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Apples and Butterflies and Beloved Playlists
I’m glad I filled a sketchbook page, even if at first it felt like my heart wasn’t in it tonight. Pushing past the “I don’t feel like this/I don’t know what to draw that’s good enough” thoughts and into painting and drawing as an act of love for the practice itself: is that the secret to maintaining a regular art practice?
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Sketchbook Randomness
Holds up spork! (kidding!*) Well after yesterday’s lengthy post, tonight’s will be very short. I gathered a bunch of markers in fineliners in a gray/pink/purple/gold color scheme and sketched what was nearby on my desk. Hooray for being productive in kind of laid back way.
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Daily practice
I have felt sick most of today – I don’t know if it’s my neck being out or food poisoning or what. So not much words to accompany today’s art. Basically my goal was to practice some basic geometric shapes – especially cylinders. Drawing coffee mugs is a way to keep cylinders feeling more interesting while I draw. I did a page of plain drawing drills (basically quick ovals and rectangles) on newsprint, before opening my sketchbook.
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Sunday Sketches
Yesterday was fairly relaxed, but I was feeling restless. And I woke up with a headache, so that’s never fun. I played D&D for a good chunk of the afternoon and sketched a bit, before starting to re-read Starhawk’s Dreaming the Dark, which I haven’t read since borrowing it from my university library back in 2005-ish. I’m excited to dig back into it and see how I’ve changed in how I react to/absorb it. Even if I felt quite “blah” and mopey, I’m proud that I finally did a simple “draw your day” sketch journal page. Earl Grey Tea! Pop-tarts! Reading! D&D!
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Sketchbook Update
How is there only one week left in January!? I really wanted to finish filling Sketchbook No. 4 before the end of the month, but I still have 10 pages to go. The balance of wanting to both practice digital painting regularly and keep a traditional sketchbook practice is enough to make my head spin.
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Mark Making Part 5: Prismacolor Markers and Little Loose Ends
Tonight was photo session night: taking the photo for this post’s title card, as well as a couple more. It was too overcast today to use the sun for good photo lighting. Then it became so late in the evening that I had to use the LED lights, which are suuuuch a pain to set up. They are Ricky’s photography lights, so he was helping me at least. Tonight is also a night where I feel tired and worn out from stress, reading too much news, and feeling uncertain about the future. Still, it’s a blessing to have art to focus on. I am just ready to go make chamomile…
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Mark Making Part 4: Copics, Brush Pens, and Loosening Up
I was super looking forward to reaching my Copic markers in this mark-making-artistic-medium-whatever-it-is experiment. I don’t use Copics near enough, but they are in my top favorite art supplies. <3 I tried not to use too much Copic ink on the project (after all, these things aren’t cheap!), using each color only a bit, to practice blending more than the expressive marks I was getting out of the brush pens. Plus, that way it was easier to get through them all without drawing like…5+ pages of marks. Using the Copic multi-liners to first make boxes/shapes helped with having specific small areas in which to blend color. I really like the…
Art with a dash of old school blog rambling
