Click, click, click goes the mouse.

I am cross-eyed from working on one particular digital collage. “Click, click, click” and a whole lot of obscenities were the majority of the sounds I made today as I spent hours using the background eraser tool in Photoshop Elements.

I finally stepped away from the collage, and I used Step Outside Your Box Saturdays‘ doodle challenge as a journal prompt. When I doodle, I doodle letters, punctuation marks, arrows, flowers and very strangely proportioned girls. Today’s doodle is a strangely proportioned girl.

I saw the words, “Blanc Slate, Just Add Color” in the Times Style Magazine and she popped into my brain – well not her exactly, but close enough. Her hair did not come out as I had pictured it. First of all, my palette was all wrong. At the halfway point, I realized I am afraid to mix colors – which is foolish – so I made some pink for her cheeks. Next time I will have to be sure to use the colors I want to use.

I was also too tired to think about the paintbrush and brush strokes, so I am not thrilled with the texture of my girl’s hair. I did use colored pencil and water for the eyes and lips and I liked that. I had never done that before. I also liked the effect I got by mixing some titanium white with gloss medium (as suggested by Suzi Blu).

Another day, another journal page, another few lessons about myself and about acrylic paint.