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?

A Collection of Animal Figurines

I made another video today as I added a couple more animal drawings to my collection in my sketchbook. I have a lot of very detailed and fairly realistic animal figurines that I like to pull out every now and then to practice drawing. They move much less than their real counterparts!

Keeping a regular creative habit is something I’ve been doing for the past several years, if not longer. I’m always working on something. I recently started making videos of my drawing process because of prompting from classmates in The Creative’s Workshop. There we are encouraged to post something daily and in a rough form is fine. That has helped me to get over the hurdle of making videos. I used to think they needed to be “perfect” before I would be ready to post or publish them. But with the class, I have been getting better little by little by setting my goals a little bit higher each time as I learn how to do something. Because of that practice I now even have some video lessons ready for live online workshops.

The video is up on YouTube here. You can find my other videos on my YouTube channel under my name.

Do you have any collections you like to draw?

Flip-Through Video of My Portugal Travel Journal and Some Time-Lapsed Drawing

I continue to work on my art daily and have also continued making videos of my drawing process making progress on various projects.

The video I made here is a combination of a flip-through of my Portugal Travel Journal to show where it is currently at.

In the video I also work on one drawing from a hillside in Porto that was opposite the Alfândega where the International Urban Sketchers Symposium was held in 2018.

Conveniently across the street from this collection of houses with all their windows and doors (and laundry!), there was a short wall that was great for sitting. During the Symposium, there were dozens of people sitting along this wall looking at the view in my photograph. It was so much fun walking down and stopping to look at artists’ sketchbook after sketchbook with so many different styles and approaches.

All of my videos are available for viewing on my YouTube channel. Click here or go to YouTube and search on my name.

Do you have lots of pictures from trips sitting in your phone and not being looked at? Have you ever wanted to make a travel journal with some of your photos? I love travel journals and I love teaching my workshop, Create a Travel Journal in Ink and Watercolor. The next one will be done live online via Zoom starting Tuesday, April 14th, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Pacific Time. Check out my workshops page for more information and to register.

Pencil drawing of a Moluccan Cockatoo and Video

Continuing with my series of drawing videos for my practice and your entertainment, this is from day 40/100 of showing up and shipping something as encouraged by The Creative's Workshop that I've been taking.

I did a pencil drawing here of a Moluccan cockatoo from my self-created animals from "Life of Pi" list (photo courtesy of wikipedia, book by Yann Martel). In the video you may notice that my pencil lines are lighter and sketchier at the beginning as I get started than later after the shape of the bird has emerged. That's totally normal as you get more comfortable with what you're drawing.

Also, this sketchbook is small and square. For this animal series, I've often needed to add additional paper to get all of the animal in. I knew I was going to need some for this bird so I started off with an extra piece already prepared. 😁

The music in the video is the Happy Farmer. The video link to YouTube is: Moluccan Cockatoo in Pencil

Are you working on any animal drawings now? What kind?

More Inking on My Glass, Mirrors and Reflections Piece

I have been taking a Seth Godin course called The Creative’s Workshop and in it participants are encouraged to show up and ship something everyday for 100 days. Not being too sure of what I would do with that, I decided I would at least work on a drawing or sketch daily. If I did more with making something, great. If not, I worked on a drawing.

Some members in class mentioned wanting to see a short video of my drawing or painting process so I decided to learn how to make videos. They started very simple and now I have the basics down. I have a YouTube channel where I’ve put all my drawing and sketchbook videos made so far.

Today for my Day 32/100 effort, I worked some more on my glass, mirrors and reflections piece from a photo I took at Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. Here is the video link for today’s progress.

I have now all the inking done around the central container. The area I was working in the lower right of the paper didn’t have any pencil guide lines to refer to so I was inking and winging it! The shapes are fairly abstract so accuracy isn’t necessarily so important here.

The video takes about 22 minutes of drawing and puts it into a little under 3 minutes. The music in the background is Haydn No. 3 Op 76 I Allegro.

Do you like these kinds of videos that show some progress on projects? What can you work on for 20-25 minutes to move along?

Inking progress on my Glass, Mirrors and Reflections piece.

A Video of Work on my Glass, Mirrors and Reflections from the MFA Drawing

I am still participating in The Creative’s Workshop. Today was Day 17/100 to show up and do something. A couple of my friends from the course asked if I could make a video of me drawing since they were not artists and don’t know the process.

I filmed a portion of my glass, mirrors and reflections drawing from the MFA three times. Two of them had technically difficulties. My camera seems too heavy for the arm of the stand and the screw to tighten the arm is very stiff. Two of my videos had slow motion movement of the camera moving its focus from the drawing to just the photo I’m working from. Not so informative!!

I hope you find it interesting as a small glimpse into the process of drawing a complicated picture using a photo as a reference.

Glass, Mirrors and Reflections from the MFA

A Leonardo Drapery Exercise

This is a graphite drawing I did trying to copy Leonardo da Vinci's example. I also kept track of my time spent on this. I don't usually but I was curious how long this one would be. I did it in 15-20 minute sessions and it took 335 minutes, or a little more than 5 1/2 hours.