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.

Happy Halloween!

This is a scene from the 1931 movie Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. This is the view from inside Dracula's castle. If bats come trick or treating to your house tonight, don't invite them in! Charcoal on 9" x 12" Strathmore Charcoal White 500 Series paper.

Illustration Friday - Trick or Treat

In Dallas, trees occasionally have toilet paper draped over them. I don't know if this is intended to be a trick or a treat. I have also lived in upstate New York and Los Angeles (Westwood), but I never saw toilet paper on trees until I moved to Dallas.

This is mechanical pencil on Strathmore Bristol Vellum. I started with a photograph of a house and some trees, which I modified for the purposes of the illustration.