Punting: Ovals and more ovals....

It has occurred to me that some of what is good about hand memory (like the ability to make a W automatically) is also bad when it comes to art.  With my off hand (i.e. my left or non-dom) to make a credible W my brain literally has to say: "make a downward sweep into a curved valley and go up and circle back down again for two joined loops. stop.  that is a W."  I imagine we all worked that way when first learning to write, bigger is easier and the tongue to one side of the mouth helps!  slow and somewhat tiring.  (the reason this can be detrimental in art is that too often we fail to see the real shape of a new and different W since our hand quickly defaults to the one it previously learned.)

after addressing my holiday cards I figured I had "taught" my off hand to make ovals....all sizes, since so much of cursive script is oval configurations.  So i chose a photo of flowers that was predominately nothing but differing sizes of ovals. i made a few guideline pencil marks so I could get my placements correct and then settled in for a few hours of doodling with a black pen.  The nice thing about working small (7x5) is that i can turn the page around where i lack leftie flexibility.

using a watercolor pencil i added a few pops of color, then went back and brushed some areas with water to turn the pencil into paint.

ok, done, and a relief after previous efforts....

perhaps i could have done more but for a daily "exercise" i figured there was enough time invested!  I call this "Ovals in a Pot."
That's enough flowers for the month....I'm ready to try something different.  Maybe ovals can be applied elsewhere?
stay tuned,
Cindy
p.s. don't forget that you can see what others are doing at www.lesliesaeta.blogspot.com