I’ve just finished up with Art Every Day Month, and I am so glad I participated! I hope I can carry on with what I’ve learned from this experience:

• pushing myself to draw and paint every day is a good thing.
• it is okay to fail ( sometimes over and over!).
• even a little tweaking of something I’ve already done can lead to a whole new idea.

Before I get to the heart of this post, I’d like to do a giveaway! I have been quite fortunate lately when it comes to online contests and giveaways, so I thought it was only fair to do a little giveaway of my own. I’ve had such warm and wonderful responses to my Art Every Day posts and I wanted to share the art I have done in a more tangible way.

One lucky winner (picked by a random number generator) will be able to choose from one of these three little 4 inch by 6 inch paintings I did during Art Every Day Month:

November 02 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

November 12 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

November 27 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

You can enter to win by leaving a comment on this post. You can also get a second entry by tweeting about this on twitter! The contest ends Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at midnight PST. I’ll announce the winner Friday and contact them to find out which painting they would like before shipping it to the lucky recipient.

I want to thank Leah for hosting this awesome event and for being a cheerleader and an inspiration for everyone. Just thinking about all the wonderful people that tweeted and re-tweeted and commented and were so supportive of both my successes and failures makes me all warm and fuzzy. You are an amazing group of people.

So, a round-up of my last week of AEDM:

November 24 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

Here begins an exploration of the curly trees in space.

November 25 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

Another one, close up, I thought the tree ended up looking like a hand cupping the moon and bird.

I skipped Thanksgiving, though I’d like to think that I found creative ways to stuff myself with wine and food.

November 27 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

I was aiming for a cosmic tree figure, and I think I succeeded!

November 28 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

I ran out of watercolor paper in the pad I was using, and the first thing I found was a pad of drawing paper I’d never used. I did a hasty sketch and used watercolor pencils and a little water to flesh it out. I liked the idea, but found I can’t achieve what I am imagining with just the pencils. I decided to try again the next day.

November 29 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

Here it is again, only in gouache. I got closer to the feeling I was looking for, though I think I’d like the moon to be larger and more whimsical, and the tail less so.

November 30 . AEDM © 2009 Lesley Atlansky

The final day of November brought me back to the watercolor pencils (I just wanted to snuggle into the corner of the couch and color). I wanted to try and create some dark areas that I can get so easily with gouache. Lots of layers and smooshing around with water, sometimes with a brush and sometimes with my finger.

And that’s it! My next step will be to see if I can translate some of these small intimate scenes into larger paintings. Thank you again to Leah and all the AEDM participants.

Don’t forget to comment and tweet for your chances to win! I’ll post the winner on Friday.