I've been something of a hermit this month, not really motivated to do anything outside of my home. Every couple of days or so I come out of hiding and do something social before holing back up again with my around-the-house projects and my art supplies. To be honest, the art supplies have outranked the around-the-house projects on most days. The last I shared, I had finished up a journal and was working on making a new one. About half of it has been filled this month. A few to share...
For some reason sketching had been put on the back burner this year. I've been working on it a bit more...
I bought a larger palette box so I could add some new colors which has also been fun.
I think I struggled with WHAT to sketch, trying to make it meaningful or something, so I just didn't. But recently I've been sketching anything around the room I'm in for practice and have been enjoying that.
Summer break is quickly coming to end. Just two more weeks of break, one of which I'll be getting the room read again, before the kids come back school - hence the hermit-like living.
Wow! I love your sketches, especially of things around the room. An entire genre created there, better than a stuffy ol' still life: Around the Room. I'm inspired to do some of those. Wow!
ReplyDeleteYou should! It's been fun to sketch what's nearby - putting less emphasis on what to sketch and more on the practice itself. Some are better than others and some stink, but not worrying about what it is and just practicing has been good for me.
DeleteYour bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich looks yummy, Your sketches are lovely, Again you are so talented..
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteIt IS such a good sandwich...may favorite I think. The tomatoes at the grocery are only good slow roasted, so I made a big batch of those and then some turkey bacon. Yum! The garden tomatoes are too good to roast. They're just fine on their own. :)
I really like the bird thing in the first one.and some of the colours are really popping, the reds in the tomato and the blue streaks on the soap pot.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with awaiting inspiration may be the study might've been mined dry. Or to put it another way. If you were looking at an island from the sea you might need to move the boat to get a different scene. I know as much as I enjoyed learning the guitar my fingers simply aren't long enough. But the piano never really lit me up.
There is a point, I've found, where one can change something into a chore through stubbornness.
Oh I agree. What I really should be doing is getting out of the house, out of the neighborhood, and go somewhere to sketch (and to take pictures if I'm being honest). I'm sure that would spark more creativity and be better practice. But I've been facing this dilemma of not wanting to leave the house. It's not an agoraphobic thing but a my-vacation-is-almost-over-and-I'm-enjoying-it-too-much thing. :) And I'm not saying that I'm not enjoying the sketching, because I very much am. I'm painstakingly slow with it most of the time, sometimes concerned more over the product than the process, but the more I do the less I think about it...which is the key (I think).
DeleteA technique I was told when training in design was to change the way I was holding the implement. Or even change it. Instead of holding the pen like a chopstick hold it with the tips of the fingers like you would charcoal. That's for things you have to do. And it's dead impressive when you sketch a design on the fly before their eyes. Of a client that is. Bit you get the slimmed down essentials with good flows.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason it works is it distorts the motor memory. Mind you, a granny type magnifying glass can do wonders too.
That's a good idea. I'll try it! Anything that turns off the brain to what it thinks things are supposed to look like. I've also been trying semi-blind contour drawing for that same reason. The more I do it, the easier it is.
DeleteYa, I would say it's pretty impressive to sketch in front of someone like that! Sharing something already done, that I like, is one thing, but having someone watch the creation would make me a nervous wreck. :)
Oddly no. You are holding the pad between hand and elbow. So it's not facing you. You are viewing at an angle. So you are reaching across your body and the majority of the pad in portrait so you simply cannot do fine detail. But because you are talking the explanation it's not as impressionistic as you'd think. And since you are usually standing in the space you can point to the relationships.
DeleteNah, I still think it's impressive. :)
DeleteI love the tomatoes and forks!! But each page is wonderful....I am jealous of your talent :)
ReplyDeleteHey! I recognize those tomatoes! These paintings are beee-u-ti-ful!
ReplyDelete