her name to the right to see what she came up with for this challenge.) Oh my goodness! I was awed by her artistic abilities. It was at this point that I froze. I looked at my drawing and just couldn't get past the background. I knew I had to complete it, so I just grabbed a bunch of watercolor pencils and started "coloring." I ended up with a mess. At this point, I was left with no other option but to start over. However, the holidays came, mixed in with some extra work, and the project was forgotten.

I have to say that I am disappointed with myself for having compared my abilities with someone else's and letting it shake my confidence in my artistic skills. However, I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who has experienced this at one time or another.

What am I hoping you'll learn from my confession? Something which I knew all along, but for one instant forgot; we should never compare our artwork to others', but instead see the beauty in all. We all have our own artistic talents and styles and that's what makes altered art such a fun form of art.

Will I follow through on my challenge; how could I not? Sometime in the near future, I will complete my artwork and share it with the world. :-)

Note: Kathleen, in the end, you helped to inspire me. :-)