Artist's Date 1-20-07

I'm working through the exercises in the Walking in This World book by Julia Cameron. I've joined a group of people who are also working on the exercises, the idea being we are accountable to each other as extra motivation.

One of our regular weekly assignments is to take ourselves on "Artist's Dates." It's a bit of time you set aside to do your art—whatever that art is. I walked up to the mall on Saturday with a sketchbook in my bag and a digital camera in my pocket. I'll post the pictures later, but I've already scanned in the sketchbook page. Here 'tis in all it's glory:



The shops were the first things to go down on the page, and I removed my brain from the equation. I didn't spend a lot of time considering and studying. I just put the pencil on the paper and started moving it. This really helped get me through the doubt stage. It shut off the voice that was saying, "this isn't going to be good." The point was not to create a priceless work of art, the point was to "sketch" something.

The mannequins in the lower right corner came next. At this point, I started allowing myself to study the details. The mannequin at the top came next, and the last sketch of the day wasn't half bad (actually, I like it):



I would have stayed longer at the mall, but I had to get home to clean up and go to the Bull's game. They lost...sigh. But the Bears won! Yay! GO BEARS!!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!