Bridge love

Here's a tid bit about me: I love bridges. All bridges.  I always have too. Growing up I had a giant poster of the Brooklyn Bridge at night in my bedroom.  It was beautiful!  Kind of looked like this one that I found on-line.

Globecornerblogs.com

MyBrooklyn Bridge at night picture also went with all the different colors that I painted my room.  Yes, I was that kid that changed their bedroom color just about every year.  Plus, about every new season I rearranged the furniture.  I just loved trying new things with decorating! Still do!

So back to bridges, I decided that I wanted to draw a picture of a bridge to hang in our spare bedroom.  I had the idea in my head and figured I'd use the colors yellow, blue and gray to coordinate with the spare bedroom. I even had a yellow frame that I picked up a while back that I could pop the bridge picture in. When I couldn't take just thinking about the bridge picture, I finally sat down and started to draw.  Then I remembered something very important.  I'm not exactly an artist.  I can picture something so vividly in my head, but on paper it looks like something a child did.

As an example, here's a picture I drew of a picnic in a garden. I know it's a really bad photograph, but trust me it's a garden. There's a tree on the left side, a pond with a waterfall in the upper right hand corner and on the bottom in the center/left is the picnic.

In my head the picture was going to look stunning.  On paper, not so much. Honestly, when Mr. Pal saw it, he hung it on the fridge because he thought one of our nieces drew it.  I had to admit it was me.  Mr. Pal thought that was hysterical so it still hangs on the fridge as I hang my head in shame.

My first attempt at drawing a bridge didn't go exactly as planned.  I wasn't able to draw the bridge as I pictured it in my head.  I the support lines to be curved instead of straight.  I was having a problem getting the lines curved and symmetric on either side of the bridge, so I just drew straight lines instead.  The straight lines looked like a bridge I crossed years ago on a trip to Virginia.  It was a pretty bridge, just not what I wanted for my picture. I still popped it in the frame figuring maybe once it's in the yellow frame I'd like it, but that so was not the case.

The frame cropped the top of the bridge.  The bridge no longer looked like a bridge to me and Mr. Pal wasn't impressed.

The framed bridge sat on the floor in our bedroom for a few days, then for a few weeks and finally I had to get my butt in gear.  Notice a pattern here how I tend to start projects then give up and leave them sitting there.  I hope I'm not the only one that does this.

I decided to take a different approach to my bridge picture. My new approach was to get help.  I'm not ashamed to ask for help when I need it, and this was a time of need. I Googled a few images and printed out my favorites.

Once I picked the one that I liked I decided to trace the bridge using carbon paper and then color it in with my colored pencils.  All was going well until I colored the wrong portion. Ugh! I was never a good colorer (is that even a word?) when I was little.  Apparently I still haven't mastered coloring!

See it's the left structure where I colored in the middle section.  That part wasn't supposed to be colored in yellow because it's an open portion of the bridge.

It was back to the drawing board!  Bridge number three.  Maybe third time's a charm?  I decided I didn't want to trace the bridge. I didn't like the dark outline that the carbon paper made around the bridge picture anyway. So it was back to freehand drawing. Yikes!  I took my time this time and did use the Googled picture as a guide.

Here's the finished product.  It's not great, but I really like it.

I like how it looks like the bridge I pictured in my head and it looks nice in the yellow frame.

When I hung it on the wall though it kind of got lost.  I should have made a bigger bridge.

Oh well.  It's done for now.  Until I decide I want to change it in a few days, weeks, months, who knows!