Drawing Amsterdam Dailies, Days 101-150 Video Now Available

I’ve just finished my latest video showing the progression in my Amsterdam travel sketchbook over the days 101-150. Some days it doesn’t seem like much, but 30 minutes a day really does add up. Take a look! Let me know which images you like best and what you think!

One of my favorites from this video is the spread from the outside of the Rainarai restaurant. It was one of the first time that I used gouache and watercolor in addition to the black ink on my drawings. The color really makes the drawing pop.

Architecture and food on the same page! How could I not like this? Ink, watercolor and gouache.

I put together videos from every 50 days of progress. If you want to see the days as they are done, you can see them on my Dailies page or you can subscribe to @anya_toomre on Instagram. The videos can be found on my Dailies Collections page or on my YouTube channel.

What Collections do You Keep?

I started a new sketchbook workshop this week called, “Drawing Collections.” It is a sketching workshop that has so much possibility in it that I will run it again soon in the future. What do you think of when you imagine collections?

It could be a stamp collection or all of your record albums. It could be coins, bird figurines, feathers, shells, necklaces, shoes, lipstick, plants, tools, French books, maps, tea towels, heirloom tomato seeds, or spices.

It can be things that squeak, things beginning with the letters b, things that shine, or things that get rusty.

It can be any sort of thing that you want to group together with something else with a thread that has meaning only to you.

It can be a collection of things you have or things you don’t.

Go to a museum. What are the top five things you would want to have? What five things might have been curated in by mistake?

What are scenes from your favorite book, or top scenes from favorite books? How do you imagine the characters looking from the novel you’re reading now, or look up photographs to draw some of the people referred to in a non-fiction book.

Draw the weather, draw words, draw how music sounds to you, draw emotions. Can you draw a smell?

The great thing about drawing a collection is that it doesn’t have to have meaning to anyone else but you. The drawings don’t have to be realistic or fantastically rendered. As long as it has meaning to you, it’s good.

I do this kind of thing because I like to draw, but this kind of creative exercise can be done equally well with words or in your imagination. I like to record things that are interesting to me in some way or that I have an association with. Sometimes I draw things to record memories. Sometimes, I draw to then let go of things.

What kind of collections have meaning for you? What are you grouping together?

Trying Something New

Trying out a drawing on black paper as part of my Drawing Amsterdam Dailies

How does trying something new for you work? Can you jump into it immediately or does it take a certain amount of convincing yourself to try the new thing, habit or technique?

I’ve become more aware recently of how often I put up resistance to actually doing new things. I may like the idea, but because I’m new at it and maybe (probably) will make mistakes, I start resisting doing that new thing.

My thought process tends to go: “It’s exciting! I like it! It’s interesting! It’s new. Oh… how about I do something more familiar?” And then I don’t do that new, interesting thing. Does that sound familiar?

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a 30 minutes-a-day daily project drawing my way through photos of a trip to Amsterdam. I’m using a sketchbook with toned paper which is all new to me. I’ve found it interesting but not too hard to use the grey and tan paper.

What I want to do more of and find myself NOT doing, is working with the black paper.

Why?

Because it’s much more of a challenge and I’m not used to it.

I know I want to work with the black paper more. I know it’ll get easier if I practice. I’ve found, though, I’m not quite committed yet to making mistakes. I cajole and persuade myself that it’s only a page and only one picture. It seems like a lot of effort to get in the practice.

I did show up to do it these past few days. I like the result so far. I wonder how long it will take before I don’t think about the effort to work with black paper the next time.

Does this kind of thing happen to you? How do you approach working on new things?