I'm very proud of this one!  I always love drawing flowers and gardens.  Although yellow is my favorite color, green is my favorite color to paint by far.  Enjoy this week's calendar sketch!

  I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make my drawings better and I always love sharing insight on my blog.  My latest revelation is the fact that learning positively impacts my work and following negatively impacts my work.  When studying drawing or painting, it's an absolute necessity to learn certain things.  For instance, you must learn about the materials and how they operate.  But, learning is not the same as following which is confusing because we often follow or copy teachers in order to succeed.  I know I'll never succeed as an artist or illustrator by copying.
 The tricky part comes into play when I discovered artists who influenced me.  I discovered artist like Bouguereau and Miyazaki and I believed that if I followed them closely enough, they would lead me to salvation.  That's not the way it works.  I realized that I must learn to draw, which requires thought and awareness.  And that's the difference between learning and following.  Learning involves active thought and following doesn't.

  I love my motorcycle dearly; there's a lot of fun involved in riding and working on my bike.  The thing that I realized quickly after learning to ride is that there's a lot of work required for a motorcycle.  I have to take care of my bike, keep it clean and ride it often.  I can't let it sit for too long.  I also have to ride often to keep my skills sharp and to avoid fear.
   All these feelings are the same as when I asked my parents for my first dog.  My parents didn't discourage me from getting a dog, but they made sure that I knew of the responsibilities involved.  My Mom and Dad don't ride motorcycles so they only knew the danger factor involved in riding a bike.  Of course, there is a dangerous side to riding that I realized before getting a bike.  But, I learned a while ago that risk is relative and the risk of riding is worth the freedom it allows.
 I've loved motorcycles for a long time, but I'm still fairly new to the world of riding and ownership.  So I'm learning that a basic knowledge of bike maintenance is an absolute necessity.  This is also true of pet ownership.  You don't have to be a veterinarian to own a dog, but you have to know how to feed, walk and care for your dog.  The same is true of motorcycles; you don't have to be a mechanic to ride a bike, but a basic knowledge of motorcycle functionality is required.
  I'm grateful for every day that I get to ride and I'm learning new things every day.  There's been setbacks and the learning curve is pretty steep, but that's all part of the journey.

I had a ton of fun with this one!