Sketching Daily
There are periodic projects re: daily sketching on the websites/blogs that I follow. As a new Everyday Matters (EDM) online art group member, (Jan 2006) I committed to drawing/painting daily as a method to improve my skills and continue to learn. While it was a wonderful decision, and I now have a big body of work and many wonderful memories captured in sketches in a big row of sketchbooks on my shelf, sometimes it is hard to decide what to draw on otherwise uneventful days.
I sketched so many things in my apartment, that I sometimes wander around trying to get inspired. This week, a blog post of a fellow EDM member, was all about this lack of inspiration as she commits to 365 days of drawing.
My Current Solution for this Lack of Inspiration:
Readers of this blog may remember that I was obsessed with the Museum of Modern Art Print Studio from late January through early March this year, and created small pamphlet bound collage books each time that I was there. You can see those blogposts here and here. On the last afternoon I was there, I sorted through my leftover copies from the Reanimation Library and collected all of the unused figure drawings. I made a book I called "Draw Me" and then used it at home for figure drawing practice.
Then I selected unused artists' drawings of people and glued them on pages in a another "Draw Me" book that I will eventually bind with a pamphlet stitch. I keep this booklet near my drawing space and now I have some wonderful drawings/paintings that I can try to recreate to improve my own art skills. Unfortunately, I have no information about the original artists - most of these were book illustrations without attribution.
Book Cover: Collage
Drawings: Original and my drawing (with type of pencil listed underneath)
Comments
Would love to receive a copy of the quote you sent today from 1450? I inadvertently deleted the email.
Thanks.
Posted by: Dali Lobo | April 18, 2012 7:48 PM
Lovely post, Shirley.
Posted by: Jennifer Lawson | April 19, 2012 12:55 AM
GREAT practice, Shirley...and good idea, too!
Posted by: Cathy Johnson (Kate) | April 19, 2012 8:54 AM
Your post couldn't have come at a better time for me. I've been in such a drawing funk for awhile now, and I love the idea of a "draw me" book. If you don't mind, I'm going to copy your idea ..... as soon as I finish working with the garden man we've hired to help us out with our gardens! Thank you so much for the wonderful idea! nancy
Posted by: nancy t. | April 19, 2012 8:09 PM
Awesome! I am not sure how to solve my lack of "activity" on my blog problem. I thought that switching to 8-hour working days 5 days a week would be a good thing for blogging, but apparently not because you're constantly rushing to get everything done in such short time and ended up being so tired as soon as you get home. It takes time to re-adjust for sure.
Posted by: Alex Tan | April 20, 2012 6:08 AM
Wow, you picked some hard ones to try to recreate! You did really well though. That is a great idea for those "what should I draw" days. I love the elephants. Eightyeight degrees must have felt really hot. We were 97 degrees today but I am in the desert with a dry heat. Bet you are feeling cooled off today though!
Posted by: Timaree | April 22, 2012 10:52 PM