Presenting: Deity-a-Day! In which I draw a different deity every day* and then post it on this here blog.
Why deities? Because I love them. In an alternate reality, where everyone lives to be 300 years old because of science or meditation or what have you, I have a double PhD in Folk Lore and Comparative Religions. And an MFA. THREE ADVANCED DEGREES. I'm also going to use "deity" a little loosely, because Deity-or-Mythological-Entity-a-Day just doesn't have the same ring to it, but there will probably be days when I just really want to draw a manticore** or a borametz (or, like, Saint Francis), and I gotta be allowed to embrace that.
So who's the lucky immortal being who got me thinking that this would be fun? None other than Ganesha, Hindu god of obstacles (both placing and removing), Lord of letters and learning***!
Sorry about the slightly-blurry phone photo. He's not a huge sketch, so ripping the paper out to scan it felt silly, and our good camera needs a battery charge. But it's not so important for it to be fancy, anyway--it's just a pencil sketch that I inked over (didn't erase the pencil, which is why you can see little bits of it in places. the sketch quality looks really good on paper--adds some dimension!--but not so much in a picture like this. oh well.)
Why is he the first? Um, well, actually... I just felt like drawing him today. I like Ganesha quite a bit: he looks awesome, and he loves clever people. Once I finished drawing him, I got the idea for the project. I think it'll be pretty fun! Not only will I get to exercise my drawin' fingers, I'll get to learn all sorts of fun stuff. Of course, respect for the deities is very important to me (satire isn't really my goal, here), so no delving into Islam or any other religions that don't allow visual representations of their religious figures. That said, if you know a god/goddess/immortal being/saint/etc. with a super rad origin story, let me know. In the meantime, I'll try to find the charger for the fancy camera so the photos are better.
It's probably worth disclaiming here that I am not known for follow-through. If this project dies in six months, or a week, that's my own darn fault, and I'm sorry. I'll try not to slack off. Though I have this lovely, delusional idea that putting it out there on the internet will "make me do it", in reality, my track record for Projects I Announce Loudly to the World is pretty pathetic. Remember my Victorian Detective Mystery? It's in a coma right now. I was so good about it for so long, and then I got depressed and got distracted and got busy, and now it's just sitting here, open in my taskbar, with chapter twelve half written. Sigh. I'm not going to lie--I really hope that this art venture will prompt me to finish this chapter and get back into the story (I tried working on it today for a while, but I just can't get unstuck. Trying to acquaint myself with palmistry didn't really help. That crap is confusing). Heck, maybe admitting that I've failed will jump start me into action. Ugh. I never had this problem at work or in school. I guess the stakes are a lot lower for things I do for myself--it's not like I get paid or have real deadlines. Remarkable, isn't it, what a paycheck can inspire you to do.
*I will only allow myself exceptions if I spend all day writing and don't get around to it. Writing always comes first, you feel me?
**speaking of manticores, do you read Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell? Because the girls who write it are deity/folklore goddesses, and Skittles is the cutest mythical creature I have ever seen. I want a huge, framed picture of Skittles in my living room. Anyways, start at the beginning of the comic, and enjoy every minute of it.
***phrasing--"Lord of letters and learning"--from wikipedia
PS my reference for Ganesha: here