Artistic Setbacks

Happy Accidents

Artistic setbacks and mistakes. Occurrences that initially twist our guts into a knot of dread. We’ve all experienced them at one time or another. But then, the unexpected happens. Once we calm down and learn how to breathe and see straight again, we go into super serious creative analysis mode where we try to determine if things are salvageable or not.

You know that feeling of panic, when your heart drops into your stomach and you forget how to breathe…

This happened to me recently. The tiger that’s been sitting on my drawing table for months has been moved to my bedroom where it’s air-conditioned. Ergonomically, this isn’t an ideal setting. But summer heat-wise, it’s the best option for me. Last week, the housekeeper came and before I left for the morning, I picked some items off of the floor and set them on my bed so she wouldn’t have any obstacles while vacuuming. One of those items was the tiger. The tiger is about two-thirds done and has a lot of heavy graphite areas. I left it and the giant clipboard it’s attached to lying on top of my pillows figuring it would be well out of the way.

When I got home however, I noticed that the drawing seemed flat. The darks weren’t nearly as dark and there were odd little dark prints in the area where the tiger fur should have been white as well as where the paper should have still been entirely white because I hadn’t drawn there yet. I thought maybe the housekeeper had been careless and handled the drawing for whatever reason. I was pretty ticked off because she knows better. But then I saw my pillow and it was covered in black paw prints!

Tiger before the incident.

I know it’s one of two cats. The third is too timid to do such a ballsy thing as traipse through my room, across my nightstand (I know because things were knocked over), across my bed, and rummage through my closet (yes, things were knocked over on a shelf in there too). The other two don’t see an issue with such behavior and just help themselves. So my guess is that whoever it was actually laid down on my tiger, thus removing much of the graphite with their fur and then stepped off onto my pillow, leaving the black paw print evidence.

Primary suspect…Tenshi, the “angel”.

2nd most likely suspect…Kazu, the tubby princess.

Least likely suspect…Shima, the shy one.

Now, I don’t have an issue allergy-wise with the cats in the rest of the house. I can even sit with them and pet them and give them the attention they crave. I just can’t touch them and then touch my face or my allergies will kick in full force. Asthma, itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, the whole gamut. That being the case, I always keep my bedroom door closed because when they come in, the first thing they want to do is jump on my bed. I cannot sleep with cat fur. I just can’t. But by the time I discovered this whole thing, it was too late to wash my sheets. I flipped the pillow over hoping that would be enough. Not quite. I woke up with asthma and sinus congestion.

So not only did I have to rewash my freshly washed sheets, but now I had to assess the situation with my tiger. It wasn’t the worst setback I’ve ever had, but there was still some damage control to be done. It took me the better part of last weekend to make repairs. The “happy” part of this scenario is that the darks that I’ve redone have come out much darker and much more believable in terms of conveying depth and space. Artistic setbacks, mistakes, accidents…whatever you want to call them, can be a major headache. But overall, I think this one has put my tiger in a much more realistic setting. Disaster averted. Kitties live to see another day. And the true happy ending will hopefully arrive in a few weeks when I get this tiger completed.

Note to self: Leave a note for the housekeeper to keep the cats out of my room!

♥ Kitty pics taken from @burmesecatsaregreat