Good Morning, Gents!

How about something a little different? This is an old drawing of mine. Just a simple pencil drawing.

It's a 12 x 24 inch piece, one of the few really big pieces I've ever drawn before. I do enjoy drawing rather large pieces, but if they don't sell, it's hard to store them. This took months to do, mostly because I didn't have the experience or discipline with time management that I do now. In total, this drawing took abou 49 hours to make. This piece helped me structure my time & even experiment with doing something like this (structuring my time, building discipline, learning time managment, etc).

It's just a free image I took off the internet, but the mountains were dropped in from the John Wayne movie, "True Grit."

This was a lot of fun to do & a pretty great learning experience. I need to do another large drawing some time with color. Hard to choose a subject.

Speaking of experience, I finished writing my first novelette this week. This has been in the works for some time. Nothing fancy, but I needed to gain experience writing something from start to finish. Since the point was to finish something, it was supposed to be just a simple short story, but I'm long winded. I know you're all shocked with that revelation (you don't say).

It's too personal to share here or really anywhere, but that wasn't the point. I really enjoy writing, but I don't know if I want to start down that road or not. I guess if I was going to dream, I would write a series of something that I could share on here or elsewhere or even publish. Maybe even illustrate (merging my writing & art hobbies might be fun). But this took a lot of time to do...........a lot longer than I thought. Maybe that's because I'm a novice, but I'm not sure I could sit down & hammer something out routinely. I suppose I'd have to do what I've done with my art & it would be a skill I would eventually learn.

I also don't know if I would have the time to devote to this. I already work a full time job, have an art business, serve at my church, I don't know how much time I'd have or would want to spend developing this. It just seems like a lot of work, a lot of learning, a lot of imagination, etc, but it might be a lot of fun to do. It could become a hobby that pays for itself or even a part time job like the art business, but maybe not. Once again, you never know unless you try.

A lot of men on here spend large amounts of time on building projects (around the house, in the yard, converting vehicles, etc). I've never really had a desire to build things physically. My world has always been in my own head. And as a child & teen, even a young adult, I even struggled to want to leave the worlds I created for the real world, which was normally lame by comparison. I'm getting off on a tangeant. I wanted to say that having hobbies & projects & investing in things, even people, is a good thing & healthy. I think you can find a lot of fulfillment & peace there. And I think the endeavor can change you (build discipline, time management skills, learn to prioritize or do this or that). That change can be healthy too & a good thing. These things can become something you can be proud of yourself for doing & enduring & take pride in.

And I guess I'm here to say that intellectual endeavors (art, writiing, music, etc) aren't much different from physical endeavors in what it requires of you, in how it can change you, in what it can teach you, etc.

If you're on the edge, then I would encourage you to take the dive & good luck.