Third Drawing Class

Yesterday was class number three of a four class session. Today, we did a warm up exercise drawing bottles in charcoal. The first step was to draw the flat two dimensional shape. Step two was to shading to make it looks three dimensional. These were fast and fun to do.

Next up was to work on a still life in either charcoal or pencil. When left to my own devices, I tend to play it safe and stick to one object at a time. A drawing with three objects is a little overwhelming, since I am slow and getting everything in relationship to everything else is harder with more objects. Yes, I am being a bit dramatic. I tried to buzz along and draw quickly, but I didn't get it finished. I took a picture and I may try to work on it a bit more this week.

  

Recap 6 - Kitchen Item Drawing Challenge

When I was cleaning up after breakfast, this partial red pepper was sitting on the counter. Non-symmetrical objects or objects without known, distinct "rules" about their shape (e.g. chair) can be especially fun to draw.

Day 24 - red pepper

Next up, I decided to draw a head of garlic several different ways and play with different directions of pen strokes. I wanted to do more, but ran out of time.

Day 25 - garlic

The next day, I spent some quality time with my teapot. I did a number of quick sketches. After each one, I kept noticing key relationships that were off. At first, it took while to figure out that the teapot was wider (across its widest part) than it was tall. My final drawing does not capture all the important relationships.  Also, I don't like my line work. Still, it was a good sketching session. I felt like I was "seeing" better.

Day 26 - teapot

Before I figured out problem in the height and width department, I played around with how the spout related to the side of the teapot. I did not go farther with this drawing because the width of the top was way off compared to the width at the bottom.

Drawing the teapot was good for me. I helped an in-law with moving yesterday. Last night, I felt wiped out. This morning, I woke up feeling sluggish and blah. After sketching, I feel much better.

Recap 5 - Kitchen Item Drawing Challenge

Although it was fun to try and capture the cats when they are moving, I started out by selecting an inanimate object.

Day 19 - oven thermometer

Silly me. I went back to drawing a cat for my quick kitchen sketch of the day. I made a new cat pillow and put it on the bench in the kitchen. One of the orange cats plopped down on it and went to sleep or at least he was sleeping him until I started sketching him. After 3 major shifts in position, he went back to sleep and I got this. Of the drawings in this post, I like this one the best.

Day 20 - happy hedonist on pillow

It was time to revisit the corkscrew. I'm a bit too frugal with using paper. The corkscrew ran into a prior drawing in the lower right side.

Day 21 - corkscrew

I'm looking to get rid of my panini machine, so I thought I would draw it. It's not my best.

Day 22 - panini machine

I did not do any measuring on this next one.  This is my second attempt.  

Day 23 - scissors

On Facebook this morning, the following drawing popped up as a memory from one year ago. One year ago, I was learning to draw mostly simple, made up items. Today, it feels good to be trying to draw or sketch actual items and to slowly learn how to see better, represent shapes, show dimension, and so on. Working on learning to draw and paint in the last year has added such richness to my life. This is something that I want to keep working on, so that I can continue to grow. I am also glad to have this blog so that I can go back and see where it all began (and to hopefully continue to see improvement!).

Drawing from 01/27/16

Too Much White

I need to get back to playing with my paint! I started and finished this one. I've painted this bird before and keep coming back to it.

The problem occurred about 5 minutes into painting. I wore through the paper in my palette. So I could finish, I removed the paper with the paint on it, set it on top of some newspaper, finished my painting, and set up the palette with a fresh piece of paper and paints.

It's ready for me to paint again, but there is way too much white staring at me.

It's a little intimating and typically takes several paintings before the fresh palette feels good.

Second Drawing Class

Today was my second drawing class. I only worked on one drawing, but that did not bug me as much as the first time. In fact, I had a really good time and walked away with good guidance and suggestions. Today, I drew an onion.

As usual, I has having trouble drawing the outline of the shape. I got some good feedback and the final version isn't too bad.

Class went a little bit late, because the instructor shared a bunch of pictures of her art. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures and hearing what she had to say about the various pieces. I really liked her paintings of cows and, of course, cats. She also showed us several drawings when she was out with friends who were fishing. Since she doesn't fish, she drew. I might give this a try next year at the cabin, if the hubby wants to go fishing.

Last, but not least, my egg drawing from the first class appeared.

Recap 4 - Kitchen Item Drawing Challenge

You might be seeing a lot of the tea kettle. I like tea. I like my tea kettle. I like drawing my tea kettle. There's something about the swoopy curves on both the handle and lid that is really appealing. In this drawing, I like the lines that imply the convex portion of the lid.

Day 16 - tea kettle

Yesterday, I missed a day of drawing. To make up for it, I tried a bunch of sketching this morning. I'm calling this one my day 17 drawing. The cat was moving around in the window, so I drew the window, first. The proportions of the cat are off, but this was the best that I could do, since the cat kept moving.

Day 17 - cat in window (on day 18)

For my next drawing, one of the cats was laying down in an appealing way.  She appeared to be sleeping, but very early in the drawing she sat up. I worked on the rest of her body, which had not moved. This was as far as I could go with that, so I worked on filling in some shape and shading with in her body.  

I switched to a different cat, who was sitting up in that statuesque way that cats do so well. She, of course, moved. After that, I focused on some part of some cat, since all four of them were in the kitchen with me and it was clear that there all going to keep moving. Here are some of those attempts. It was both fun and frustrating. I wish I could have either finished the drawing of either the cat laying down or the cat sitting up. Both of those had a good start.

I finished up with my official day 18 drawing. My brain was a bit tired at this point, but I'm owning it and posting it anyway. 

Day 18 - flour sifter

Another One For Art 4 Shelter

After I had so much fun at Art 4 Shelter last year, I was going to try and paint one picture per month for this year's event. I thought it would be fun to, hopefully, see progress over the 12 paintings. My follow through has been sporadic. This is my 6th painting for the event. So far, most of them have been flowers, so it was time to paint a cat. Truthfully, it's always a good time to paint a cat. As with all Art 4 Shelter items, this is 5" x 7" on paper.

It took me awhile to get to this point, so the paint strokes don't look as confident as I'd like. However, I'm not complaining.  I really, really, really like this one, especially the eyes and especially when viewed from across the room.

Recap 3 - Kitchen Item Drawing Challenge

I love specialty kitchen gadgets, although I am current downsizing them to the ones that I use and/or think that I need.  Here are several of them. With the measuring cups, I couldn't figure out how to represents the shadows and so on, so I skipped it. Even though I did some basic measurements of the rice cooker, boy, are the proportions off!

Day 10 - citrus zester

Day 11 - measuring cups

Day 12 - rice cooker

The toaster that burns toast is now toast. It's outside for pick up by the metal recyclers.  I wish the drawing was not quite so wonky.

Day 13 - annoying toaster

The rice cooker is getting double billing. I goofed and drew the tea kettle too closely. If you look at the end of the tea kettle, there is a screw. I drew that detail, since it makes my tea kettle unique. This was a whistling kettle. One of the cats hated the noise and she left the room whenever it whistled. My clever hubby adjusted it by filling most of the space that caused the whistle.  Voila, the tea kettle is much quieter, making the cat happy.

Day 14 - tea kettle (being stalked by a rice cooker)

I'm almost half-way towards drawing 30 days of kitchen items. My current thought is that 30 days is a long time!

Yesterday, I revisited the can opener. This version is much closer to the actual dimensions.

Day 15 - can opener

Pansy

I'm still not quite getting the paint strokes and depth of color that I want from painting a pansy, but it felt good to paint. This one is a 5" x 7" on paper and it will probably go to Art 4 Shelter later this year.

Sneaky Sketches Of People

I am a member of Toastmasters. While I generally enjoy this organization, I ended up having to attend a 90 minute training session that made me a little cranky. The presenters and materials were fine. I just did not want to be there and was not interested in the subject matter. I did several sneaky sketches of people.

Revisited, Again

I finished the eyes, this morning. The rest of it was painted yesterday. Since I haven't been painting, the process felt rusty and a bit forced. Even so, I am enjoying playing with all the different types of white. I may try this one again some time soon. She is a pretty cat with delicate features and, typically, an intense or fierce expression. I'd like to do better by her.

Cat Drawing In Pen

Since my kitchen drawing challenge is mostly about a quick sketch of an object, this sketch is getting a post of its own. This was in pen. When it was finished, I couldn't figure out how to make the blanket distinct from the cat, so I added color.

I would have liked to fuss with it more, by shading and adding more details to the cat, but, of course she moved. Overall, this was a good challenge, since I usually draw a single object rather than a "full scene".

Recap 2 - Kitchen Item Drawing Challenge

On Sunday morning, the stand mixer was just sitting there, so it was time to give it another try.  For a warm up, I took a close look at the mixing bowl, noting the angles and length of each angled section, before doing a practice drawing of just the bowl. Getting symmetry on both sides is beyond me, but the proportions on this one is much closer to reality. This is a very small drawing.

 The drawing of the stand mixer was also very small, only 4 inches by 2 1/2 inches while the drawing on day one was 8 inches by 6 inches. Doing a smaller drawing of a large object was challenging. There is less room to hide.

Day 5 - stand mixer

The next day, I reached for my Good Grips Smooth Edge can opener. It's oriented differently than the typical manual can opener. This is truly a wonky drawing. When trying to capture objects with a lot of parts and angles in 10 minutes or less, I have to learn to live with and accept the wonkiness.

For the bottle opener, I selected a weird perspective. Plus, I was not concentrating very well. It shows. Oh well, I'm owning it and posting it, anyway.

Day 6 - can opener

Day 7 - bottle opener

The purpose of this blog is to capture my journey in learning how to make art. It gives me a place to capture and document my thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It's such a miraculous and incredible thing to learn and I decided early that I needed an outlet where I could drone on and on and on about whatever aspect or insight currently interests me. Hopefully, I get enough of it out here, in written form, so that I don't over do it with people in person.

Anyway, one observation from this recap is that "success" can make it harder to continue rather than easier. The drawings on day 5 and day 6 were both good experiences. I felt successful, since I felt my drawing skills grew a little bit with both of these. Ironically, this made it harder to pick up the pen the next day and it shows in the drawing on day 7. I was a little fearful about not hitting the high water mark from the two previous days.

The first time that I draw an object I, generally, just do it without any practice.

Day 8 - garlic press

When I'm done, I step back to see what is the most "off" or which "main element" could be captured better. If there's time, I'll sometimes do a follow up sketch (or sketches) focused on that part.

One thing with using pen is that I have no idea how to effectively show lights and darks versus using lines to denote shape or shadows. In truth, I get frustrated and mostly just throw some lines on the drawing.

A flu bug caught up to me, so I took an unexpected drawing break for several days. While I am feeling better, this weekend is going to be quiet and spent close to home. I'm hoping to spend some time drawing and knitting.

While I generally don't do warm up drawings, I did this morning. I tried drawing a cat sleeping on top of a chair in the kitchen. It was a little beyond my post-flu addled brain, although it felt good to try. I scaled back and just focused on the cat. Drawing in pen is more challenging. Up until now all of my cat drawings have been in pencil and the eraser gets use a lot.

This was my third attempt. I still can't figure out how to use the pen effectively to show value and other details. I like the minimalist one the best.

Chicken

I finally painted!  Here is the picture, which I cut down, and the basis drawing.  I did the drawing this weekend.

I just finished the painting. The bedding was especially fun to paint. As you can see, I took a few creative liberties.

Two Hours To Draw An Egg

It was the first day of drawing class, so I am exaggerating slightly. We went over some information, but class also went late, so we only took 1 hour and 45 minutes to do one drawing of one egg.

The emphasis today was on seeing, shading and smudging. While I learned about each of these topics (and that will be useful), it also was good reminder to be more confident in defining when I am done and ready to move on. It would have been a better learning experience (and more enjoyable) to do several less complete drawings, rather than focusing on one endless drawing.

It's weird to be writing this, since I am a fairly detailed person, Also, I wish that I could show you my 2 hour egg.  I thought that I packed it up when I packed up my supplies. Now that I am home, I can't find it.

Hammet Is At Diamond's Coffee Shop

There is an art show at Diamond's Coffee Shop (1618 Central Avenue NE) which shows artwork by some of Kat Corrigan's students. I provided her with four paintings and all four of them were hung up in a corner, together. It was fun to see them on the wall. Hammet looked especially dapper, since Kat added a frame.

Some of Kat's paintings are currently there along with six of her students, including me. If you are in the neighborhood, Diamond's makes a good hot chocolate.  You can stop by to see these paintings until February 16th.

Recap 1 - Kitchen Item Drawing Challenge

When I first decided to do a 30 day drawing challenge, I was going to wait and do one big post at the end of the 30 days. That would be a very, very long post. Instead, I decided to break it up into periodic recaps. instead.

For this challenge, the goal is to draw one kitchen item per day in approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Cats in the kitchen qualify as a kitchen-related item. Drawing with pen in five to ten minutes has aspects that are both enjoyable and a bit stressful.

Day 3 - broccoli

Day 1 - stand mixer

Day 2 - vanilla jar

On day 2, my initial start was an ellipse, for the top of the jar, that was too circular. The ellipse needed to be flatter. After measuring, I drew a second ellipse that was closer to the actual dimensions. Measuring before you draw is a better approach!

 For some reason, I am enthralled with broccoli. I expect to draw and consume a lot of broccoli over the next several weeks.

Day 4 - toast-burning toaster

This toaster's days may be limited. The one thing it does best is consistently burn toast, no matter the setting that you select. I enjoyed trying to use hatch marks to denote shape.

Each  morning, I am looking forward to picking up a pen and paper and drawing for 5 to 10 minutes. This is not great art or great drawings, but it gives me the opportunity to learn by doing. You make decisions about how to to capture an aspect of your subject. If it works, great!  If it doesn't, you can step back and evaluate what to do the next time.

I firmly believe that I can learn more by doing a little each day, rather than cramming in a bunch of time on the weekend.