A few months ago, when undertaking my massive organizational project, I found some photos in an album that I thought I threw away a few years ago. I debated chucking them right then and there, but decided to hold onto some of the photos in case I can develop them into later works.
This drawing was a great opportunity to practice some perspective skills. I snapped the photo from a huge window in a Kolkata shopping mall. I was then rudely interrupted by one of their many security guards. Kolkata is filled with Victorian style buildings with a lot of character and architectural detail, but an unfortunate lack of maintainance. If someone powerwashed all the mildew off and repainted the city, it wouldn’t look nearly as bad. All the decay is more interesting to draw though.
Today is Blog Action Day 2010, which is an online event where bloggers all write on the same topic on one particular day. This year’s theme is Water. I’m not usually the type to discuss “issues” on my blog. It’s not that I don’t have opinions, but I usually just keep things related to my artwork here. However, I thought this was a good opportunity to tell you one of my most memorable travel memories.
I never really worried about the quality of my drinking water until I went to India in 2008. I was warned beforehand not to drink the water unless it was bottled, or boiled as in coffee or soup. I couldn’t even open my mouth in the shower, for fear of some water seeping in and giving me amoebic dysentery or something pretty scary. After a few days I grew to hate carrying around bottles of water everywhere I went, thinking of it as a huge hassle. That is, until I saw people drinking muddy water pumped out of stagnant, slime-covered ponds. The idea of drinking that stuff makes my stomach turn and it’s hard to think that a lot of people have no other options available. For most people in the US, the most pressing concern is usually that they don’t enjoy the taste of their water or if it is fluoridated or not. We really have a lot to be thankful for.
Day to day, I usually think about water as it relates to my artwork. The above sketch was just a practice exercise but it was a lot of fun. I have done other drawings of drinking glasses before (click here for an example). There is lot of information out there about drawing and painting water. I love the blog Watermarks which is a group blog that features water as a subject and as an art material. Gurney Journey also has done some interesting posts relating to water (Water by Three Masters, Color in Mountain Streams, and Reflections of Masts in Rippled Water). Enjoy.
This is a sketch I made of the ocean at low tide when I was visiting Ogunquit, Maine a few weeks ago. It was a nice mid week mini-trip and I took lots of reference photos. I will most likely start working from these when I finish the big drawing that I am working on (more on that later this week) and get everything else settled down.
I am very busy these days, but also very excited. In a few weeks, I will have a new studio to show you all! The walls are purple, which is not my first choice, but I am still very excited. I never had a separate space all to myself for my artwork so this is an excellent development for me. Right now everything is all a shambles and I don’t have my supplies organized yet, so I will be making sketches with ball point pens for the next few days.
Right now I am blogging from someone else’s computer so I feel so awkward typing this. I don’t have anything new to show you yet, but I am in the process of making a “secret” drawing (at least until I give it to the person). I am scanning it as I work, so hopefully I will have a series of WIPs to show you when I am through. This is a sketch that I made six years ago. The mug was lost for a few years but I have since found it and it now holds a place of pride along with all my other favorite mugs.
Keep your old work. You did it. There are virtues and there are faults in it for your to study. You can learn more from yourself than you can from anyone else. -Robert Henri in The Art Spirit
I found my old, old sketchbook the other day when I was cleaning out through boxes of stuff. This is the sketchbook that I had from 1997 through 1999. It is really shocking to me how I thought that certain things were good when I made them, but now when I look at them I am more embarrassed than anything else! Even my handwriting is so different. I remember drawing this picture from a little resin charm that was attached to a pair of pants from American Eagle Outfitters. I was really pleased with it at the time and even now I like the drawing because it is so bold and colorful. Do you ever go back and review your older work? Do you show it to other people?
Something to check out:
I really liked this “mini podcast” from Michael Nobbs about how to avoid “ideas exhaustion,” or rather, when you can’t get anything done because of all the ideas floating into your head. I can really relate to this! Also he has a new microMagazine Getting Your Important Work Done, which is a email newsletter you can sign up for that goes out every two weeks. It is very interesting, and has helpful tips and links.
I was planning on going to my last painting class today and spending the rest of the day outside sketching. Unfortunately, my appendix had other plans.
This sketchbook page gives you some clues to a subject besides art that interests me quite a bit. (Hint: I take my nutrition seriously.)
I got a lot done yesterday, both on the art front and the chore front. You will see the fruits of my labor later on this week. Have a nice Monday everyone. I know I will.
Today I have something a little different for you — some Saturday morning cartoons, so to speak. These are clips from the movie The Point!, which was written by Harry Nilsson and narrated by Ringo Starr (other versions had different narrators). When I was a kid, my Yiayia recorded this movie from TV but the tape ended just before the end. For years I never knew how the movie ended and this was so frustrating!
What I love about the movie are the songs and the animation done by Fred Wolf. The whole movie is very hippie which is not my usual style, but I think the animation is so beautiful. These clips aren’t the best of quality, but one of the things that really strikes me when I watch it at home is the sketchy ink drawing and pops of bright color. I love the texture of the painted parts, which remind me of watercolor on YUPO. Enjoy.
It was pouring rain when I drew this (from a window). It was getting into the evening and the light was dimming, when all of the sudden the rain stopped and the sun came out. Everything turned a sort of golden color for about five minutes, then it promptly started pouring again. It reminded me of when I was in India two years ago during the Monsoon season — totally unpredictable.
Here I was trying to use my pens more for sketching, instead of doing a really careful drawing. I usually grab pencils when I want to do something like this and save pens for more precise drawings, but I’m trying to change it up and all.
I have this little bowl, a cheap Christmas Tree Shops special, gifted to me by one of my sisters. It’s has a misshapen appearance with the oddest curves and bumps and uneven glazing. I have had numerous opportunities to get rid of this bowl (and I almost did a few months ago when cleaning out my room) but I always keep it around because I love to make sketches of it. I also have an unfinished wooden egg that I first put in the bowl because I didn’t know what to do with it. After a number of years however, the bowl has become its permanent home. Does anybody else have any objects like this, that you are attached to but probably should throw out?
