a year of drawing

Another Olive drawing

2009-10-08T18:33:00.001-07:00

Trying to find time to draw

2009-10-05T19:52:00.001-07:00

I stopped at a waffle house on my drive to North Carolina on Friday. "Grandma" (the name the other wait staff called my waitress) took my order and while waiting I took out my sketchbook and did a quick drawing of the salt and pepper shaker.

Cravings

2009-10-01T08:07:00.001-07:00

Occasionally I will get a drawing "craving". Maybe because of the figure drawing class or just my general interest in science stuff, but I had a desire to draw some skeletons. I had to go from a photo, since human skeletons aren't something that you can just find laying around (thankfully).

More figure drawing

2009-10-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

Tried something a bit different, using a more loose line and no shading.

Figure drawing

2009-10-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

I am taking a figure drawing class. In art school I never really felt like I got how to figure draw and it has always felt like a blind spot in my art education. So I signed up for a class to try and improve. The first couple of classes were so frustrating. Each drawing I did looked awful, but I vowed to stick with it. At the third class things started to click and I came away with some drawings that I liked.

The lost drawings of last year

2009-02-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

Well the year flew by and I got farther and farther behind on keeping up with the drawing a day. But between drawings for friends, family and work there was still plenty of drawing being had. So for this year I am attempting it again, but this time with a bit less stringent rules. This time, it is just to post 365 drawings in 2009, but with no set deadline of one a day. This way I can work in spurts when the mood strikes.

One of my heros

2008-07-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

When I checked Google today I noticed that the main banner had changed to celebrate Beatrix Potter's birthday. When I was a kid, I once read a book about Beatrix, not one of her stories, but one about her. I remember being totally charmed by her life's story. She had a private tutor (which I begged my mom if I could PLEEEEEASE have one too like Beatrix) and she would study the plants and animals around her home and draw them. She is mostly known for her children's books, but her less known side I find fascinating. She wrote some scientific papers and was the first to suggest that lichens might be a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. Latter in life she helped preserve the Lake District in England and upon her death, she left her land to the National Trust. So in honor of my hero Beatrix, here is a drawing.

4th of July

2008-07-09T05:16:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit for the 4th of July and brought a huge basket of amazing peaches. I like peaches ok, but I love the way they look and smell. We gave away most of the peaches to family and friends but I kept two for myself to draw and enjoy.

Elephant craving

2008-06-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

I was so bummed that I didn't draw an elephant this weekend that I resorted to looking at a photo (which I know is ok, but it always feels like cheating) to satiate my craving to draw an elephant.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

2008-06-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

I got my hair cut this weekend. I had been growing it out to donate to Locks of Love. It seems like it took forever to get it long enough to cut and leave me with enough so my hair wouldn't be super short. But finally it was long enough to donate and I scheduled an appointment with Ginger my favorite stylist. It was weird getting that much hair cut off and seeing the disembodied ponytail was a bit freaky. I thought I would draw the ponytail in my sketchbook before I sent it in. So to immortalized my dismembered hair, here is a drawing.

Finally a still animal

2008-06-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

I found probably the most still animal in all of the zoo. He was in the kid's petting area and was sitting on a bench (yes, that was a bit weird to see) and he was enormous! Kids kept coming over to pet him and take his picture but he never moved. He must a very deep sleeper. Here is the drawing I did of him.

Addressing weaknesses

2008-06-30T06:23:00.001-07:00

My brother-in-law Matt likes to say to "address your weaknesses". So while at the zoo I made a first attempt to draw some people. There was a grandfather and his grandson sitting in front of me and since they were being relatively still I took a shot at drawing them. Fortunately I couldn't see their faces, so it made it less intimidating. I don't really like this drawing, but I figure it is a first step in getting better at people drawing.

Fast moving things

2008-06-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

Being back from Greece, I miss having things I am dying to draw. So in an effort to find new inspiration I went to the zoo on Saturday. I thought it might be fun to try an draw some animals (other than Olive). I really wanted to draw the elephants, so I went right when the zoo opened, but to my surprise it was already very crowded. It was really hard to find a good spot where I would be out of the way and the elephants were out of the question because it was a mob scene around them. So I eventually found the one animal that no one seemed interested in, the Southern Ground Hornbill. I sat down to draw it and noticed it was in constant motion. I have never tried drawing a moving animal before. It was very tricky. I tried to just visually memorize part of the bird when it walked by, first the beak, then the head, then the wing, etc. After awhile it didn't seem so bad, but I still prefer drawing still things. After the Hornbill I looked around for more to draw.

My favorite drawing from Greece

2008-06-26T14:23:00.001-07:00

There were a couple of things I really wanted to draw while I was in Greece, one of them was to draw some of the balconies in Athens. The city is loaded with them. People put all sorts of stuff on them and really use them as another room. So you get all these neat peaks into people's lives based on what they have on their balcony. The last night we were in Athens I had some time and a great view of a building. This is my favorite drawing from my time in Greece.

Hotel in Kalampaka

2008-06-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

There was a beautiful cluster of canna lilies near the pool at our hotel in Kalampaka. They were the most amazing coral or peachy color. I didn't have time to do a full watercolor so you'll have to just imagine it.

Monasteries of Meteroa

2008-06-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Meteroa is probably one of the coolest places on earth. It is in central Greece and has these crazy rock formations. Around the 11th century monks started living in holes in the rocks and around the 14th century they constructed monasteries way up high on top of the rocks. The only way to get to them was by being pulled up on ropes, this was definitely not for any fear of heights travelers! Today only one of the monasteries is reachable by road. This is a drawing of that one, St. Stephen's monastery (see Jack sitting on the wall looking out at the great view). The monastery was closed on mondays so we went to another one Great Meteoron which is accessible by a lot of stairs.

Aegean ocean

2008-06-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

I drew this on the little beach on Patmos. The harbor was so charming, little boats tied onto the shore. I really wanted to draw a boat and finally found a good spot. The tricky part was that the boats kept moving around and it took me awhile to figure out why what I was drawing kept looking different each time I looked up.

Greek food

2008-06-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

I wasn't very familiar with greek food before the trip, but I loved it! I didn't have one bad meal. Everything was so incredibly wonderful. My favorite was this greek salad at a little taverna on Patmos. Real greek salad dosen't have lettuce, it is just tomatoes, olives, cucumbers and feta. This was a drawing of our table while waiting for our food. Since it was so hot, we went through a lot of bottles of water.

A little bit of paradise

2008-06-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

We took an overnight ferry ride to the island of Patmos. This was our hotel on the island for a couple of nights. It was so beautiful! The building was covered with a magenta bouganvillea and was right by the little harbor of Skala. Just writing about it makes me miss it!

Athens

2008-06-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

Wow Athens was incredible! It was so neat to see things in person I hadn't seen since art history class. The Parthenon was amazing, but boy was it crowed and very hot! I did a quick sketch, because I didn't really have enough time to do a good long drawing. So here is the quick one I did. The first night in Athens we had dinner under the stars on top of a taverna in the old area of Athens. The roof top was in view of the Acropolis and had live traditional greek music. It was such an amazing night!

Plane to Paris

2008-06-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

To fly to Greece, we had a stop over in Paris. I had a middle seat and it was so cramped. Not much to draw from a middle seat on an airplane, so here is the view of the back of the row in front of me.

Getting ready for Greece

2008-06-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

I drew this while waiting at a Starbuck's across the street from the art store. I needed to buy another notebook and I wanted to check out some new watercolor paints. While I was drawing this I was sitting next to a couple meeting with a wedding planner. The soon-to-be groom was telling the wedding planner he had a good friend, someone that he had know for years that he wanted to give a toast. But he also said he was real worried the guy would say something crazy when he got the microphone. Man what I wouldn't give to find out how it went!

Five questions, part 5

2008-06-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Q: What is on your to do list?

A: Way too much. I have a ton of stuff I have to do before I leave for Greece. Pack, water plants, get Olive's stuff together, call neighbors to pick up my mail and buy a couple more moleskine watercolor notebooks.

Five questions, part 4

2008-06-26T13:07:00.001-07:00

Q: What is your favorite snack food

A: I love the little vanilla starbuck's frappucinos. I also thought about saying "fleur de sel" salt because everything taste good when you add it, especially tomatoes, yum yum. Coffee and fancy salt are two foods I adopted after a trip to France. C'est la vie!

Five questions, part 3

2008-06-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

Q: What five things would I do if I was a billionaire?

A: I don't think I would want to be a billionaire (well maybe if I earned it). I think I would just prefer to be a moderate-onaire. I have heard that lottery winners don't fare so good in the long term happiness department. But if I came into a bit more extra money here are some things I would love to do (after having shared the wealth with those more needy, friends and family of course!). I would buy the wooded lot beside my house and extend my garden. I would redo my kitchen. I would make a studio space above my garage. I would buy art from artist I love (Gabriela Ibarra, Darren Waterston, Jo Self) and I would get a nice wrought iron fence for my front yard so Olive could run around while I garden. In contrast, this drawing shows how much money I actually have in my purse, one wrinkly dollar.

Five questions, part 2

2008-06-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

Q: Where was I ten years ago?

A: I was in grad school and had the summer off so I got an internship at WGBH in Boston. I would stay with my cousins and uncle during the week and drive back to New Haven on the weekends. My friends and I would sometimes go to lunch at the Harvard business school cafeteria, which was very impressive for a university cafeteria! or we would go out to Harvard square. This is a drawing of Harvard square in Boston which was not too terribly far from WGBH. I did it from a photo, which was taken apparently in the winter because everyone is wearing big coats. This is my first attempt to try and draw some people. Drawing them small with hats and coats on made it soooo much less intimidating!!!

Five questions, part 1

2008-06-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

My friend and coworker, Dawn tagged me for a meme (which originated from another friend and coworker Laura) . I thought I would respond to her five questions and use them as drawing inspirations. So here goes question no.1 (actually it is question four on her list, but I'm going to do them out of order):

Q: What places have I lived?

A: Charleston, SC (where I was born), Bethesda MD, back to Charleston SC, Providence RI (college), Boston MA, New Haven CT (grad school), and now Atlanta GA. In Atlanta I have lived in four different places. My first house I owned was in Cabbagetown. This is a drawing of that house. It was a little shotgun house originally built in 1886 for the mill workers at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill. Cabbagetown was in the news recently because it was hit by a tornado in march, but luckily I didn't live there anymore and the little house made it through unharmed.

Uptight drawer

2008-06-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have always struggled with in drawings is being to fussy about details. I remember my college professors telling me to loosen up my drawings. I couldn't ever really get the fast sketching and preferred to fixate on small details rather than the big bold gestures. This is still something I am working on, but I did find an avenue of drawing that relishes in attention to detail. I took a botanical illustration class a couple of years ago and I loved it. Since then I have done some volunteer work for the Atlanta Botanical Garden doing drawings of various orchid species for the Fuqua Orchid Center. My favorite part of orchids to draw isn't the flowers, it is the thick leaves, roots and pseudobulbs.

The cool of the evening

2008-06-10T06:10:00.000-07:00

After the sun goes down, it is very pleasant in my backyard (well more pleasant than when the sun is up and it is 100F) so I sat outside to do some drawings. I did some drawings of a couple of seashells and a one of a watering can that didn't turn out so good. But this drawing of my neighbor's house finally was working. I liked drawing the leaves of the pecan tree and the little shoots of a plant that I pruned back that are now sneaking back over the fence.

My lunch

2008-06-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of cherry tomatoes on my kitchen counter.

Leftovers from a meeting

2008-06-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

We had a meeting this morning and I took the leftover bottom half of a poppy seed bagel to draw. I have run out of treats at work to give Olive, so when she laid down on her bed in my office, I tore off a little bit to give her.

Drawing negative space

2008-04-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

I am reading Danny Gregory's books on drawing and journaling (they are great and so inspiring!). One of the exercises is to try drawing the negative space in between objects. I really liked the way this came out, so I filled in the rest of the details so you can see what I was looking at.

a piece of furniture

2008-04-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

This is the chaise lounge chair I have in my living room. I love chaise lounge chairs and Olive loves to stand on this and watch the birds at the feeder in my backyard.

A table

2008-04-15T06:57:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some drawings lately that aren't very good, hence the void in posting them. But here is quick table sketch to pass the time.

Problem with greens and blues

2008-03-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

Still having problems getting the scanner to pick up the blues and greens of the watercolor. The image on the left is a photo of my drawing, the image on the right is a scan. What a difference!

My purse

2008-03-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

This was EDM challenge No3. The wiggly line kind of reminds me of Shel Silverstein. I loved his books when I was a kid, especially Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Don't like this one

2008-03-27T14:20:00.002-07:00

I don't like this one.. blah

Looking for something new to draw

2008-03-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

I should mention that another MAJOR influence to keep this sketchbook was a talk I saw by Danny Gregory. It was a total accident that I saw him. I was at a conference for work and I thought I was sitting in a lecture on creative work at MTV, but to my surprise the speaker wasn't even mentioning MTV. I finally figured out I was in the wrong room, but by that point I was hooked. Danny was very inspiring and he made me realize how much I missed drawing just for the pleasure of it. So thank you thank you thank you Danny, and here is the first of the Every Day Matters Challenges.

Still asleep

2008-03-27T14:18:00.001-07:00

Another of Olive asleep. This one was after I gave her a bath and brushed her.

Scissors

2008-03-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

In an effort to work at drawing something other than Olive, here is a pair of scissors.

Drawing on location

2008-03-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

I took Olive to a great dog park this weekend and while she ran around meeting other dogs and chasing the birds and squirrels I sat and drew a picture of a little tree that still had it's dead and wrinkly fall leaves stuck to it.

Studies

2008-03-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

These are some studies I did for a drawing for a friend.

Trip to Orlando

2008-03-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

My grandmother died and we went to Orlando for the funeral. The day my grandmother died I think I did the worst drawing I have done so far (I am sure there is a subconscious reason for that). But this is from breakfast with my family in Orlando at a Denny's. My Dad ordered coffee and the waitress brought him a water, which my Dad pointed out he did not order. So I decided to draw the unwanted water and the wanted coffee together.

About my sketchbooks

2008-03-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

Some of the bad drawings I have done don't make it to this blog (the beauty of editing!) but some of the pages I also crop to make for a better composition. Here is a sample of an interesting full page showing some little color swatches, quick studies and the final drawing I settled on.

Baikal's class

2008-03-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

I drew this while waiting for my niece's music class to start.

Going back

2008-03-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Originally I drew this quick line drawing and wasn't happy with it. But a couple of days latter I went back and added some watercolor to it and that really helped it.

Quick drawing

2008-03-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

It is hard to always time find to draw, so here is a very quick drawing I did.

A foot

2008-03-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

When I was in college and had figure drawing classes, I always had a hard time drawing feet and hands. As a result my drawings would end up just being a weird torso with no appendages. I realized that had I actually practiced more at hands and feet, I would have eventually gotten better at it, rather than just avoiding them. So in an effort to push myself I caught Olive in a different position so I could practice drawing her paws.

Olive's spots

2008-03-25T07:55:00.001-07:00

At first when I would draw Olive I would have a hard time not getting distracted drawing her spots. I found it is better to just draw her form, then paint in the spots. This drawing I ended up drawing her spots again, but my favorite part of this drawing is where I painted in the ticking she has on her back right leg.

Looking for something else to draw

2008-03-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

I have been drawing with a .25 waterproof pen but I bought a .30 the other day. I thought I might like a thicker line, but it really didn't make much difference. But having a waterproof pen is key, that way I can watercolor over it and it doesn't run. This is a quick drawing of a couple of pens.

One of my favorite

2008-03-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite drawings in my sketchbook. Olive sometimes sleeps right up against me. I drew this of her curled up by my leg (see arrow pointing to my foot).

When I was a kid...

2008-03-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

I used to enjoy drawing when I was a kid. But as I got older I have forgotten the pleasure of just drawing for fun, so one of my hopes is that I can refind that enjoyment.

Here are two of my best drawings ever. The first one is the very first drawing I did at age two! I called it "Man with Shoe". The next one my grandmother had saved and I was amazed to see it because I have no memory of drawing it. I drew it to explain to her a doughnut machine I saw on a field trip. She says that I was four when I did it, but I think it was probably more likely fourth grade.

A chair

2008-03-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

Took a break from Olive to try my hand at an environment. Parts of this I like, but the perspective is wonky and the window is kind of a mess.

Details

2008-03-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

When I draw Olive I have a hard time not getting involved in the details (her spots, little tufts of hair, etc) and not just drawing the overall forms. This is something I am working on getting better at.

About my model

2008-03-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

I thought I should post a picture of Olive, my lovely model. She is a blenheim cavalier king charles spaniel and will be two in August. Her full name is "Eulenburg The Olive Tree" but her call name is just "Olive". I named her after my grandmother.

More Olive

2008-03-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

Back to my willing model who can hold this pose for hours at a time...

Break from Olive

2008-03-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

I realize that most of my drawings have been of Olive asleep (probably since she is the most convenient model I have!), but for a change of pace I did a blind contour of one of my ceiling fans.

Colors not being picked up by scanner

2008-03-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

My sketches are scanning in weird. For some reason it isn't picking up on the lighter blue tones. The background of this is actually green, but even with color adjustments it still looks yellow... hmm.... something to try and figure out. Also on this sketch of Olive curled up with her favorite toy hedgehog (which she stole from my sister's dogs), she moved so there are some lines from her original position.

More environment

2008-03-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

I tried branching out a bit and show more of the environment to get it a context so Olive wasn't just floating in space.

Supplies

2008-03-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post the supplies I have been using: water color moleskin journal, windsor newton watercolor set, a water pen and waterproof fine point pen. I try to keep it small so I can carry everything with me.

More Olive sleeping

2008-03-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

A new semi-blind contour of Olive asleep (again) with part of a rocking chair behind her.

Now that is more like it!

2008-03-20T10:06:00.001-07:00

Finally, a drawing I like! I started out doing a blind contour of Olive, then she moved. I am still not sure how to draw a moving subject? So I started over. I really like this drawing and the two images together make it look like Olive is dreaming of flying.

My dog has a very round head

2008-03-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Another blind contour, this time of Olive. I never realized how round her little head is.

Materials experiment

2008-03-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

The first supplies I bought included a light grey waterproof marker. This drawing I tried using the marker, but it didn't really work very well. I think I am going to just stick with pen and watercolor.

Blind Contour

2008-03-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have always like drawing blind contour drawings (that is where you don't look at the paper, just look at the subject). This is a blind contour drawing of some books I am reading.

First attempt

2008-03-20T09:36:00.001-07:00

This was the first drawing I did in my sketchbook. After I drew it I realized all the mistakes I made and now I am stuck with it being page no. 1. ...blaaaaaa

How this started

2008-03-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

On Christmas eve every year my family makes predictions for the new year. We have five different categories of predictions: politics, sports/entertainment, family, personal and miscellaneous. For my personal prediction/resolution for 2008 I said I would draw in a sketchbook everyday. This blog is about my year of drawing.