I finally added some drawings to my altered sketch book. Just a few drawings
with a charcoal pencil of things around the house, my kids and a class I subbed for. The pages are working well for charcoal and my grease pencil. I am going to try watercolor next.
Now it’s books. My wife saw how cool my experiment was going with my altered book and gessoing the pages so she asked for one. I thought that it would be great Christmas present for so I started and extra one for her. Now I’m a little behind due to a bought with a wicked cold but it’s almost done. And since I was finishing mine and making one for her I thought why not get all 3 of my library books done. Here’s what I got:
I found this book in the free pile at work. It was just sitting there begging to be manipulated into something special. So far I have torn out more than half the pages and glue the other half into doubles. The pages are now strong and thicker. I am now gessoing the pages up, leaving some of the more interesting images on the page. Here is the first page after gesso
This is my latest exercise using the One drawing a day.
The book is called One drawing a day but its seems I am doing the one drawing a week. Life with two kids, a great wife, work, and all other things in between seems to take up a lot of time. But I should be really honest and say I am just to plum tired after the day and putting the kids to bed to sit down and draw. I am adding a new goal to my list while going through this book.
1. Draw faster
2. Let go/don’t think so much while drawing
(New) 3. Try drawing throughout the day.
The Drawings: Both my wife and I drew some oranges while our kids played at the local indoor playground. She didn’t really feel like it but once she saw how much fun I was having she wanted to join in.
This is my 7th exercise using the One drawing a day.
Using Charcoal, ink and pen I created three portraits of my family members. Jen (my wife) and Bella (my daughter) and one Jen made of me. I am really comfortable with the pen, its all I use for everything. I am a pen snob, its true. I only use one type of pen: Pilot G2 Retractable Gel Ink Roller Ball Pen. The gel ink flows out strong and the consistency of the black is quite calming. It is always in my pocket and ready to be clicked.
The drawing of my daughter came pretty easy since I used my pen, the Pilot G2 Retractable Gel Ink Roller Ball Pen # 5. It was drawn quickly without any thought. To get Bella to sit still long enough for a drawing is a adventure in itself.
My Drawings: Jen (ink wash with brush, Bella (Pilot G2 Retractable Gel Ink Roller Ball Pen # 5), Jen (Charcoal on grocery bag) and Jen’s drawing of me (Charcoal on grocery bag).
*The drawing “Jen (Charcoal on grocery bag)” is missing. The file is corrupt and the actual drawing gone from my desk. I felt it was a really nice drawing so it is sad to have it missing.
Over the last couple of years my church has been in a debate over whether to get rid of the disposable cups we use on Sunday or to buy washable ones. It hadn’t really been to big of a debate due to the fact the dishwasher we had was not u to par. Things changed once we updated our kitchen and the dishwasher.
We could now make the change to washable coffee cups, but how could we make it affordable? With a lot of research, emails, quotes, and discussions..we went greener. A few months ago we had gone from 11 bags of garbage on Sunday morning to 3. From having the garbage picked up twice a week to once. From a cup of coffee costing us 1.78 a cup to .11 cents. Not to mention the time it took to maintain orders and supplies for all those cups.
We (the church) now own a little over 500 ceramic mugs with our mission statement printed right on the side: Experience God, Grow in Love and Give it away.
The best part, for me anyway, is that I had the chance to submit a design for the cups and mine was chosen. Now not only am I proud to have a church that is spending and wasting less but my design is being read by almost 400 people a week.
The top image is the actual cups we have but we were really looking into colors. I thought it looked really sharp but the cost was increasing quite a bit with every color added. Below is the color version and some other ideas I was exploring.
This is my 5th & 6th exercise using the One drawing a day.
I have been looking at these exercises as black and white, follow to the t, you must do it like it is written type of assignments and it is frustrating me. I have been through many basic drawing study classes and done a lot of this type of skill building assignments. I want this to be fun, I believe I mentioned this in my last couple of posts, and to learn something about be disciplined. I want to draw freely and without worrying about the outcome. Sometimes I feel I would rather not put any marks on the paper than draw something horrible. As I said in yet another post I want to freely make bad drawings and be ok with it.
Both of these drawing were late at night while my wife am I watch a movie. I used a small bottle of washed out ink and one small brush. The only light I had was from the tv, mostly, and a small light from the kitchen. I also made sure I held the brush near the end so I control was limited and just went with it. And “going with it” is the new way to draw.
My Drawings: On the Couch 1 & 2
This is my 4th exercise using the One drawing a day.
In this exercise I was assigned to watch a video and when paused draw what I see using vine charcoal. I decided to watch a video of a live concert from Reverend Horton Heat and use the screen capture tool on my computer. After a several attempts of blurry captures I opted to use a photograph from that concert.
The two important lesson to be learned from this exercise was that models can be anywhere at anytime when needed. TV, videos, the internet, photographs all can be used when live models cannot. And to learn how to loosen up, which was one of my goals for myself. I really enjoyed doing this and am happy with the outcome.
Drawing 8 (Reverend Horton Heat)
This is my 3rd exercise using the One drawing a day.
As I said in the last post I needed a bamboo pen to draw with and I could not find one. I even looked for some decorative bamboo I could commandeer and carve into a pen. There was no bamboo to be found but I did find some dried sticks in the garage that had the same feel as bamboo. I carved it with my utility knife and made one side a thin point and the other a flatter angled stump. It worked great but I need to tweet the thicker end to hold a little more ink (add an ink well).
Drawing 6 (Bathroom Plant) – Drawing 7 (Self Portrait)
My two biggest concerns so far are; I am way too tight in my drawing and really need to loosen up. Before I sketch the next couple of drawings I might want to do some gesture drawings on bigger paper. And I am putting too much pressure on this project. Every page states that this is an exercise and I am treating it like a final for my thesis.
Goals for myself for the next exercise: Loosen up and relax.
This is my 2nd exercise using the One drawing a day.
Drawing 3 (Jen as Blossom) – This drawing is an exploration in the variation of line using pen and ink. I used 4 different nid sizes to vary the thickness of the line and undiluted Indian ink. I am being too safe in my drawings and need to let go and allow the line/ink do what it can. The human form is elegant and soft like the blanket she is wrapped up in. I drew her almost like a planar or CAD drawing. I need to let go and loosen up.
Drawing 5 (Watching the Avengers) – This is a sketch I did a couple of days ago while watching a movie with the family. It does not fit into the exercise but I liked how it turned out.
The next drawing needs to be done with a bamboo pen. Not sure if I have one and there is no real good art supply store around here so I will need to improvise.
The Drawing Shop 