-
Continuing to Create
It’s been a rough summer, and I’m happy for the turning of the wheel, and the gentler energy of fall. Last night Ricky and I had a little backyard fire, with the full moon overhead and the sound of crickets carrying across the cool air. And now, with the weekend almost over, I’m pausing to post here. I’m so tired of these gaps in my creative journey – but perhaps in a strange way they are building my artistic character, unique to my path?
-
Sunday Sketches
Today I made vegetarian lasagna for dinner – and while it was in the oven I sketched my dishes pile. It made for a fun contour line study, with lots of overlapping forms. I’ve been reading An Illustrated Life, hoping to inspire myself to let go more in my sketchbooks and draw whatever might spark my interest, no matter how banal or humble. So dishes pile it is!
-
Mark Making Part 8: Graphite Pencils
Yay! Graphite pencils! And I decided to do several gesture drawings and warm up pencil drills for this one, as I own a lot of 2B, HB, normal #2 pencils, and mechanical pencils. It would have gotten quite repetitive to make general abstract lines with all of them. Especially given it’s all the same grey color. Not that I didn’t do a few sheets of plainer mark making – though even then, I choose a few classic drawing drills with ellipses and lines, compared to the more intuitive drawings I’ve been doing with the other mediums. I had a lot of fun drawing very loose and carefree with most of…
-
Autumn Leaves and Graphite Pencils
In which I draw a few trees and play with graphite pencils.
-
Sharpening Pencils
I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of using a single-edge razor to sharpen pencils. They really do work so much better to have a variety of line, but I’m still fond of cheap mechanical pencils too – nostalgia is a strong force. And of course a consistent line weight has its advantages on occasion. I feel a little silly, showing fundamental drills/practice work like value bars, but honestly, even if they don’t look very special, putting the time in on simple exercises really does make a difference. I’m getting more confident with graphite, but dip pens are still rough. The ink feathers so much on most paper. It…
Art with a dash of old school blog rambling
