no fail no learn, #4

I indulged myself today and spent a lot of the day drawing. 

Now, I should know that feeling smug is never a good sign.  We all know that, right? 

But oh my, it's so easy to forget.  I have been working on drawing knots, because I like the focus they require and the meditative state they produce, much like the Zentangle® process.  I had tried some basic exercises and did well, so I was feeling like, "Hey--piece of cake.  I got this!  No sweat."

Um, no.  I didn't. 

My first attempt today was a total debacle.  I've titled it, "Three Wrongs Do Not Make a Right."  Here it is.  See the bottom knot.  The top one was so simple that it came out fine, but the moment I tried something even slightly complicated...

There may even be more than 3 wrongs in this drawing. I just stopped counting there.

Confused--oh yes, I sure was.  And totally not in a meditative space.  I couldn't understand how I'd gone so wrong. 

It was clearly time to go to yoga class, so I did.  Ran some errands.  Came back again and was determined to re-do it and have it work. 

A couple of hours later (along with one additional complete meltdown, during which I was convinced I'd screwed up again), I'd produced this.  This might just qualify as my first knot! 

I was thrilled, but I sure hope this gets easier.  At the meltdown point, when I was convinced that I'd gotten it all wrong again, I considered giving up entirely.  But after a short walk, I came back and checked it and suddenly it looked fine.  ??!!  I have a lot to learn here, that's for sure.

As a celebration, I did a 5-minute sketch of my DunkinDonuts cup.  Last night I finally found a water-soluble pen and so I did this sketch in less than 5 minutes and then used my waterbrush to spread some of the ink.  Total time spent on this was about 7 minutes.  Fun.  Hardly a masterpiece but I do feel like I'm keeping my hand in again with drawing.

Clearly I am not oriented to time and space! I did this today, but put yesterday's date on it. Sigh.

We learn the rope of life by untying its knots.
--Jean Toomer