Stippled

My aunt, in the form of DCPeg paid me a marvelous compliment today. She called me an inspiration. I guess we're caught in a little love loop, then, because she's an inspiration to me too. Give her blog a read, and you'll see the reasons why.

Today, she mentioned that she defaults into a comfort zone of drawing. It's the mindless drawing that we do—no over planning goes into it, and there aren't any first sketches that get refined and then penned. It's the stuff that comes out whenever we mindlessly put pen or pencil to paper. This is stippling for me. I could stipple for hours, which is a good thing since it takes hours to create something recognizable using the method.

A pencil sketch is a good place to return to if you want something after the first step, stippling is a good place to return if you want to leave your brain in neutral.

Commuters

Broke the pattern and did a little pencil sketching in the Moleskine. I like the boxes with ink and watercolor, but they take a few steps. To my shame and despair, I've fallen behind. I'll be back on the horse, but I might give myself a few more pages of pencil sketches first. Maybe I'll even do the front of someone's head, or at least their profile. Don't get too excited, I said maybe. :-D

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EDM 26 & 162

I really wanted to draw the new rug I ordered for my dining room, so I had to scour the list of EDMs to come up with a "draw anything you want", because you know, I need permission to draw things. Wait, that's not right. I'll have to think about that some more, and get back to you. It's all the fault of the paint that the rug looks so orange. Really, it is.



The not-so-breakfast-of-champions.

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Illo Friday "Garden" & EDM 161

The quote: "I have a rock garden. Last week three of them died." —Richard Diran

Don't know about you, but "rock garden" screams desert to me.





Had to fire up the super duper closer upper micro examiner thingamabob to do stupidity's portrait. It's not easy, I'm tellin' ya.

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Charcoal Sketches on the Train

This evening I was planning on going to figure drawing, but when I got to the gallery there was a note saying it had been canceled. Luckily, I'd taken a little time on the train home to warm up a bit because those warm-ups turned out to be the sum total of all the figure drawing for the evening. Cookies crumble, you know.

The gentleman above was partially hidden from me by the railing. I was on the upper deck looking down on him. He was also very squirmy, and I'll claim that as the reason I surrendered finishing the drawing.



I just loved her hat. I could never pull it off myself. You have to know your limits when it comes to hats. Certain hats require a certain attitude, and any attitude I might work up would undoubtedly fail me midway through the day, and the hat would sit there like a stolen object. Wouldn't be able to take it off for the hat head, so I'd just have to wear the evidence of my once assertive, playful, dare I say "jaunty" attitude.



Ah yes, the shoe/foot drawing: Along with the hand self-portrait, it is a marvelous fall-back position when everyone around you knows you're sketching and they are giving you the hairy eyeball in order to discourage becoming your model. You can only do so many partially obstructed portraits of squirmy people before you must settle on a subject that you can cast your eye upon without accusation. Unfortunately, a fellow passenger needed to get off the train, and he needed to get past me in order to do so. As a result, the pant leg was all ahoo, and nothing I could do would make it drape the same as it had been. Perhaps along with no two same snowflakes, there are no two same cloth drapes, perhaps not.



This hand had one of those marvelously ropy veins running across it, but you can't tell from the sketch can you? Of course not, and I *ahem* meant for that to be the case. Yeah, that's it. Despite my failure to depict the vein, I was rather pleased with the sleeve. Lemons, lemonade you know.

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Current Events and Everyday Matters

This trophy was awarded to me for showing up to a particular annual event five years in a row. It won't ever have its own shelf, but it tickles me every time I see it.

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Illustration Friday: Leap