The Cat's Pajamas

A Lesson Learned

This Memorial Day Weekend was crazy busy with family fun and spending time with friends. We kicked off the weekend with Field Day on Friday at my daughter's school.  I didn't realize that Being with a two and a half year old and a whole class of Pre-K kids could be so exhausting! Luckily nap time was waiting.  Later that evening we spent time with friends. 

The next morning we woke early to take the kids to Riverfest which consists of live music, fair food, craft booths, and lots of beer drinkers. Luckily they section off an area just for kids. N loved playing in the water pad, while B loved the sand pit.  There was a lot of things for the kids to do, but these two activities were the only things they wanted to do.  We stayed for several hours until B needed a nap.  Later that night the Hubby and I went back to see 311 play while the kids got to spent some much needed time with their grandparents. 

On Sunday, we got our stuff together and headed over to a friends house for barbecue.  We stayed until late in the evening.  N and B had a great time playing with the other kids, while the parents relaxed and had a few laughs. 

After being on the go and staying out late for three nights in a row, I was completely wiped out on Monday.  I was glad to get some down time to watch a couple of my favorite shows, New Girl and The Mindy Project.  While watching I found myself wanting all of their cute cotton pajamas they where wearing because it was a pajama kind of day.  There was an episode of New Girl where Zooey Deschanel wore a pair of parrot pajamas, and they were super cute! That is how I came to the next inspiration in my art journal.

Instead of drawing a human in pajamas, I needed something that was more temperamental. A cat comes to mind. The cat represents the feisty, sassy, and goofy mood I had off an on all weekend due to the lack of sleep and extra giggle time.  It's a delirium thing I suppose.

The Cat's Pajamas Complete!

When I started this drawing, I absolutely hated where it was going.  I felt the cats face was weird, the ears to long, and the eyes were to close together.  After feeling like there was no way I could post this on the Internet, I turned things around. There was no way I could quit or tar it out, so I stopped looking at what I didn't like about it and tried to loose myself into the pattern making.  Once I started adding patterns to the face, I was beginning to enjoy this drawing so much more. 

Left Side Face Detail

Right Side Face Detail

After filling the cats face with pattern, I began to feel as if it represented my whole weekend of having to put makeup on to go out.  I don't normally wear a lot during the week, so this was something I haven't done in a long while.  It was nice getting dolled up a little while staying in pajamas, of course.

Closeup of Pajamas

The love birds on the pajamas looked pretty rough until I continued with my pattern making. Once the love birds were complete, the rest of the pajama space looked pretty bare.  I decided to use the design of the birds' eye to repeat throughout the pajamas to add some visual repetition and texture. 

Left Side Pajama Detail

Right Side Pajama Detail

Love Birds Closeup

I learned a very valuable lesson with this drawing.  You can't give up on something in the beginning when you don't like it. Find a way to make it better, whether it's through pattern making, adding texture, color, or whatever.  Make it you and it will become AMAZING!