Fly.

So here's the nice thing about this blog - I now have decent paper and pencils and am ready to draw. Also, because I have the materials, I'm more inclined to if the opportunity arises. Recently I did a little poster contest thing (bragging rights only), and drew the fly and fish for that. It was such a treat to have an excuse, a reason even, to sit down and draw something. I got all fussy and micro-managy with this one...just how I like it. I wish I could be looser and more fanciful, and maybe someday I will be, but right now, and for the past however many decades I've been doing this, I want things to look uber-accurate. Here I let go and let my inner detail-nerd flag fly. I still feel like realism is just a parlor-trick, but it sure feels nice. So yay.

Fish

Bug. 4/12/09

4/7/09. Cross River Gorilla

4/6/09. Bee

Still on "B" I guess.

I lost the pencil.

Somewhere in a giant field.

Totally not kidding.

Scanner's still in the closet

But I'm doing a digital illustration now, which started as a sketch, but I won't post here because that's one I probably care if people steal.

I did buy a little book though. AND a pencil, so I'm all set ya know.

Promises promises...

Update.

I'm still doing this, but I put the scanner in the closet and it's a pain.

Sincerely,

Lisa.

2/1/09. Blue Crab.

I know. I cheated. "Blue" Crab is not exactly a "B" animal. But I've liked crabs for a while. I used to have hermit crabs as a kid and got to the point where I knew their structure and could draw them from memory. The leg joints are interesting.

Part of this experiment is getting enough experience to know which path I want to travel down, and to get comfortable/reacquainted with the medium.

I reverted to pencil here, and realize that, although pen is nice, and can reproduce well, there's nothing like the feeling of graphite on paper. There's just something about it. There's a tight feeling at the base of my throat. It's like falling in love.

Melodrama...

1/30/09. Armadillo.

We're on the right track with the animal thing. Finding items of interest in the house wasn't really working out. I like to draw things that are alive. Preferably when they're right in front of me. But...in absence of that, a photo of a living thing is better than a piece of furniture that exists in my realm of vision.

So I started doing the animal a to z thing and started with the obvious choice of armadillo.

1/26/09. Drawer Pull

Drawer Pull.

Bo-ring.

After this I have a plan. Animals...A to Z...

1/25/09. Moth

I really wanted to draw a moth. Five minutes in, I was in love with moths. 20 minutes in I was in hate with them.

It's O.K. A little fussy. I am enjoying the Micron pens quite a bit though.

1/21/09. Lame cup from Gourmet Magazine.

The cat stopped sleeping in my room. I had to resort to magazines, and don't like it.

But...it's better to draw something than nothing at all.

1/15/09. Cat #3

So apparently I have standards now. This was my third sketch of the evening.

Sonofa.

1/14/09. Chair.

Here's one of those crazy old, handcrafted chairs I was telling you about.

This was fun to do. Maybe there will be a chair series.

No promises.

1/13/09. Wee One

The baby kitty - who is neither a baby, nor a kitty - thinks he can sleep anywhere he likes. He also is very fidgety.

1/11/09. Handbag.

I guess we're getting somewhere. Working in pen here, and also taking on longer and more detailed tasks. Thought this one was heading into the crapper halfway through, but I ended up satisfied with the final drawing.

1/10/09. Finger & Hand

1/8/09. Cat #2

So after all that you get another cat.

But this time...in pen....

1/7/09. Dragon Slipper

The hunt for interesting subject matter is becoming more difficult. I think it's a matter of how I see things. I'm going to have to force it. Maybe just grab things at random or have my kids pick something for me.

Oooh! Maybe I'll go alphabetical. If I have my kids pick things I'll be doing Star Wars action figures for the next four months. Anyway, suggestions are welcome. If I get a reader suggestion I'll do it. Unless it's dirty. Unless the dirtiness is dirt.

So this is my son's dragon slipper. The first drawing wasn't that fun. It felt a little fussy. I did another one after that was much more fun and took just a few minutes.

In the end I like the first one better, but it still stalls in places.

1/6/09. Perfume Bottle.

I was so pleased with the foot and the cookie. Tonight I wandered around for a while - looking for something that grabbed me. It was rough. I think part of it is that chairs are scary. We have a bunch of them, some in the 200-year-old range, so they're technically really interesting with all of their hand-crafted nuance-y business...but also really complicated with the crazy shadows they throw and whatnot. Maybe soon.

Interesting development is that I find that I shut myself off from ideas at an almost subconscious level if I feel they are beyond my skill range. This is to change.

1/5/09. Foot Cookie.

Can't draw plants forever you know...

1/4/09. Tropical holiday.

This is the Christmas plant. My Father-in-Law picked up two of these for house. It doesn't look very Christmas-y here, but it's red and green. Trust me.

It's tricky finding something that isn't furniture or a cat to sketch.

Overall, I'm happy that on the second drawing, there's more of a flow. This was much more fun. I want to leave pencil soon and switch to pen.

1/2/09. Cat paramour

As you can tell, my plan to draw something every day has not quite panned out. I am chalking it up to not being in the habit yet. I don't carve out time to sketch and only remember right before bed. Which is when this was done.

This is our little cat Shnelly. She is laying on my husband, who she is deeply involved with. Right now they're just friends, but she would like it to be more. She thinks I don't know.

Anyway...I am rusty as hell. This took forever and was full of starts and stops. If the past is any indicator, once I get used to jamming these out, they'll fly and will be more interesting.

You'll still probably see a lot of cats though.

Introduction

This is a project I started on my other blog. I really love it, but it needs it's own focus I think. Things are getting kind of jumbly over there.

My plan is to do a drawing a day (or as close as I can muster...to either the schedule or the drawing), and see where that takes me creatively and stylistically.