Sketchbooks
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Dancing Sorceress Redux
Redraws of art are so satisfying 😠This one is from my multimedia sketchbook, which I finished this past spring. I still feel very rusty and unsure with watercolor paint, but I so enjoy the medium. The original painting was from 2017. The second was from January 21, 2023 but done fairly quickly with no references or planning. The last was finished three days later on January 23, 2023, but with some thumbnail sketches, gathering of some references, looking at jewelry designs, etc.
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Practicing in Between (Part 1 & 2)
Winter’s begun and the longest night is here. I’m ready for fresh starts, a new year, and lengthening daylight slowly inching back towards spring. I’ve been practicing art quite a bit, and am so close to filling two sketchbooks: a multimedia one and a smaller drawing one (hopefully a sketchbook share video is coming in the near future 🤞). Today I have 25 sketchbook pages to share in this post (!!!). And I came up with the idea for an ongoing series that I’ve just begun, with a new original character!
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Weekend Wanderings
Oh my goodness, posting to my blog again?! It’s that Imbolc energy. ^_^ I’ve been making art over the last year, but haven’t had the energy or focus to blog about it. Definitely suffering from an all-or-nothing mind set, when it comes to what I think I should be doing regarding my blog. It’s annoying to keep relearning the whole “imperfection is okay” lesson. T_T And I keep thinking I’ll scan/photograph my work from 2021 that didn’t make it into here yet, but why not start with a little drawing I finished today?
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Sketchbook Eye Interlude
Today felt like a busy day but also a very draining day. Here in the Midwest it’s one of those cold, icy, end-of-winter days, when we just had a little taste of spring weather only a week ago, but now there’s snow on the ground again. And the tension of the weather change has been putting me on the edge of a migraine for the past two days (that fortunately hasn’t seemed to hit full force, yay?). Thus, tonight is a “gentle as possible” art practice: opening my sketchbook and drawing simple, easy doodles.
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More Gestural Sketches
I suppose I apply a wide definition of what a gesture drawing is – if the spirit of the drawing is meant to be gestural, even if the end result becomes too detailed or tight, I think it still counts. While drawing these pages, I was thinking of the “not this / this” photo that is on Proko’s How to Draw Gesture guide. I agree that the action lines are the quintessential nature of a gesture drawing. I just don’t always accomplish them, hah.
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Gesture Drawings to the Rescue
I was really struggling to get started drawing tonight. I opened my sketchbook, sketching and erasing the same figure like 10 times before just sketching and inking a couple of face studies. Those also felt sloppy and forced. Fortunately, given I didn’t want to stay up too late tonight, the time crunch pushed me towards some quick gestures instead. And I really like how they turned out!
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Refilling the Well
Taking the time yesterday to just relax and have a nice date night was much needed. I’ve been pushing myself to post here every day, and while I want to post as often as possible, there is a balance in creating and then resting to refill the well of inspiration. And coming back into the practice, I sunk into a nice intuitive painting: free from any plans or expectations. Leaf shapes are still my current artistic comfort-food of choice.
