Halflings

Contrary to popular belief 

The opposite of love is not hatred 

It is fear

  

Hatred, ever so loud 

While fear is seldom allowed 

 

In our hearts

Where the diamond sun shines 

In our hearts

Here is my response to this week's challenge .
The interesting thing is that I started drawing it last week, before I even knew what the challenge was. I took an A4 paper, and filled it with circles around 1.5" in diameter.
My original intention was to fill them slowly, and as it turned out, it was a perfect fit for the challenge.

Tea for two - Onamato and Mumsy

I don't have much of an update on the "situation", so I'll stick to the artistic side of things.
Current challenge calls for a duo of two patterns, based on letters from my name. I chose Onamato and Mumsy, and tried to create a duo out of them. I wanted them to interact with eachother in the drawing. Here is what I've got

And with some color

And finally, something that came from under the pen, "one line at a time".

Another truffle is found

Assorted Truffles

The "Truffle" pattern, out of this week's challenge, played a couple of unexpected surprises on me.

The first surprise was that working with it turned into a four hour drawing meditation. I never saw it coming.

The second surprise was the almost complete lack inspiration (or ideas) of what to do with it. By now, this "painter's block" no longer halts me.

And then came a flash back.
I liked the "sine wave" in the original description of the pattern, and I started drawing sine waves with peppered with dots, and connecting the dots to a central "pivot" dot
 I worked with a pencil, and the result was a gentle mesh of lines. This is where the flashback came. It took me back to my high-school days, and to the technical drawing lessons (part of studying engineering basics). The notion of "helper lines", drawn with a pencil, and used to help draw the main object.
The pencil lines I drew suddenly turned into "helping lines", offering many options and directions within them.

This is how the below "Assorted Truffles" was created. I simply drew sine waves, or circles, or half circles, and followed the helping lines. I also chose to not erase them at the end. They have their own magic for me.

A four hour drawing meditation was a most welcome break between the breaking news and updates. The war keeps raging.

Wishing for peaceful days, a verse from the bible comes to mind (Book of judges, 3:30) "...And the land had rest fourscore years ..."

Practrice Zen, Drink Tea

... and always have a flexible angle-of-view.

The situation this week has not changed much.
A glimpse of hope suddenly appeared today, and vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.

In these times, practicing Zen and meditation is most challenging. Clear your mind, focus on here and now. Sit down and do nothing. But especially in times like this, Zen can become an anchor. Clearing the mind can bring peace, even with all the turmoil from outside.
To drink tea mindfully is to practice Zen, and I love tea. This is my beverage of choice, and the first thing I offer my guests (except when it's too hot, and then it's cold water). It was obvious that I will choose tea for this week's challenge.
The flexible angle-of-view is something I learned through photography, and I find it a great creative tool. When applied to real life, it can bring new options to situation that seem to be dead-ended. It can give new perspectives. It can defuse many charged situations. Between people for example.

I wish us all peaceful days

Canons and wheels

Where I come from, there is a saying that goes something like "When the war canons roar, the muses go silent". It's a rough translation, and the "muses" are the Greek muses, responsible for things like inspiration, art, poetry etc.

Well, in the past week, the canons have been roaring constantly. Missiles are flying, sirens are wailing. Explosions are heard from time to time.
War is raging.
A different kind of war, with civilians at the front line, and with terror as a weapon.

It's hard for me to keep hatred at bay when I run with my kid to the shelter, and she is crying of fear. Noble thoughts are hard to hear, when the canons roar.

It was hard, even very hard to pay attention to this week's challenge , And it came to a decision to just do it (like the old Zen saying, not the Nike pale plagiat). To choose sanity even when it's not the obvious choice.

So here it is, my response to the challenge

Wishing us all peaceful days

*** some more thoughts after reading the beautiful comments below

It is now my turn to be speechless.
I am speechless in front of the kind, honest, heart-warming words I received from each and every one of you.
We don't know each other. We never met or talked. I've joined the "weekly challenge" community only couple months ago.
And still, your words gave me strength and hope. they came from the heart, and landed in my heart.
I never thought that my drawing journey will support me like this, in such a difficult time.

Thank you for your wishes, prayers and hugs. For your caring. For your support.

two strings - double the trouble

The notion of "drawing with a string" is a difficult one for me. The technique is simple - just draw a line within a tile, and use it as a kind of an inner border.
Technically, I don't have any issue with that. It's just that I don't seem to be able to get inspired (or even get going) with the string in front of my face.

Strange, I know.

This week challenge is to use not one, but two strings. Two !

Several days later, I was close to giving up.
Nothing was coming out, no inspiration, no flow, no "one line at a time". Nothing.
So today I took an A4 paper, and the most regular of pencils (not even mechanical), and drew 6 boxes free-hand. And then simply filled them.

The end result surprised me greatly. Indeed, it's completely sketchy, not accurate, not "clean", and many other "not" ... But - the creativity barrier was gone. Inspiration flew all over the place, and it became one of the most fun exercises for me.

So this is my submission for this week's challenge, and it is submitted with a big smile :)
Creativity can come in many shapes and forms, and the bigger the barrier the bigger the exploration, If I just don't give up.