I’m mighty proud and feeling great as the second week of the new year comes to an end. I have made the decision to stop renting the space in my mind to the creations that I feel compelled to make. I have always felt like my work is not good enough, my line work is not straight enough, or that my art is not realistic enough. I know it sounds silly, I am afraid to put anything out that doesn’t look up to par with the work that others whom are very well versed in their field put out. The thing about it is, so many of the people I’m comparing myself to have been in their field for years. They are disciplined and have developed their skills that I’ve been turning green with envy over. Often I see so much of their great content that I forgot they started just where we all do…at the beginning.

If you have something that you want to make or do, (it is that time of year people make goals, so make it BIG) remember everyone has to start somewhere so do that hard thing you don’t want to do today.

This week I’ve been working on valentines! Let me know what you think of them. I have a few more to make and I think I am going to make prints to sell. I also want to host my first giveaway on the Instagram for these originals. Can you believe that each one of these little guys takes 2+ hours to make?

I haven’t chosen which platform to utilize for print sales, I hear many have had pretty good success with Etsy so I’m leaning heavily towards them. If you have any suggestions let me know, thank you in advance. On to this week’s practice.

The minuscule letter s, is surprisingly more difficult to execute that I had anticipated from looking at it. I so desperately want to add a loop to the top of this much like the minuscule r, but we aren’t supposed to when writing Spencerian. I’ll attempt to explain its execution — starting on the baseline using the second principle the right curve up to and past the x-height ¼ space, back down to the baseline slightly to the right of your initial stroke in a slight right curve (I found that it was easier for me to follow the 52° main slant curving it like a j where the bottom of the j touches the baseline) do not cross your initial stroke, then back out and up to the x-height with another right curve. Stroke count is 2, modified 2 on the 52° main slant, 2…so ,2,2,2. Take my word for it, these are way easier to execute over trying to explain them however complex they may sound. Happy practicing!