ART SHOW!!!

The art show was yesterday! I was so nervous and indecisive until the very day before, but I finally made up my mind and took all ten of my drawings. We had an hour-long drive to get the show, so we got up early yesterday to be there in time to register. Signing in is one of the worst parts of the day. I had to fill out little information cards about each of my drawings (title, category, etc), then we had to pay and find someone to hang them in all the correct sections.
We had finished all this by ten o'clock. Judging didn't even take place until one. We decided to leave the show and go Christmas shopping at a mall in another town. It is really tedious (and stressful) for me to just sit waiting. When we came back, it was after one, so I went to my drawings to see if I had won anything. I had entered in four categories: Landscape, with the bridge, the ship, and the house; Portraits, with the two babies and Gabrielle; Animals, with Princess and the horses; and Miscellaneous, which is the category I had to enter the drawings of my hands under.
The ribbons given were first, second, third, and a couple of honorable mentions per category. In Miscellaneous, my hands at the piano won second place. In Portraits, my drawing of the baby won second place and my other drawing won an honorable mention.
In Landscape, my bridge won second place and my ship won an honorable mention. In Animals my horses won second place and Princess won an honorable mention.
Out of my ten entries, seven won ribbons! I was so excited about that. I didn't win a first place or a best in show this year, but my work was recognized in every category. To me, that was just as great! My little 8x10 pencil drawings were competing with oil paintings as large as 18x24 -- and I actually won ribbons! I was surprised by the way the judge ranked my portraits (comparing my portraits to each other). I thought my drawing of Princess was way better than the drawing of the horses. And as for my bridge drawing, my art teacher actually told me not bother entering it, because the composition wasn't any good. It was definitely interesting to get such an entirely different perspective.

The art show was inspiring for me. As anyone reading this could probably tell, I was suffering from a bad case of burn-out. I wanted to lock my pencils and paper in the closet and not look at them for... like... six months. Now I'm making all kinds of plans for my next projects and I feel excited about drawing again.