Thanksgiving Questionnaire

My art is all about living in the moment . . . Truly experiencing the world around me and having an attitude of gratitude . . . Something we put a big focus on at Thanksgiving, but it’s something we should be doing everyday.

This is my 100th post and I didn’t know what artwork I wanted to talk about so I thought I’d share a little bit about myself. My name is Morgana. I’m from East Texas. I’m a very private person so answering questions about myself like this is pretty rare.

A Lil’ Questionnaire

If you could thank one person (living or dead) for his or her influence on your life, who would you thank?

~ I’ll go for a dead relative . . . my grandpa. He bought our property and built the house that I live in. Even though he died when I was two, the lessons of love and striving to be the best you can be, influenced my parents (and myself) in a way that I’ll always be grateful for.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned this year?

~ My most valuable lesson has been to be a peace maker. Regardless of how hard it can be at times, I always feel better at the end of the day when I was patient and peaceful with the people in my life.

What are three things that always make you smile?

~ My dog, Sunny. My boyfriend, Jesse. And doing what I can to be good to my parents.

What is your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

~ The memories, for sure. I love the way the weather feels. The smell of the food. And lately, since I’ve been organizing all my photos, I’ve looked at a lot of images from Thanksgiving. And even if there are some bad memories in there, I just love how I feel when I remember all those little moments.

What random acts of kindness have you received this year?

~ Just one. I was cutting some tree branches for my grandma and her neighbor noticed and came over to help.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving memory?

~ It’s so hard to choose a favorite. But I’ll go with the variety of food I’ve tasted. I’ve had Thanksgiving meals with many different people: German, Spanish, Thai, Trailer Trash . . . And my fondest memory would have to be the smell of delicious Thai food.

What made you laugh the hardest this past year?

~ Definitely Jesse. He’s a joker. Everything he says and does makes me laugh.

What is one thing you would like to accomplish in the coming year?

~ I want to learn to sew. I can sew. But I haven’t gotten good at it and really embraced learning to make my own wardrobe.

Who is the most grateful person you know?

~ She’s not a person, but my dog sure does show gratitude.

What book, article, or blog post are you most grateful for this year?

~ ALL of MY blog POSTS! 😂 I’m so grateful to everyone who visits my blog and takes a look at my artwork. I just wanna strive to improve on it and provide stuff that people will enjoy.

What do you appreciate about the change in seasons?

~ I love the cool crisp air and the colors of the changing leaves.

What is one thing you really love to do as a family?

~ Just being with them. Healthy and comfortable and just being in the moment appreciating the life God has given us.

What is the biggest struggle in your life right now?

~ The pressure of having to juggle way too many things. It can get pretty overwhelming at times.

How do you stay focused on gratitude throughout the year?

~ I can’t help but live in a state of gratitude for everything God has provided for me. Even the bad stuff. I’m just hard wired to see the value in what I have. One way I stay focused on it is to be sure I actually show appreciation to the people I’m so grateful for.

Which of your qualities make you a good friend?

~ I’m genuine. I truly want my friends to have the best life they can and I just do my part by being genuine and sincere.

What song or poem sums up your life over the past year?

~ Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas . . . Ok, so there’s a million songs to choose from . . . The only reason I’m choosing this song is because Supernatural just ended and now that song makes me cry 😭

What is the best compliment you’ve been given this last year?

~ From Jesse . . . he actually sees how strong I am and points it out. He thinks I’m a good woman who deserves to be treated with love and kindness.

What is your favorite food to eat on Thanksgiving?

~ The rolls. They’re so warm and delicious and I always make room for them.

What is your favorite pie?

~ Pecan Pie.

What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

~ These two movies I have recorded on VHS. 1. The Christmas List with Mimi Rogers. 2. The Second Day of Christmas with Mark Ruffalo. They’re both really sweet movies.

What is your most embarrassing Thanksgiving moment?

~ When I was 15, I was at my uncle’s and I was playing some game with my cousins (D&D lol) and I kept digging into the leftover Broccoli Rice Casserole. I wasn’t paying any attention and I accidentally got a piece of foil on my fork and choked on it and got food all over my chest. My cousin thought that was the funniest thing, but it was pretty embarrassing that I was scarfing and didn’t notice the foil.

Well that’s it. I used some of the questions from this site.

I have three questions for you . . .

1. What’s your favorite pie?

2. What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

3. What’s your favorite Christmas song?

Athlete Figure Drawings

I’m a Dallas Cowboy’s fan. Sean Lee and Dez Bryant are two of my favorite players. And of course, I’m a Nadal and Djokovic fan. But the sports I enjoy most are the unique ones and the ones that showcase strength.

Some of my favorites are shot put, discus throw, power lifting, etc.

Warm Up Sketches

I’m sure he wouldn’t be happy about the weight cutting I gave him 😂.

This was harder to draw than I expected.

The One-Hand Reach

While searching for poses to draw, I discovered the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. Have you ever heard of Knucking Hopping? Or Indian Stick Pull? They have all kinds of sports that showcase skill sets for survival and endurance. It’s cool stuff. Check it out. I chose this pose because I liked the overall triangular shape:

I have a lot of mistakes . . . but progress is being made. Yay!

Some Tips to Remember

Figure drawing doesn’t have to be too intimidating.

Warm up with gesture sketches.
Break your image down into basic shapes.
Pay attention to your negative space.
Stand up periodically and look at your drawing from a distance.

And don’t get discouraged when you make mistakes, just pay attention to your problem areas and try again. For more tips.

Proko has a ton of free content on youTube that you should check out too. I found the Bean Method to be very helpful.

Knife Drawing and Photo Organizing

If you wanna be productive and efficient, you gotta have a designated place to work. At least I gotta! The way I said, “If you wanna . . . you gotta . . . ” makes me think of Heavy Fuel 😂.

My Freshly Stained Desk

I’ve heard so many people say that it doesn’t matter, you can work anywhere. I tried to do that with both drawing and photography, basically trying to save money. But after getting my new drawing desk, I realized I gotta have a good desk for my photo work as well. Any ol’ table just wont do if I wanna be productive.

I didn’t want to spend too much which meant that I wasn’t finding good quality, but I lucked out and found a simple wooden desk for free that just needed to be sanded and stained. The paint was caked on so it took a little while but…

I finally finished this desk. I left a few specs of paint because I was damaging the wood trying to remove them. I also completely missed one spot at the bottom of the desk, but it’s no biggie.

Staining the wood made it look a lot better. I still need to finish the drawers and I gotta figure out a way to make the middle drawer work to hold my Wacom tablet . . . it might be too big though.

Photo Organizing

Organizing my photos is a task I’ve put off for the longest time because I didn’t have a good computer or any good software, so I just took billions of photos and stored them on hard drives to deal with later.

Even after I got a good computer, I got into such a habit of just shooting now and asking questions later, that I put this job off for way too long. I basically have to go through my whole life . . . at least since about the mid 90’s.

I love how I have over 800 just of Sunny. I had to narrow down my folders so that I don’t get too confused, so these particular folders have just under 800.

Knife Drawing

Now that Inktober is over, I feel like I can put my attention on all the art I wanna do. I’m juggling so much in my life and in my art. So, I’m struggling a bit deciding what I wanna draw and what I wanna post on Instagram.

Really, you just gotta pick something and draw it.

I collect cool weapons, knives being one of my favorites, so I decided to draw my newest one. I picked a random piece of scratch paper that has ugly scribblings on one side and is blank on the other side. I used to be really into drawing these suns and ghosts. (I should try drawing them again cuz I think they’re kinda cool.)

I drew that blade more curvy than it actually is. My measuring was a bit off too which explains why I couldn’t fit all the details😒. Still looks cool though.

I like the reflection in the glass in this pic

After I get my photos more organized I’ll be able to make sense of all the series’ I’m developing and I’ll be putting them up on my blog as soon as I’m able. It’ll take some time, but that’s my current photo goal.

Thanks for checkin’ out my art, and next week, I’ll try to share some figure drawings of athletes.