Visual Exercise

I have long been fascinated with Mexican folk art and was delighted when a friend gifted me with the lovely calaca which I chose to sketch for this exercise. I particularly enjoy that she is seated in front of a computer and that she is smoking a cigarette....something I have always maintained I would do should insanity ever drive me to the point of being institutionalized. ~ Thanks Charlie, you know me well. ; )

Picture me, the neat 'everything must be just so' type, seated in my office, a purposefully large amount of papers and books covering every surface, a can of almonds precariously balanced on top, a soda clenched between my knees, a continuously meowing Siamese cat at my feet, and the home phone ringing every five minutes with  pre-election phone calls (Can you believe that Betty White, Sarah Palin, even Mr. Obama...all were vying for my attention!)  Clipboard and paper leaning against the desk front I began drawing...no, I tried to begin drawing, I had to stop to adjust the desk light due to the paper stacks, OK, draw..draw... wait...one of her boobs looks bigger...hey, that's because one of them really is bigger...oh, I like the light better this way...whoops, about spilled those almonds...draw...draw...what??? is that man on TV talking about sea slugs in lakes? gross! gross! gross! I hate slugs, ugly little shell-less snails, f-o-c-u-s, back to  drawing............Somehow, during the allotted 30 minutes I was able to capture a fairly decent likeness of  my little computing skeleton.  It was a stressful process though, one that made me think that lighters and ashtrays might well be a part of my future.