The new year has been kind to me so far. I have been inspired to create this whole month. I also am excited to announce my very first giveaway on Instagram! If you’re reading this, on 1/24/20 check out my IG for the giveaway post and enter for a chance to win the original watercolor valentine cards or a set of prints or a surprise gift. If it’s past 1/26/20 the giveaway has ended but not to worry, give me a follow and keep your eyes out as I have more giveaway ideas lined up this year.
Getting the valentines I mentioned last week cleaned up digitally and put onto my TeePublic store has been keeping me pumped. I only have two done so far…but I plan on getting all 6 of them knocked out before the end of next week. I’ve also been working on utilizing those digital files to make smaller prints. Which are coming out just wonderfully on my cannon printer. If you’re reading this thanks for the suggestion Christine.
As I sit here and think about what to write about in my weekly entry I can’t help but wonder about you, my wonderful reader friend. I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to include you, how rude of me. How is the first year of the new decade treating you? I’d love to strike up a conversation instead of this being a one way street. If you’d like to let me know, let us have a conversation in the comments below. Or you could always send me a DM on Instagram.
progress is going well, still a tad inconsistent but I feel that slight imperfection is what makes handwriting beautiful. I hear a lot of people claim that they hate their handwriting and wish that they had mine. However that is a silly thing to say, because I feel with enough practice at anything you can become an expert in it. It’s all in your mindset.
Speaking of progress, this week’s practice page was the word air. Here it starts getting interesting, I get to put into practice the basic principles and am rewarded with the challenge of not removing my pen (I should be using a pen but I wanted to go through the books once with pencil as I am learning from a novice perspective) from the page. The result is a great exercise, that works on stamina, stability and form. I find that holding the writing instrument correctly makes all the difference. It is like your hand is as light as air. If you grip the writing instrument firmly but gently, loosen your arm up a bit while resting on the forearm muscle and letting your hand rest on your ring and pinky fingernails the words just seem to flow so well. Oh and the book has even encouraged me to “form the habit of criticizing their own writing”. So I can’t help but observe the image above and see that I need to really work on consistent angles. Some of them I hit square on the head, but others I have bent or missed the nail all together and smashed my thumb.
If you’ve been following along so far you know how to make these letters and if you haven’t but would like to, start here. I won’t bore you with the usual drawn out handwriting nerd speak, but I will give you the principle count for execution. Here goes — 3, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, dot*, 1, 2, dot your i.
*I like to refer to this one as a modified, super short and incorrectly angled 3.
I’ll end this one with this thought. Too often we forget that we were once children, infants who couldn’t walk or talk, eat by ourselves let alone drive or hold a job. I encourage you to think of yourself as a child, the things that you can’t do yet, or don’t do well are just because you haven’t heard of them or done them. And what you’re not good at now is only because you haven’t practiced enough. My suggestion, start slow and be patient with your journey. Have the same level of patience with yourself as you would if you were teaching a child.
Stay positive, and do that hard thing you don’t want to do today. Happy practicing.
