Tuesday 22 November 2011

SIGNS OF OLD AGE ....

My name is Rosie, I'm 57 and a grandmother. There, I've said it. Lord knows how I got here ... time seemed to fly by (whether I was having fun or not) and now all of a sudden that middle aged woman I see in shop windows turns out to be me! How impossible that seems when, in my head, I'm in my early thirties. I've also noticed an increasing hardening of my attitudes (along with my arteries) that I'm not necessarily proud of, and do know that's something I have to work on. But equally there are some areas in which I've learned wisdom (I hope) and maybe these are some of them, or possibly I'm just growing old and lazy? You decide!
This page began with me writing the title, and then I just started to doodle the borders. The next stage was to list some of the things I saw happening in me, and to begin adding colour - once again the trusty Promarkers came to hand! I do love what I can do with these, and how vivid the results are. If you look closely you can see some of the shading I've achieved (although I have a lot to learn on that front) often just by adding a light grey OVER the colour. That's what gave me the grape shade around the black on the pink/purple panel at the top of the page, which was the effect of grey over the pink.
I'm still not entirely comfortable with too much white background, so then I began to add a colour around the writing - if I go over the writing I find it fuzzes a bit even though the waterproof ink doesn't actually run. Doodling away in colour on the borders was such fun - really relaxing and reflective!
And this is how the page finished up - it seems a shame now that its just a list, I might have written it more artistically, but I didn't. That's partly because when I began it I didn't actually know what would be on it! It may be that you recognise some of the symptoms I describe ... in which case welcome to the club! I've just noticed that some of the branches I've drawn look a bit like arteries ... but suspect that was subconscious.
Now I'd better go off and do some work on not being quite such a cranky old lady - or my grand-daughters will find me very boring indeed, and that would never do!!

10 comments:

Sue said...

Oh nooooooooooo I can relate to every one of those points!
Fab doodling and colouring in the borders:)

Carol Q said...

OMG - I completely echo that!

Heavens2Betsy said...

This is such a vibrant, wonderful journal page and I share your sentiments about each of your points and I am barely into my fifties. I suspect I've been an Old Fogey for a long time already! Your post made me chuckle and I envy your promarker abilities. penny

Julia Dunnit said...

I'm not totally convinced of your fogeyism...after all, you are creative and have a sense of humour the size of a house...but let me check..maybe it's because I completely get where your great page came from!

Ali said...

Arrrgghhh! According to your list I'm also a fogey at the grand old age of 38! :lol:

Lovely, vibrant page though so don't worry too much.. I don't think anyone as creative as you can ever really be classed as a fogey! :D

Ali

alexa said...

Love how your arteries quietly formed when you weren't looking! I am signed up to every one of those, Rosie. An elderly gentleman once told me that I would know when I was getting old: I'd bend down to pick something up and think "Now, is there anything else I can do when I'm down here?". Think I'm right there already!

Linda Vincent said...

Looks like we're all in agreement with you Rosie! Anyway, most of it relates to comfort - and there's nothing wrong with that :-)
You're definitely nowhere near cranky yet!!
Hugs xx
PS You've made me want to do some doodling today......

Unknown said...

Hi :) I have a question about your promarkers, well a few questions.

1.where did you buy your promarkers and how many pens do you have?

2. are they nice to use?

3. do they run out quickly?

i was looking for some on the internet and i have found they are quite a lot compared to what i would usually spend on some pens so i thought i would ask someone who has used them. thanks in advance, phoebe x

Unknown said...

thankyou for replying! now there is something else for my christmas list ;)

Juls said...

this is fabulous!! what a fun topic for a page, and I love your bright colours! Hugs Juls