You Can Learn

Several days ago, I got together with a friend to hang out. At one point, she had to do a little work, so I kept myself amused by grabbing paper and a pen and sketching simple objects near me. I like that this is becoming a natural way to fill in those little pockets of time that come up. Knitting is my other go-to activity. Yes, I also pick up my phone and look at FB and look at Instagram more than I should.

When she was done with her work stuff, our conversation turned to drawing and her comment was along the lines of either she can't draw or she couldn't learn to draw. I hope that I wasn't too obnoxious or preachy in my reply, which mostly was that anyone can learn to draw.  You just need to try and you need to practice. If you keep at it, you will improve. If someone is not interested in learning to draw or paint, that's fine by me. What's sad is seeing people psych themselves out before they even try. If I can learn to draw, anyone can.

I went to an open studio night at Kat's last night and met a woman who teaches music. We talked about the oddness that people understand that they aren't going to sit down at a piano and just start playing, but somehow that same level of logic doesn't carry over to drawing.  She also mentioned several recent music students. The first one had natural talent, but did not practice.  The second one lacked natural talent, but practiced regularly. After a certain period of time, the second person's skill surpassed the first person's.

Enough preaching.

I haven't been painting much recently. That changed, yesterday. I got together with a different friend and we painted at my house and later went to Kat's studio. I am rusty. It shows. I will keep practicing.

I had a lot of trouble with the eyes.  At some point, I gave up.

I would like to play with adding color to some of my sketches using watercolor and a water brush. Right before we had dinner, I did a quick sketch and painting of the parrot that I keep painting. I have no clue about what I'm doing with watercolor, but it's fun, anyway. 

I worked on this at Kat's. Overall, blah, although I do like the eyes.

End Of The Kitchen Drawing Challenge

A little over 30 days ago, I created my own drawing challenge. This helped me solve two problems. The first one was time. Life has been busy, which sometimes made it hard to find the time to make art. The second problem was that I wanted to sketch, but would get reluctant or shy about it. As a result, I challenged myself to draw / sketch something in my kitchen every day for 30 days. With a few exceptions, it turned out to be mostly consecutive days.  It started with the stand mixer and it ends with the stand mixer.

Day 30 - stand mixer

Over these 30 kitchen drawings, I learned to see better. I'm starting to notice how parts of things relate to other parts of things in a way that I never did before. These drawings were done without a viewfinder, so it was the first time I've ever had to figure out what dimensions or proportions matter. One day, I remember drawing one of my Bee House teapots several times. While focusing on some of the important dimensions, I missed the importance of addressing the overall height versus the width. Although something was clearly off,  it took a bit for me to see that.

I worked on trying to make marks and lines in different ways with my pen. I tried trying organic objects like broccoli versus other objects with defined shapes. I also grew my appreciation of how beautiful a simple line can be. Several times (mostly with cats) I'd start a drawing with a really good strong, initial line and it almost felt like I could stop at that moment. It felt like I had "said" everything that I had to "say" about that object with one simple line. I always continued on. Sometimes, that was good. Sometimes, it would have been better to leave the one line alone.

I'm not sure what's next. I don't think that I want to "declare" another 30 day drawing challenge. Instead, I think I'll continue to try and sketch something every day and do a periodic summary blog post. If I get off track, I'll go back to a 30 day commitment to keep the habit going. That's been the other benefit. If I keep up the habit, my drawing skills will improve. It might not happen every day and it might not happen with every drawing, but it will happen overall. Also, it makes me less reluctant to sketch, when a good opportunity presents itself.

At the same time, I have to get back to painting. I miss it and I've gotten rusty. I finally did some painting today and will try and post about it tomorrow.  

Recap 7 - Kitchen Item Drawing Challenge

It's the last recap. I'm back to visiting some items that I've enjoyed drawing this past month.

Day 27 - broccoli

I also revisited the rice cooker. The dimensions on this version are much truer than the first time that I tried.

Day 28 - rice cooker

The teapot was worthy of drawing, again. Although, the earlier versions were better. .

Day 29 - teapot

Right after I drew it, one of the cats shifted into one of those languid poses they do so well, so I did a quick drawing of her. I'm thinking about what to do next. This 30 day challenge has been good for getting me to draw something every day. While I really, really, really miss painting and need to carve time out for it, I know that I can carve out 10 minutes or so each day to draw. For my next "series" of drawings, cats would be an obvious choice. Although, I found myself looking at the shoes and boots in my kitchen and may have to do a week of those.

Day 29 - bonus cat

I Drew A Person

Tonight, I went to see a friend of mine in a flute concert at the Ordway. While I was waiting to meet a different friend, I pulled out my new 4" x 6" sketchbook, that fits in my purse, and quickly drew a person. Although, I wish I would have had a few more minutes to add details, perhaps it was better not too. It kept me from getting lost in too many fussy details.

I felt ridiculously self-conscious. Plus, I've been afraid to draw an entire person, but I did it. I drew a person!

Next weekend, I'll be at a juggling festival, so there will be lots of opportunities to work on drawing people.

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