December 4, 2017
November drawings complete. I think I may be getting tired of my black pigment liner and grey markers – or it could just be a general lack of inspiration. December will be a busy month with Christmas-themed subject matter.
Still not feeling much like painting, so I’m posting more of my drawings from July and August.
November 6, 2017
October and 31 daily drawings complete. I followed a general theme in October – I set out to capture small spaces. In many cases, this amounted to adding a horizon line in some of the images. It changed my approach somewhat though, so I will count it as a success – even if it’s not obvious to anyone but me. I found myself consistently resorting to my favourite medium of a combination of a Copic pigment pen and the Koi Coloring Brush Pens in warm greys. I really do like the way they blend on the gessoed paper of my Moleskine books. I recently tried out another brand of the markers – the Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers. But after a bit of playing with them, I’m not enjoying how they behave. I will spend more time with them before I write them off.
October 9, 2017
Another month of daily drawing complete. I had wanted to work on a grey ground this month, thinking I’d play with adding white, but I didn’t find myself all that interested in it when I sat down each evening to draw. I also found the texture of the grey gesso different than that of the white and it wasn’t as nice to work with. It was a bit of a push to do these drawings this month. Hopefully I will find more energy for it in October. I am starting to think about what my project for 2018 might look like…
September 25, 2017
I have just not felt like painting lately. I’ve done a bit here and there, but nothing that has amounted to anything. Instead of paintings, today I’m posting some of my favourite drawings from my current sketchbook. In January I started my daily drawing project in order to improve my drawing skills. In June I realized I was not seeing the improvement I had hoped to, so I started a fresh sketchbook with the intention of drawing 30 minutes a day minimum – including the time I put into my daily drawing. It’s gone well and I feel like I’ve been a bit more experimental and playful as a result. Here’s a small sampling.
September 11, 2017
Thirty-one hand drawings complete. All done in black Copic Multiliner pens and Sakura KOI Watercolor Brush Pens in three shades of warm grey.
Some thoughts:
July 31, 2017
Another month complete – thirty-one drawings and fourteen paintings made it a busy month. I’m taking some time to draw conclusions from my painting challenge and will post them together in two weeks with those notes.
July 3, 2017
June drawings complete and all in one place:
Last summer I challenged myself to draw every day in the month of July. I’m not sure I saw a lot of improvement over the course of the month, but in the end, I was pleased with my small book of ink and watercolour images. These were my favourite drawings coming out it:
My intention with my 2017 drawing challenge was to improve my drawing skills. Yet, six months in, I haven’t seen the dramatic change I had hoped for. My ability to accurately foreshorten objects is still atrocious and creating volume is hit or miss. I decided that I need to change something in order to see the return I’m looking for – I need to put more effort in and actually work to improve rather than just show up. So I’ve upped my game and committed to drawing for a minimum of 30 minutes each day. Now, before I pick up my Moleskine to do my daily drawing, I begin in my sketchbook – playing with different media or styles or maybe doing a blind contour or other drawing exercise. So far I’m pleased with the result and a little excited about where this might lead.
In June I started out playing with different media each day and that was fun – for a while. Unfortunately, my little Moleskine books have thin pages and I gesso and sand them to eliminate show-through. This creates a fairly smooth, not-very-absorbent surface that limits which media perform well. I’m currently pretty attached to a combination of Copic Multi Liners and KOI Coloring Brush Pens. But rather than commit to a medium or particular items to draw, this month I’m just going to go with what I feel like. We’ll see how it turns out.
June 5, 2017
My poor neglected blog. Fortunately, I have done a little painting in the last month – the results are below. I’ve been playing around a bit and am looking forward to more experimentation with dark outlines.
My drawing a day project is going reasonably well – another 31 days completed.
For June, I’ve decided on two rules:
susanne semchuk 