December Goals

Do other people write down art goals at the beginning of every month? I am a compulsive list maker, so at the end of each month, I write down my goals for the coming month. It is a chance to make New Year's resolutions 12 times a year: I get 12 fresh starts. I use a cheap spiral notebook to record and track my goals. I don't always achieve all of my goals, but I think I achieve more than I would without goals. My December goals are shown below. Keys to Drawing from Imagination and Design: Principles and Problems are books I am slowly working through. EDM stands for Every Day Matters, which I have been meaning to join for a long time now. I have an expensive set of Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pens, but I use Micron ones instead due to laziness. I want to get comfortable with the better pens so I will use them. I think the rest of the goals are self-explanatory.

Illustration Friday - The Zoo

This is a child's stuffed animal zoo. Sepia .05 Micron pen on 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad Paper.

Best Western Lamp

I haven't had much time for artwork over the holidays. I did manage to sketch this lamp in our Nassau Bay (greater Houston area) motel room.

Tree Creature

I drew this tree creature from imagination back in June. Micron pen on 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad Paper. Happy Thanksgiving to those in the United States! My family is driving to Houston, Texas today to celebrate with my brother, sister-in-law, and parents. We'll be back Friday.

Illustration Friday - Superstition

People were tried for being werewolves on a regular basis in medieval Europe. One of the last convictions took place in Salzburg, Austria in 1720. Superstition run amok. How do I happen to possess this nugget of information? My son Christopher loves mythical monsters. Two great kids books on werewolves are Mythical Monsters by Chris McNab and Werewolves by Stephen Krensky. 2B pencil on Strathmore 400 Series Drawing medium paper (9" x 12").

Work Shoes

My work shoes, drawn from life. Pencil on 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad Paper.

Chiaroscuro in Pencil

I have been traveling on business. This is a drawing of a corner of my hotel room in the beautiful historic Hotel Phillips in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. I used cross-hatching chiaroscuro techniques I learned in the book Art of Still Life Drawing by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. (2006). 2B pencil on Strathmore 400 Series Drawing medium paper (9" x 12").

More Contour Drawings

Here are more of my November daily contour drawings. I have tried a variety of techniques, including blind contour (don't look at the paper at all) and partial blind contour (peek now and then). The technique that I am enjoying most is from the book Charles Reid Master Class Painting by Design by Charles Reid (1991). Reid gives these contour drawing guidelines:

• Concentrate.
• Use angles and curves.
• Keep your pen on the paper at all times.
• Go slowly at angles; speed up at curves and straight lines.
• Describe shadows within definite, contained shapes.
• Stop often, keeping your pen anchored, to compare and relate a new form to one you've already drawn.
• Leave your boundaries incomplete. Your pen should weave adjacent forms so separations can't always be found.
  

For some reason, I find that keeping my pen on the paper at all times relaxes me and makes it easier to draw freely. Reid points out that it is more important to make an interesting picture than to copy exactly what you see. For example, one can add interest by using a variety of angles and curves and leaving some parts of the drawing incomplete. I am using two new Micron pens in these drawings: brown .01 and sepia .05.

Chiaroscuro Plant

I drew a plant from life using chiaroscuro techniques I learned in the book Art of Still Life Drawing by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. (2006). I first used a charcoal pencil to draw the contour of the plant , and then I applied compressed charcoal to the space around the plant. I used my fingers and a stump to create the tones. Yarka pressed charcoal and Conte charcoal pencil on Strathmore 500 Series 25" x 19" cream-colored charcoal paper. This is the first time I have used our new digital camera to photograph artwork. I love it! Before this purchase, I could only post artwork that was small enough to be scanned.

Illustration Friday - Scale

The prompt this week is "scale". The word "scale" has many meanings, and I finally settled on illustrating the definition "a proportion between two sets of dimensions (as between those of a drawing and its original)." I drew a picture of a vase from life and then scanned the drawing. I printed scaled versions of the drawing, scaling up and down at 25% intervals. I then used a light box to transfer all 5 sizes of the drawing to the final illustration. I added a little shading for interest and deliberately left the scaling and scaffolding lines visible. B and 3B pencil on Strathmore 400 Series Drawing medium paper (9" x 12").

This turned into an experimental drawing exercise, which I really enjoyed. The perspective in the drawing doesn't make sense. For example, the ellipses should not all be the same shape, and the background vases should be less defined than the foreground vases. But this drawing is not intended to be realistic--I did what I found to be pleasing from a design perspective. Ignoring the rules of realistic drawing can be enjoyable and freeing.

A Contour Drawing A Day

I am doing a contour drawing in pen every day in November. After I wake up in the morning, I do at least one contour drawing. My goal is to become more confident in my mark-making. Here are a few of my drawings so far. Micron pen on 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad Paper.

Christopher Sleeping

This is a modeled drawing of my son Christopher. 5B pencil on 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad Paper.

I am reading The Zen of Seeing by Frederick Franck, a book I am finding very inspiring. Here is one quote:

Who is man, the artist? He is the unspoiled core of everyman, before he is choked by schooling, training, conditioning until the artist-within shrivels up and is forgotten. Even in the artist who is professionally trained to be consciously "creative" this unspoiled core shrivels up in the rush toward a "personal style", in the heat of competition to be "in". And yet that core is never killed completely.

Happily, the book offers advice on how to re-connect to the core. The book views drawing as a form of meditation and a way to connect to all things.

Illustration Friday - Hats

Collage using construction paper, touched up with Photoshop Elements.

Two Views of My Hand

Mechanical pencil on 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad Paper.

Wooden Chicken

This is a drawing of a wooden chicken. My son Christopher loves this chicken, because it reminds him of Baba Yaga, one of his favorite fairy tales. Baba Yaga is a Russian witch who lives in a cabin on chicken legs. Christopher wishes he could live in a house on chicken legs. 5B pencil on 9" x 12" Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad Paper.