Playing the angles! 365/32

The head at an angle works with the diagonal design and the feeling of falling.  I am learning that a bold design requires a bold line to show up.

ONE MONTH DOWN, 11 TO GO: 365/31

Wow,  one month has already flown by!  It has been a busy start to the year.  I like this drawing but don't think the likeness is true.  Hated this photo for vanity reasons but decided it might motivate me to stay on track in other aspects of my life.  

SPACE CADET! 365/30

CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE: 365/29

ALIEN IN OUTER SPACE 365/28

Well, how weird is this print to draw on!  I used one of my favorite pens.  It has a very unusual tip.  The ink didn't want to sit on the slick surface very much but I persevered.

IS BEING SQUARE A GOOD OR BAD THING? 365/27

This pigma brush pen ink didn't want to stick on the slick calendar paper.  It almost has a ghost like feel.

"X MARKS THE SPOT" 365/26

365/25

I started with a fine line pen.  I had to go over it with the wide Copic marker.  The fine lines don't show up on such a strongly pattered image.

NAKED! 365/24

I feel positively naked without some squares, triangles or birds all over my face!  Sundays I get to draw on sketch paper.  This was done with a wooden matchstick whittled to a point and dipped in ink.  I was able to drag the side of the stick to produce the "shading".

HOW TO PUT A ROUND FACE IN A SQUARE SPACE: 365/23

No way around the large black triangles in the middle of the square.  A bold line helps.

CHECK THIS OUT: 365/22

This strong check pattern creates a real challenge to have the drawing show up.  The wide copic marker helps to make a heavier, dark line.

3 WEEKS COMPLETED! 365/21

They say it takes 21 days to establish a habit.  We'll see.

SINKING FAST! 365/20

This image seems to be sliding off the page.  It really expresses how tired I am right now.  I find it interesting that I am keeping my pledge to do a sketch a day no matter how I feel.  Now to apply this dedication and commitment to my word in other aspects of my life!  I drew this with a wonderful marker by Copic.  It is an inch wide but has a chisel tip so you can get a reasonably fine line.  Fun to draw with. It is also refillable, which is a nice feature as markers tend to dry up pretty fast.

THE DOVE OF PEACE ON MLK DAY! 365/19

An appropriate image for an important day.  Noah sent out a dove to find dry land.  It rained all day today! There is hope for dry land in the near future.  Not so sure about peace.

"A POX ON THEE!" 365/18

This is the busiest pattern yet!  I am hiding among the squares.

FIRST MISTAKE OF THE NEW YEAR!

I put the wrong date on this one!  It should read 365/17.  I had forgotten I needed a regular piece of paper as the 16/17th shared one page of the calendar.  I had been so proud of myself for not getting the date wrong on checks, etc., but today I was even confused as to the day of the week!  Doing a Friday through Tuesday workshop is warping my brain.  We are such creatures of habits and patterns.  I am hoping this new pattern or spending 5 or 10 minutes each evening doing a drawing will become firmly entrenched long before the end of the year.

This sketch was drawn with a wooden matchstick that had been sharpened to an interesting point with a utility craft knife.  I dipped it into a bottle of ink and skritched away.  I like the character of the line on

this paper.  The same drawing instrument on different papers acts and looks quite different.

BYE BYE BIRDIE 365/16

This is the last of the bird on a branch quilt squares.  I decided to move my face over so it wouldn't have a bird perched on my nose.   The image was from a distorted self portrait photograph.  I decided to see what the difference was between my more expensive Japanese Brush Pen and the commonly available Pigma Brush Pen.  It was part of a set with a fine point pen, a medium and a large.  If you compare yesterday's drawing with today you can see the difference.  The Micron pen does not have the ability to create a really delicate, fine line.  I defintely prefer the more expensive pen.  For me, it is worth the extra money.

BIRDBRAIN 365/15

It's difficult to work around a big dark bird in the middle of the page.  Some patterns work better than others.  Tomorrow is the last bird image, then on to another quilt.

"ROCKIN ROBIN" 365/14

All these birdies reminds me of the song "Rockin Robin".  A blast from the past.  I peeked ahead and there are two more bird images coming up.  I am working on a large painting based on one of the sketches from this series, 365/11.  So many interruptions today, I didn't get it finished.  I hope to finish up tomorrow and will post on Creativity Journey.  In the meantime, I feel like I am gaining more control over the brush pen.  Nothing like lots of practice.

PROMISES! 365/13

The next couple of days will have a bird in the middle of the square.  I am going to try to make them different somehow.  This one feels a little "Kabuki".    I felt too tired to do anything tonight, but I have this blog that publicly states a drawing a day, soooo... here it is.  Now I am going to bed!

"A BIRD IN THE HAND..." 365/12

Oh well, I couldn't resist the pun.  It seems the bird and my hand needed to co-exist in the same space.  I really like the composition of this photograph I was working from.  It creates lots of triangles.  I have noticed that I am very partial to triangles in my compositions.  I won't try to analyze why.  It doesn't matter but  I will file that bit of information in the back of my mind.  It will probably come in handy in the future when I am designing something.

POTENTIAL IN VERSION 365/11

I picked an interesting composition from my collection of self portrait photographs I made with the PhotoBooth program on my Mac.  I was leaning quite forward and my head was tilted down, but looking up into the camera.  It created some very nice shapes.  I used the "comic" setting which divides the image into 5 values with very definite shapes.  I only shaded in the black area and drew some of the lines indicating the division of planes.  The background pattern is very strong on this one, making an intriguing image.  I can see this drawing translated into a larger painting using all 5 values plus a patterned background.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

On the weekend, one calendar page serves for two days, so I use a sketchbook to draw my daily self portrait.  Still working with the brush pen, I tried holding it in different ways and in the last drawing, braced my elbow.  Getting there!  I wasn't very satisfied with the first sketch, so I did a second.  You can see the difference using the same reference photo.

STILL ON TARGET: 365/9

I am still working on controlling the pen better.  It has the ability to create a very thin sensitive line as well as a wider, bolder one.  My hand slipped a couple of times and made a heavier line than I wanted. I shall continue to practice until I have a better feel for it.

A SLIGHT SHIFT

I am having difficult with my setup to see the computer screen well enough to draw my image.  I am very nearsighted and have blended lenses but they don't seem to do a good job in this vision range.  I guess it's time to get another eye exam !  I decided to draw from one of the photos I took with the Photo Booth program.  It was slightly distorted in a fun way.  I used the Japanese Brush Pen and tried for a blind contour drawing...but I kept peeking!  Turned out very gestural.  Tomorrow I will set up a mirror system and work from that .

WEEK ONE COMPLETED! 365/7

Tonight I found a desk lamp to light my face.  That created some interesting shadows.  I selected the Colored Pencil setting on the Photo Booth program because it simplified everything  to a minimum and seemed a good fit with the Japanese Brush Pen I wanted to use.  I can't tell you the brand because it is in Japanese writing but it uses ink cartridges and is a very flexible synthetic brush.  I found it very satisfying working with this drawing instrument.  Wow, we are already a week into the new year.

TRYING DIFFERENT PENS: 365/6

I like how the ink shows up on this paper with the Uniball pen.  It is available at the office supply store.  This one I attempted to keep the pen on the paper, drawing with one continuous line.  I came pretty close.  I am so near sighted that it is very challenging to see well enough to draw from the distance I am sitting away from the monitor.  Maybe it's a blessing not seeing the details!

TOO WEIRD: 365/5

This page in the calendar was the pattern for the penguin.  The strong black shapes really dominate and it wasn't a great background to put a drawing on top.  I tried out a couple of different pens to see how they take to this surface.  The Sharpie covered better than the Tombow.  Tomorrow's pattern looks more promising for a background.

IN THE CROSSHAIRS! 365/4

This pattern makes for an interesting image.  Unintentionally, my nose wound up dead center in the blue and green box!  I also have a cute penguin head ring!!   I was able to get some ink today to refill my Copic extra wide marker, so I thought I would use it for today's drawing.  I made a total ugly mess of the hair so I decided to fill in the background around it to hide the hair.   I stumbled upon an interesting effect, just having the pattern on the face and hand.  Decided to add some white ink lines back into the hair for definition.

WHY SO DOWN? 365/3

Why so down?  Well....an hour after I transferred all my photos to the auxiliary hard drive (over 1,000) the hard drive crashed and burned!!  Good news..can probably recover the data.  Bad news...minimum cost is $700 (up to $2300).  I was so rattled that I dropped half a dozen eggs putting them into the frig.  My husband documented the disaster.  Check Creativity Journey for a visual!

It seems this calendar combines Saturdays and Sundays onto one page so I used a sketchbook, Elegant Writer pen and a water brush.  I forgot to time myself but I think 10 minutes is probably close.  I used the "Comic" variation in the Photo Booth program.  It divides into values and provides nice shapes to work with.  I tried for a continuous line as much as possible.

MORPHING INTO GEORGE WASHINGTON! 365/2

I just installed the latest Mac Operating System: Snow Leopard.  The Photo Booth program has some different settings to choose from.  Thought I would try "Colored Pencil" and fill in the dark areas with a brush and ink.  Well, there's always tomorrow.

HERE WE GO!! 365/1

I plan to post only the daily sketch, the time I spent drawing, the technique and the materials I used.  I will create a blog list of others who have a DAILY sketch or art activity blog.  Let me know if you want to link up.  If you have been thinking about creating a blog, now is a great time to jump in!  It's easy!  You can keep it as private as you wish or share with the world.  If you need help with the set up...beg, borrow or steal a teenager.  They are amazingly fluent in "computerese".  If you think I can help, drop me an e-mail note and I will do my best.  Let's make this the most exciting creative year of our lives!