“Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.” ~ Serbian Proverb

It’s been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks…and so, I have some art to catch up on for my LifeBook weekly assignments. I did last week’s lesson–working with white media and shading techniques on a black background–this week because it appeared that it would fit into the time I could allow, which wasn’t much. I originally passed this lesson up last week because my response was, “Meh.” (Insert shoulder shrug here.) Not an averse response, just no response at all.  (I think this is because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to work with lots of color, so a monochrome piece felt “flat” to me.)

At any rate, it didn’t appeal to me and so I skipped it. Then I was pressed for time this week but still wanted to do some art, so I decided to complete the lesson after all. I found that when I actually sat down to do the lesson, I was thrilled by how fun it was. And it wasn’t as plain as I thought it would be. Apparently you can do a LOT with just white on a black background. Goes to show you that you can’t judge a book by its cover–or an art assignment by what you think it will be like. The lesson is to DO THE WORK before you make any snap judgements. Okay, Universe. Point well taken.

So, the assignment was to work on black paper with white media. I chose to use a white Prismacolor pencil and a white Signo pen. SO. MUCH. FUN.

And pretty cool results, I think. Check it out:

I didn’t set out to make anything specific, just intuitively started creating. What appeared on the page before me made me think of a lovely Serbian proverb, “Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.” I love the final product and I’m planning on doing a few more white on black pieces because of how fun they are. Touche, Universe. Touche.

I’ve also been working a “secret art” project for my honey for Valentine’s Day whenever I have a spare moment. The finished project is done and is safely tucked away at work and while I can’t share pictures now, I thought I would show you a piece of it that won’t give too much away. There is too much lovely color to not show it off a little. (Can I just say that I LOVE watercolors? Okay, I just did. I love water colors. Who knew?)

Anyway, there’s my burst of color for the week…this weekend I am going to try to sneak in some more art somewhere…not sure when yet, but we will see.

Remember this week that you are made of stars…act accordingly.

Rachel