If this is a view into my current state of mind, my family is in trouble.

I’ve entitled this “Planet Kithra”, but as I said on Facebook, when I reflect on it, it looks, to me, like a hodgepodge of Green Eggs and Ham, Andromeda Strain, and Little Shop of Horrors. A frightful, psychedelic mess.

But I did have fun creating it. This past week, I finished up two editing jobs, have been editing shorties for First Response, and I’m back to writing One Hot Night, which I have to finish by the 8th—come Hell or high water! Because…it comes out on the 14th. Gah!

So, when I need brain breaks, I doodle and paint. This was me trying out my new tin of Neocolor crayons. When I had what looked like a weird aerial view of colorful farm fields and lakes, I didn’t have a clue what to do. So I thought, let’s tone it down a bit. I plopped white blobs of acrylic on top of it. Didn’t like that, so I put down aqua blobs on top of the white blobs. Then I got out a teal paint pen which immediately self-combusted forming awful big paint blobs which I decided looked cooler if I used the pen tip to make them look squigglier. Then I had this paintbrush pen I need to practice with, too, because I can’t control a thing I draw with it, and the leafy pods appeared. So, after I edited what I wrote yesterday on One Hot Night, I decided I was finished with this piece. Thank God. There’s no more damage I can do.

So, what are you doing when you get really, really bored on lockdown? Are you trying something new? I’m starting the abstract watercolor class I talked about before because the last of the tubes of paint I needed came yesterday. I hope with Laura Horn‘s help, I’ll produce something a little less…weird. 🙂