Slowly, slowly
Monday - 03 January 2022
I had a bit of time this morning and was able to add to my giant tortoise. It’s kind of fun seeing it emerge off the paper.
Progress on the giant tortoise
Reframing a Limitation into an Opportunity
A quick sketch of my hand (Graphite, 2021)
As many of you know, I have been involved with a daily drawing project that I’ve been calling my Drawing Amsterdam Dailies. I started with the goal of 100 days. Since that has been met, I’ve been curious to see how long I can keep the streak going. So far, so good.
The project has been quite satisfying on many fronts. I get to draw beautiful Amsterdam, relive memories, make a travel journal from it and maybe a book. I am learning new skills and techniques as I work primarily with black ink on grey toned paper. I get to draw everything I’m interested in, like buildings, canals, boats, food, people, bicycles, lettering, nature, windmills, and more.
I’ve realized though that by spending time every day on detailed and intricate drawings, I don’t have much energy or time left to spend on other creative pursuits or to work on other drawings.
I had an epiphany of sorts over the last week. As I’ve begun to feel that my Amsterdam Dailies may take over my life if I let them, I can still get in sketches of other things if I lower the bar of expectation. By limiting myself to only quick sketches of 5-10 minutes, I can take advantage of inspiration as it comes, and also practice a looser style with different art supplies during these quick play sessions.
I did a drawing of my hand in class last week and I really enjoyed it. It took just a few minutes. Parts of it are off, but a lot of it works. It felt like play because I took the pressure off myself to draw “well.” I started drawing without over-thinking things and enjoyed the process. It didn’t take long and had fun. I got in some practice and a picture of my hand out of it.
I think this will be a win-win strategy for me. I get to continue on with a creative project that is long term, daily and fairly detailed, and combine it with various short (time-wise), loose, playful experiments. More creating gets to happen!
Have you been able to reframe a challenge into an opportunity?
100 Days of Drawing Daily
Day 100. Progress on drawing Westerkerk in Amsterdam.
Today is the 100th day I’ve been working on my Drawing Amsterdam Dailies! I’m very pleased with myself to have done this. To celebrate, I’ve made a video with all 100 days of progress:
There’s a lot that can be accomplished by repeatedly showing up, day by day, little by little.
I challenged myself to draw for at least 30 minutes a day using photographs I took on a trip to Amsterdam last year with the additional goal to try to use something from every photo. I’ve been mostly successful with using every picture, but some have been more challenging to figure out how to include. Those few I’ve skipped over I’m keeping in the back of my mind to perhaps use later.
I plan to keep on showing up daily with this but if I miss a day, it won’t be the end of the world. I’ve really been enjoying this and seeing the drawings and spreads develop. I’ve spent a lot of time drawing but haven’t gotten very far geographically from where I started. The last drawing at Westerkerk is about a 20 minute walk from Amsterdam’s Central Station where I started from on Day 1. I like to look at details. :-)
Have you ever worked on a series or creative project and deliberately showed up daily for it? What kind of project was it?
Music in the video is Gypsy Caravan by Vendla.
Choose to Do What Works for You
Peace Statue at Nagasaki, Japan, drawn for Inktober 2017, Day 7
As I’m writing this post, the second week of Inktober (a challenge of doing 31 days of ink drawings) has begun and is well underway. There’s an official list of daily one word prompts as well as many, many variations on themed prompts. Look for #Inktober2020 on social media to see some examples. There are some really creative drawings to be found!
I love pen and ink work so I have participated at various times over the past several years. I love the idea of Inktober but I’ve never actually completed the full 31 days. Last year some of you may remember, I made an animals list from the book Life of Pi. I think I’m on Day 22 of those. Still not done. The year before that, I was drawing from my pictures from my time living in Japan. I only got to Day 7. It’s like failing on New Year’s Resolutions or trying to change habits.
I’m disappointed that I haven’t finished these Inktobers. How hard can it be to do a daily drawing? It turns out, for me, it’s a challenge.
I decided this year that I would adjust the parameters to work with the way I work.
I draw and draw a lot, but I don’t tend to finish drawings in one day. Experience has shown me that. I tend to draw fairly slowly and add a lot of detail. Working off of Inktober prompts means needing to complete a drawing a day. That has been my stumbling block. I decided instead to draw in ink everyday for 30 minutes and make daily progress on a project rather than completing daily drawings.
I love architecture and drawing details. I was in Amsterdam in 2019. I drew some while there, but I took a lot of pictures so I could draw from them later.
So for this year’s Inktober project, I am drawing everyday in ink for 30 minutes and I’m drawing Amsterdam from my photographs. I’m very pleased to have figured out a way to make meeting the challenge work for me. (You can see my progress on FaceBook and Instagram).
Is there some way you can tweak a challenge to work with your nature rather than fight it?
Write it Down!
Recently added projects to my want to-do list
Have you ever had a great idea and thought it was so wonderful that there was no way you’d forget it? Do you have projects you know you want to do but somehow never actually get to them?
Write those ideas down and put them in a place you will look at later. I know it’s often given advice. I recently had a moment of being inordinately pleased with myself for having taken this very advice.
I have an organizational system that involves writing long-term projects and to-do’s on slips of paper and folding them up and putting them into a gelato jar. Everyday I select one or two from my jar as projects to try to spend a bit of time with that day. I don’t get to select a new one until I finish what I’ve already pulled out.
The system is great and works for me to make progress on a variety of different projects. I have over 50 things currently in process. I don’t need to remember them because I know they’re all written down and kept in one place.
I realized a month ago that I hadn’t gotten around to some of the things that I’ve wanted to do. I decided the only way I was going to get them done was to be reminded of them. I wrote the ideas down along with several others as new projects and added them to my jar.
Today I pulled out a couple of those items I added last month and was reminded how glad I am I finally wrote them down as projects. I’m so pleased to see them and be reminded about these things I wanted to do but had never found the time for.
Whatever your system is for keeping track of the things you want to do, write them down and put them in a place that you look at regularly. Our lives are often so busy and full of distractions that it’s easy to forget those great ideas when something else new and shiny appears.
How do you keep track of your ideas and thoughts? Leave your strategy in the comments.
The Process of Drawing a Picture
I’ve been making a lot of sourdough bread recently and learning a little bit each time which goes towards making the next loaf a little bit better too. One of my loaves came out of the oven last week and was so pretty that I had to draw it.
A recent loaf of sesame topped sourdough bread that I made.
I’ve been wanting to do some more pen and ink drawing work and the details in this loaf of bread were calling to me. I roughly sketched the placement of the bread on my sketchbook page and then started inking with a favorite fine tipped pen, a Platinum Carbon fountain pen.
It’s always interesting seeing paintings and drawings in process because there’s always a stage of not really being sure that the thing is going in the direction one was hoping for. Then steps are taken to work out the issues and usually it turns out well in the end. It’s a bit like life, isn’t it?
When Two Worlds Intersect
Recently I’ve been thinking that my drawing skills would benefit from a more deliberate study by working my way through a book that has caught my interest. The book I want to use is Alphonso Dunn’s Pen & Ink Drawing. I started making marks and doing line work in my sketchbook but then saw he also has a workbook, Pen & Ink Drawing Workbook. It is set up in a way that I like so I will continue my pen & ink practice work there. I have my pens. I have my book. I have my interest. Now to start.
But wait! I just learned about another book this past week which has also captivated me. It’s The Intentional Thread. A Guide to Drawing, Gesture, and Color in Stitch by Susan Brandeis. I now have a copy and it is lovely! I just want to pet it. What especially appeals to me in the book is the deliberate approach of practicing “drawing” with thread. She puts a lot of emphasis on how to translate marks on paper or textures in the outside world to make “marks” in thread on fabric. It turns out this book is very similar in approach to Pen & Ink Drawing but with needle and thread.
I am so happy to have two books that focus on different interests of mine but which work so well together. I look forward to seeing what I create and what ideas germinate and develop from my practice with these two books!
Have you come across any books recently that have made you so happy?