This mountain bluebird is my entry for Everyday Matters challenge #125: draw a bird.
Drawn from a photograph in the book Born Wild by Henry H. Holdsworth; a photo book of young animals in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
Drawn during a short break at drawing class.
A simple, scribbly sketch while waiting for drawing class to start.
I found this on top of a gravestone in some tiny graveyard in the middle of nowhere. The light was hitting it in an interesting way, so I sketched.
These pictures of a cat toy were done for my drawing class.
The top one is a pencil drawing and was a study in composition. We spent a good hour or more sketching out different compositions until we found one we liked. I liked this one because it is just plain silly… looks to me like the scene of a crime. There is a cat out there somewhere hiding from the authorities.
The bottom picture was a pen study in shading and line quality. The gist of the exercise, as far as I can tell, was to demonstrate how lines can be made to simulate shading from a distance.
My artistic output this past month has been–shall we say–light. In part, this was due to the planning and preparation for a two-week camping trip out west.
I had great plans for drawing and painting for hours at a time. But the reality of camping in Yellowstone and Custer State Park (South Dakota) was that we were either driving, hiking, sight-seeing, or cooking/eating/washing-up almost every waking hour. We did manage to shoot close to 1400 photographs while we were out there (hooray for digital photography! I would NOT want to pay for all that film to be developed), so maybe I’ll try drawing from some of the pics we snapped.
I did manage to spend one afternoon painting at our campsite. This was our home for most of the trip.
Everyday Matters challenge #37 is ‘Draw some keys’. These are mine.
Yes, that is a Garanimals key chain. No, I don’t have kids. Yes, I am a full-grown adult. That’s just how I roll.
And for the record, I don’t actually wear Garanimals. Although if I did, it would certainly have prevented a number of fashion faux pas committed by yours truly over the years.
I’ve been in an artistic funk for the past couple of weeks; waiting for inspiration to strike. It hasn’t. Fortunately, the Everyday Matters list has lots of things to choose from — no need to wait for inspiration. Too bad the list can’t come to my house and kick my lazy butt off the couch sometimes.
I stopped on my way home from work this evening to sketch parts of this tree in Oz Park.
Oz Park was commissioned in honor of L. Frank Baum who wrote the Wizard of Oz , and also lived in the area at the end of the 19th century. It has statues of the Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion throughout the park, and is a nice place to go watch people play with their dogs.
This sketch was the result of some recent advice I offered to an aspriring sketcher who was trying to deal with a paralyzing case of fear of failure. One of those bits of advice was “set a timer for two minutes; go!”. It occurred to me that the same advice could also be used to overcome the ‘I don’t have time’ excuse that I like to use. So this is my two-minutes worth (well, actually, the line drawing was two minutes; adding the color was probably only another five or ten minutes after that).
There are plenty of things wrong with it. Certainly, the colors are completely wrong, because I didn’t have any paint with me at the time; so it was ‘get home, get out the paint, and fake it as best I could’. And that’s all fine. The point of this exercise was not to be realistic. It was just to keep the creative juices flowing.
I’ll tackle something a little more serious when I have more time. When I don’t have that kind of time, I have to make myself do more of these quickies. Sometimes quantity is just as valuable as quality.
I picked up some gray PITT pens this weekend while I was supposed to be grocery shopping. Hey, it’s not my fault they put the grocery store so close to the art store… This is my first sketch with them.
Edit: just for the record, I did continue on to the grocery store immediately after the art store.
Not everything goes according to plan. If I ever forget this, all I have to do is sketch something.
My plan for this sketch (another view from the back of our condo) was to make the telephone pole the center of attention. I thought framing it with the flowers and planters we have on our deck would help with that. Unfortunately, I think the foreground objects have taken over instead of retreating to the background.
I think the single biggest mistake I made in this regard is that I made the plants too colorful, and added too much contrast. I think if I had made them more sillhouetted, that would done the trick nicely.
Or, I could have cheated, and just done a strategic crop. But what would that have proven?
I’m also not happy with the how flat the background buildings came out. I wanted to push them to the background, so I knew I had to leave details out and avoid putting too much emphasis on their color and structure. Unfortunately, I think I went too far the other way.
Oh well, they can’t all be winners. Plus, I learned something as a result. And hopefully, I won’t have to make the same mistake a hundred times before I finally learn how to deal with it.
The Art Institute of Chicago has these giant bronze lions on either side of the steps leading to the main entrance. People sit on the steps and read between the lions when the weather is nice. As for me… I stand across the street and draw them. And of course, the woman on the steps was talking on her cell phone instead of reading, thus messing up my very clever title. Maybe I should have gone with a telephone-related title like ‘Hold the Lion’ or ‘The Lion is Busy’?
This lion is the one on the north side of the entrance. His unofficial name (given to him by the sculptor) is ‘On the Prowl’. When one of our home teams is in the playoffs, the lions are dressed in team jerseys. They even have super-size helmets for the lions for football season. Since it isn’t playoff season, the lions are naked.
I did the line drawing during lunch this afternoon and painted it when I got home this evening. There was just barely enough time to eat, walk over there, draw, and walk back. But the weather was really nice today, so I felt like I had to take advantage of it. People hovered around and looked over my shoulder. I could hear them whisper to each other, “Ooh, he’s drawing the lion!” It was, simultaneously, nerve-wracking and exhilarating.
This was real challenge for me for a few reasons: 1. I am intimidated by drawing living things, even if (as in this case) that living thing is not really a living thing; 2. Mostly related to number 1, I actually included a human being in this sketch; and 3. I had to paint from memory so I was left to my own devices with respect to color and shadow. The lion’s looking a little chubby, but overall, I’m happy with how this came out.
Today was a nice day to sit on the deck and sketch. In fact, it was a perfect day to stretch my ‘urban sketching’ muscles.
I spent the day roasting myself at the Cubs game. I can hardly think of a better way to spend an afternoon, especially when the Cubbies get a win.
The scoreboard at Wrigley is an icon of tradition… one of the last manually operated scoreboards in the Major Leagues. You won’t find any Jumbotron in Wrigley Field, no sir! This is baseball, as pure as it can be — at least as pure as it can be when you’re fielding a team full of multimillionaires.
That part of the field, by the way, is where Milton Bradley dropped an easy fly ball. Whoa boy… Chicago fans can be merciless when a highly-paid, highly-touted, professional athlete does something so inept! Just ask Rex Grossman; I’m sure he can tell you a thing or two.
By the way, anyone got any good tips for laying down a clean watercolor wash on smooth paper?
Truthfully, I have no idea what sort of plat this is. All I know is that it sits near the front window, and its growth only seems limited by the size of its pot.
The color in the real sketch is not quite as yellow as it appears here — blame the scanner until I can figure out how to make it behave.
I’ve been in an odd state of mind all day. I think about doing one thing, then proceed to something completely different. I have a feeling my horoscope reads: “Meh, do whatever you want; you won’t do what I say anyway.” This sketch is what happened when I decided to go to bed.
The cat was lying on the couch, perfectly still. She looked so content. How could I not draw her? Of course, as soon as I sat down on the floor in front of her, she popped her head up to see what I was doing. I sat, I waited, and eventually she put her head back down. But she couldn’t resist craning her neck periodically to see what I was doing. Then she would put her head back down in a different spot.
Cats make really bad models. I guess that’s why art schools use people.
My work schedule is finally starting to get somewhat back to normal. So I hope that means I can get back to a regular drawing schedule. I’m not committing myself to anything, though, because the onset of summer means that my evenings and weekends are filled with bike rides, concerts, baseball games, vacations, and family visits. I know many of these things are great fodder for drawing, but I am going to have to break some old habits in order to fit that in.
This is my entry for EDM #116 – Draw Something Green.
Believe it or not, this is what the top of my dryer looks like. You don’t even want to know what the cleaning supply shelf looks like. And yes, that is two spray bottles of the same cleaner. There’s a third one sitting on top of the washer. I suppose some things (like taco cheese), no matter how much you have, when you go to the grocery you think, “I wonder if I am out of that? Better buy some just in case.”
After another week completely getting away from me, I got a note from Blade over at The Artistic Biker reminding me that we’re supposed to get together for a little critique session soon. I haven’t even looked at my sketchbook in almost 10 days… panic sets in. Nothing like a deadline to get your butt in gear!
Of course, by the time I can actually get around to doing any sort of drawing, it is dark outside. So I am, once again, relegated to the great indoors.
I’m actually quite happy with this one. It is, by far, the most complex composition I’ve tackled. And I did this one without a net – no pencil, no eraser (I don’t usually erase anyway, so really not a big deal I guess). I went into it really worried about keeping my proportions correct and trying to get the perspective right. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s not too bad either.
Before I added the color, I took a quick scan of the pen drawing (just in case I screwed things up). This represents about a half hour of work.
The next hour and a half was highlighted by playing with my watercolors. I bought those things with the intention of spending the month of March learning how to use them. Then charcoal caught my attention, and now it is May. Funny how that works.
The one thing I wish I hadn’t done was so much shading with the pen. It helps to visualize things as the drawing progresses, but it really sort of competes with the paint in a way that I’m not completely thrilled with. Still, the scope of this painting is beyond anything I’ve done in a long time, so I’ll count that as win.
This is a compact flourescent lightbulb. It is supposed to save us all from global warming. And it is supposed to last nine years. Well guess what? I installed this light bulb less than a year ago and it is already burnt out. Let’s hope the global warming thing fares better.
Funny thing about this drawing… I wasn’t planning to draw a light bulb. I was actually planning to draw a pair of pliers; had them in my hand and was on my way to my sketching station (a.k.a. the dining room table) when this little beauty caught my eye. It was sitting on the kitchen counter, because I have no idea how to properly dispose of the darned thing. To be quite honest, I was planning to leave that problem to the next owner of our condo. So much for that plan.
As I was saying… I sat down, pulled out my charcoal and sketched a rough outline, then proceeded to shade (being careful not to avoid inadvertant smudges along the way). Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the process of shading, that I forgot to take a good look at the overall form of the drawing. Result: a lightbulb that looks like a failed refugee from a Salvador Dali – wilted, but not quite enough to hang out with those amazingly relaxed clocks.
So that led to sketch #2:
This one was done with a Micron 03 pen. I was more cautious about getting the shape right on this one. I stood over my sketchbook rather than sitting; and I think it helped a lot. Some of my lines are too sketchy, though. This was a problem that I had in my early highschool art career, and I can still hear my art teacher in my ear: “Make a line, dammit.” Something to work on.
It was interesting to tackle the same subject with a couple of different mediums. I actually think the pen was more appropriate for the subject matter, but I probably should have been a little more bold with my line and used dark, fluid shapes for the shading instead of trying to draw it as if I were using a pencil.
On the plus side, I kept this lightbulb out of the landfill for another hour. That’s got to count for something, right?
This is my entry for Every Day Matters challenge #131 – Draw a spray bottle.
I was sitting at home, watching the Chicago Blackhawks beat up on Calgary Flames in the first hockey playoffs the Blackhawks have been to since I moved to Chicago. I was getting tired and thought about watching the rest of the shellacking in bed. Fortunately, the little voice inside my head said, “why don’t you draw something before you hit the sack?”
I’ve been doing quite a bit of charcoal work recently and was looking around for a subject that would fit the charcoal mindset. Instead, I found this spray bottle and remembered seeing it on the EDM challenge list.
I have a couple of micron pens that I haven’t used yet, and this seemed like a good subject for them. When I finished, I thought, “why not add a little color?” so I grabbed my colored pencils that I’ve only used once in a failed attempt to draw a stock car. I think I did a little better with them this time.
Anyway, it was a nice diversion from the charcoal kick I’ve been on recently, and a good reminder to myself to mix it up every now and then — makes the whole experience a lot more interesting. And it probably helps me from an overall perspective to gain some experience with a wide variety of mediums.
Winter isn’t done yet — we’re supposed to get a bunch of snow overnight. I’ll be glad when we can stop opening this closet every day.
This was a real quickie… like, under 10 minutes.
I spent most of my evening setting up and photographing still-lifes. Over the weekend, I built a frame for a backdrop (I’ll be writing a post about that at some point in the near future, so you can build one yourself), and I was anxious to try it out. Unfortunately, I spent the bulk of my time trying to figure out how to get my camera to behave correctly — white balance is really important when you’re taking pictures of eggs on a white background.
Long story, short: I was too tired to start a proper drawing, but I was feeling bad about not having drawn anything in the past three days. I think spending so much time on the Manet drawing allowed a certain amount of inertia to set in. So I decided to knock out a really quick sketch before I call it a night.
This composition will be reworked into something of a more finished piece later in the week — probably in pencil, but I haven’t ruled out making an attempt at this in watercolor; it would make for an interesting monochromatic study, especially since I have such trouble getting really dark darks out of my paints.
I ran out of paper on the right, which is why the rest of the whisk is missing; but for 10 minutes worth of work, I’m not going to complain.
I love street scenes. But it’s cold, so I don’t expect to do much of this until spring. I was on my way to do a little Christmas shopping. A foot of snow had fallen during the day, and I just couldn’t resist snapping a pic of the scene so I could draw it when I got home. This is a thumbnail sketch using a Pilot G2 gel pen.
Just messing around with a watercolor set.
The drawing was done with a Pilot G2 gel pen and the color was applied using Cotman watercolors from Winsor & Newton.
The starburst effect is an artifact from the scanner in conjunction with the fact that my sketchbook is not exactly compatible with water media. I guess I’ll have to buy a watercolor pad for this kind of thing.
I’ve got a lot of work to do yet on my drawing though. A good painting starts with a good drawing, so I will stay focused on the drawing for the near future.
Our kitty has a shoe fetish. She loves to rub her head on them, and we often find her sitting amongst the shoes in our entry way; keeping guard. She also has a sensitive stomach. Never before have the two mixed, until one morning in November when I woke to find cat vomit in one of my walking shoes. Gross, but it does make for an interesting story around this sketch of the shoe in question.
This was drawn in my sketchbook with a fountain pen. Some of the ink was pushed around with a watercolor brush loaded with clean water.