Avoidance. Also known as painting.

I painted for 4 hours last night. I was late to work this morning.

I am exhausted, but proud.

My nights have gotten more and more sleepless as D-Day*** gets closer and closer.  But I have already explained all of this to death on my last post. So this one is about what gets me out of my funk, even if it's only temporarily. As it is, judging by my voice in this post already. *tries to change*

I've had a project on the backburner for a couple weeks now. A good friend of mine wanted me to paint her something for her boyfriend for their anniversary. I jump at these things. Then she went in to detail of what she wanted and all the sudden my inner voice that is usually reserved for writting says "you can't do that. you're not good enough". I almost believed that little devil. However this friend kept pushing how I'd do great, she'd love it, etc.  I believed her over the little liar in my head.

Ah so the way to defeat the little devil is compliments. Hmm. Compliments are the devil's kriptonite.

Hmm very nice. *has Hedley Lamar moment***

So I tugged on my big girl painting panties and decided I was going to do it! We figured out what we wanted, where we wanted it, how it would work. And then I went to work.

Andrew would come by every couple of hours and check on things. So from his perspective it went from a blank canvas to:

he would go over to his brothers, come back again and suddenly there was an animal on it!

seriously that was so hard to do! it doesnt look hard, looks pretty ametuer, but I tried damn hard to make that tiger look realistic!

I took a break at this point because i knew I would then have to make an identical tiger, and then add imaginary wings to said tiger.

The wings became the bane of my existance. I would keep having to look up at the waterfall or another part I really liked to remind myself that I could do it. I went through 7 different types of wings before I found one that could even work with the position. Then it was how to make it seem like a dream.

At this point it was 11:30. I still had to work the next day, and had yet to put the lettering on. So I settled, tried for water wings that blended.

I am not sure how they come across, but here is the final painting. The quote says "Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings."

If you want to see more of my paintings you can check out my Photobucket account or my Facebook group.

I couldn't face editing or being alone with my thoughts so it was painting. I havent been able to face editing this whole week. I am looking forward to when I go back to editing. For now I am collecting the helpful advice I find on twitter.  I have favorited some good stuff, check it out - on Twitter Deirdredawne's Favorites. So while I am moping around and painting my woes away I can still be a bit helpful and forward other people's great advice!

Also if your new to Twitter and a new writer check out some of the hashtags: pubtip, askagent, amwriting, amediting, writetip. Those are awesome and you can always find someone informative to follow!

*** D Day for me is when Andrew is done physio and taken off WCB. See yesterday's whiny post for more details.

*** Hedley Lamar is a character from Blazing Saddles. A comedy from the 70's that my dad loved, and I then loved. A favorite of my Andrew and mine's. If you don't like Mel Brooks humor I wouldn't suggest it, though. 

And yeah, i know I'm referencing a movie that is almost twice as old as me.