Education in the Margins (Sticky note edition: 2021)

Sticky notes from my desk and LDSPMA takeaways.

Betterment

Some things are good for a time. And only a time.

I should be as good at keeping an experience account as I am at keeping an expenditure account. The former will foster gratitude and joy. The latter may make me wiser.

To singles who want to be married: “Do not give up hope. And do not give up trying. But do give up being obsessed with it . . . if you forget about it and become anxiously engaged in other activities, the prospects will brighten immeasurably.” ­­– President Hinkley (Women of the Church)

We have all been powerfully affected by women.

I can love imperfect things. I can create imperfect things. I am an imperfect being of great worth.

Current Events

MyEducator just wants to be in the room where it happens with WGU.

First day back at the office and I remembered my computer password on the first try. #success

There is enough and to spare in the earth. We don’t often treat it like that, though.

Musings

I can’t keep my happiness to myself—I must talk about and share it if I can.

Was Nick Fury a good project manager and did he do a good job assembling the Avengers?

The Earth experience is a fraction of your eternity. It is second grade, if you will. You are not expected to make every ordinance or become perfect here. But be good and serve others and participate and progress as you can.

Do we live our lives as Hallmark Christmas movies? We let Christmas be the setting but leave it out of the actual story and all of the important plot.

No one really knows when to quit.

"Ready" isn't always what you think it looks like.

They should seek the Lord,…though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28)

Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (John 3:18)

"Light attracts people." But we must be more than moths to a flame.

Media Connections

Technically, Charles Dickens partially self-published A Christmas Carol.

“Taking coals to Newcastle” a Britishism for wholly unnecessary actions.

“The malevolent ivy—always an enemy to grace—”  Well, agree to disagree, Rebecca.

“Panacea to pain.” And “Grist to our hungry mill.”

“Nothing so shaming, so degrading, as a marriage that had failed.” (Rebecca) So people try to hide the shame from their friends and family, committing to long lies. Not me. I never want to live a lie.

“Chewing gum and bailing wire” is an idiom for stringing something together unexpectedly.

In "The School of Athens" Fresco by Raphael, there's a person waving in the background, and I've found my portrait kindred spirit. 

It is not in the interest of the ruling class to preach a preexistance—if you are all children of a God, the justification of slavery is invalidated. Humans corrupt correct doctrines with their self interests. 

Why do we love the Regency era? It's living aspects of "the dream"—you have people doing things for you. 

All animators can come together to hate on The Good Dinosaur. 

I've always wondered: Do you know when you're working on a flop? And the animator panel said that yes, you do. But you do your best anyway. (On the flipside, you don't know that something is going to be a runaway success.)

Quips and Quotes

Every day’s a holiday when I’m with you.
—seriously, how do you keep track of them all?

She loved him, which was a greater credit to her heart than to his merit, for he never acted as he ought.

“I always want to write poetry after talking with you.” ­– Aspen

"If your own work bores you, you can't imagine someone else liking it." - Christ Crow

"I have not yet written my best book." – Tracey Hickman

"The nice thing about being an author is you can recreate your childhood nightmares as novels." – Janette Rallison

"Being a light can mean naming the shape of the darkness." – James Goldberg

Know Thyself

Comparison is the thief of joy.

I tend to believe I can do anything—and I try not to prove myself wrong.

My SOUL is well suited for this season of the world. I will not just endure the current moment—I can embrace the future with faith.

What do you want? Love and joy. How great is the joy of the soul that repenteth.

I am equally verbose in philosophy and frivolity.

I’m on a path, not a pedestal.

Who clipped the wings of my dreams? And why was it mostly . . . me? Maybe that’s why I vehemently support creativity in others—there are enough dream killers out there: we need more believers and wing healers.

My time is too precious to waste on someone who doesn’t want me.

Do I have assumed relationship trauma? My reaction to a Facebook post to a friend who posted about a guy who “makes me so happy” and “treats me so well” and “loves me for who I am unconditionally” and “is the best thing that ever happened to me” is it’s a trap.

I’m a lover not a fighter and a writer.

I will accept and address criticism that I deserve. I will not accept criticism that I do not deserve—even if it would be easier just to let it go (and I will address its misapplication).

"You're not a bad editor." True. But what if you could be good at something else?

Sometimes I just need to put my money where my mouth is and my mouth where my heart is. 

What is it that you want to say? With my Marley story: God's mercy is great.

Ideas

“Singled Out”: Musings on being marginalized by marital status
“Paired Off”: the opposite

Symposium topic: The Death of Charlotte Lucas: An Essay on Opportunities for Women Outside of Marriage

Recommendations

BYU Personal Finance.

Todd B. Parker “True Doctrine Understood, Changes Attitudes and Behavior.”
“Christ is the teacher, the universe is His classroom, and His atonement is the curriculum.” The universe was designed to testify of Christ.

Eve by Susan Easton black

Death Coming Up the Hill Chris Crow

Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland

Start Making Chips (Maxwell Article)

6 Rules of Great Storytelling (Brian G. Peters article)

All That Makes Life Bright: The Life and Love of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Josi S. Kilpack

The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain

Ode to American English

Publishing stuff: 
https://thebookbreak.com/
https://press.barnesandnoble.com/ (e-books)
https://greenleafbookgroup.com/
http://www.brighamdistributing.com/ (necessary to get into LDS bookstores)
https://www.draft2digital.com/ (ebook distributor)

Poetry helper:
http://www.searchleaf.com/ (creating interesting word combos)

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Puppy Portrait

Melissa is one of my oldest friends, and she adopted a dog two years ago. I offered to paint a puppy portrait for her for Christmas. 

Here's the original. I'm going to change the colors on things with really crazy patterns because, well—those are hard to paint.

 Original sketch. The proportions worked pretty well, though I'm not very well versed with animals.

Good progress, but it looks like Christmas puked on that paper towel. 

Not promising. Almost quit. But Eliza kept me going on. 

A little simplification goes a long way.

Adding some fur. 

I don't know much about animal faces, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. 

Simplifying the bandanna worked great, but the words don't look too realistic.

Final(ish) product. I'm happy with how it worked out. And Bear liked it so much that he licked it through the plastic. 

M&A Anniversary

 So I had the chance to do a wedding portrait for my cousin's anniversary! (On a bit of an expedited timeline, which was a fun challenge. I drew it on one Sunday afternoon and painted it on another.)

Original photo

Initial drawing

Completed drawing

Initial color blocking for the suit

Thinking *I'll just do her hair while I'm using black...*
Which was a terrible idea, because then I had to avoid getting the black everywhere as I filled in the rest of the painting.

Background and boutonniere 

Showing some skin. (It was pretty yellowy for a moment there; I'm happy with the pinker shade I managed with a careful wash.)

M's face

Hand and dress details. (The original photo doesn't show the rest of the dress on the right, so I had to improvise—not my forte.)

Facial details and hair work. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Background details

Detail work with a white gel pen (the single greatest innovation in modern watercolor)

Original photo

Watercolor final

I'm really pleased with all the facial details and how the hair turned out. I didn't quite get the proportions right on A's face, the hand is probably too small, and I didn't quite capture M's smile and eye contact with the camera—so there's always room for improvement. I'm very happy with how it turned out overall, especially considering that it didn't take as much time as most of my previous works. 

One of my favorite things about doing portraits of friends and family members is that I feel like I know the person better after staring at them for several hours. As I reproduce their faces, I'm struck by how beautiful they are. And I know I'll never look at them quite the same again. 

Coronavirus Crafts: Baby Yoda

So I’m a hobby artist. I work almost exclusively from photos, and I have a hard time creating in a void. I usually rely on someone to tell me what to paint (hence you’ve seen so many wedding photos and pictures of my nieces) but I’ve never done a commission. (It’s a small area, but that’s where I operate.) 

 I felt like once I monetized my hobby then it wouldn’t be a hobby anymore—and I desperately want a hobby and really don’t want another job. 

Well, on a video call my nieces told me that they were painting. I said I would paint with them if they told me what I should paint. And thus Baby Yoda Holding a Pumpkin was born. 

This tiny little guy caused quite the stir. When I posted a picture to my Facebook Gallery, this 30-minute doodle easily eclipsed the painstakingly painted wedding photo in likes (they were posted simultaneously) and garnered an immediate request for a commission. And since I didn’t have any other projects on my docket, I figured I might as well try it. 

I was able to knock it out over several hours on a Saturday evening while listening to Midnight Sun on 2.35 speed. 

The sketch and a touch of green.

All the rest of the green. Definitely more creepy than cute at the moment, but don’t worry. We’ll get there. 

Ear detail. 

Not loving the chin area, but I’ll fix it in a bit. Coat detail. I’m always amazed by how it feels like a mess when you’re painting clothing but somehow it ends up looking great. 

Here’s to hoping the eyes help it cross over from creepy to cute. 

Baby Yoda squad.

Correction on the left ear. (I used to think that watercolor was unforgiving, but that is SO not true.) Reworked the mouth to be cuter and less creepy, even though it ended up being “less accurate.”

Finished product of The Child with a Turquoise Ball. Its future home (a play therapy office) has a gray and turquoise color theme. Here’s to hoping it will match well! 

Anyway. That’s the story of my first commission. 

Coronavirus Crafts: M&T

 Hello friends! Here's my most recent watercolor project. It's a (long delayed) wedding gift for a dear friend. I knew this picture would be a fun challenge, especially with the reflection and the angles of their faces.

Honestly very satisfied with this drawing.

Hey, M and T: If you ever need proof that you'd make a classy white-haired couple (or evidence of what you looked like in the preexistance), here it is. 

The background came together rather quickly. I tried to work so that the reflection matched up without being identical. I think it worked fairly well (though some of it was pure luck).

When I painted his sweater, I thought "Oh no! Maybe I over-emphasized it!" But most people I've shown it to have mentioned immediately how good it looks. So... good.

Tristan's hair. I'm fairly satisfied with it. 

Did some basic things with M's dress (and actually just called it good for simplicity's sake). I was a little bit nervous about M's hair but it came together fairly well.

CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT M'S HAIR TURNED OUT?!

The jewelry came together well, too.

I bet you're wondering why I have a dirty toothbrush here...
It's a creative trial and error effort for the beach.

I went a little too dark on the beach (not necessarily intentionally), but it came out okay.

Here's the final photo. 

I'm pretty happy about all of this. And I'm becoming more comfortable taking risks and trying new things in painting. 

Coronavirus Crafts: Roommate Wedding

So my lovely red-headed roommate got married in the Payson Temple a while ago, and we just connected again so she could share the picture she wanted. Remember how I try to avoid head-on shots and figures closely interacting? Lol. 

The Sketch. I kind of panicked and forgot how to draw at first. But I got there eventually. 

Things I should have noticed at this stage but didn't: 1) His face needs to be longer. 2) Her nose ends too high. 3) Her arm should be reshaped. 4) The shadow of the bouquet is off. 5) I should have drawn them bigger in proportion to the background and then I wouldn't have had to worry so much about the architecture. 

The Windows and the Suit. I'm mildly disappointed in the windows, but I'm pretty proud of the suit. I just focused on the different shadows and letting them decide the shape.

The Wall. Architecture is a bit of a weakness for me. Partially because I don't find it particularly interesting to paint, so I don't have a lot of experience. But I think this came out fairly well. 

The Faces. Faces are always hard, but they're especially difficult when they're wrinkled with emotion. Shadows are hard on faces because you don't want to make them black or too gray because then the face looks sick and tired. And sometimes doing a darker skin tone doesn't give enough of a contrast. So it's a tough balance. But I'm getting better at getting the small details with just a few hairs of his brush. 

The Flowers and His Hair. I went minimal with the flowers and didn't bother drawing them out in detail beforehand. I think this is about when I realized that his face was a little short. I was tempted to try and compensate by making his hair longer. But I didn't. It's a different hairstyle than I've done before, but I think it came out okay.

Her Hair. My roommate has the most gorgeous red hair. I wanted it to look realistic while still making it rich. Also, my sister did our roommate's hair on the day, so I really had to try to do it justice.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, even if I had to simplify the twists a bit. 

The Green and the Dress. Okay, I got a little lazy here with the green. I added shadows to the dress to create the shape.  

The White Highlights. Guys, I really love the effect of the white gel pen. It really makes the lace stand out. I may have gone a little bit overboard in some places, but I'll learn. 

Final picture (the best shot I got before I delivered it to its happy new home).