Pop Goes the Artist!

Yesterday I came to the startling realization that the Internet’s continued frustration of my efforts to Pimp My Blog was all to tell me to get back to art, already. So I did, sort of. I had to work all day today, but after I got back and had dinner, I broke out the new sketching toys. Also might put in a little time on “Blue Lucy” (my current painting).

None of tonight’s sketches are particularly inspired; if I am ever a famous artist whose sketchpads are turned into expensive and glossy-paged books, these will be among the sketches excluded for “lack of space.” (However, if I judged all my art and sketches like that, I would be a sad and depressed person.)

I began with the water-soluble crayons, because I had a thirst for color, and drew a mostly-full plastic cup sitting on the shelf above me. It would be a better drawing if I hadn’t added that odd green chunk. Oh well. I really like the way the crayons handle–they’re much more heavily pigmented than the Crayolas of my youth, so they can be layered and built up pretty well. I can’t wait to get some heavier paper and try them out with water and brushes.

After that, I decided to loosen up a bit with a blind contour drawing in marker, which there isn’t much to say about, considering I wasn’t even looking at the paper.

So, tonight’s sketches: they are what they are, but any sketch is better than no sketch at all.

***

And, as if I am being rewarded for sketching, I have finally figured out a tentative solution to all my formatting problems. I figured out thumbnails, I got them nicely integrated with the text, and if you click them, they should open up in their own browser window. Hurrah!

I got these shoes from Old Navy the other day and am somewhat in love with them. Plus, they make a more interesting sketch subject than, say, my bare feet or a mug or my printer. The sketch is far from perfect (I was a little confused about how the sole of the shoe worked–it was hard to tell it from the shadow on the carpet), but on the whole I’m extremely happy with this sketch–or drawing, really, since it has some degree of “finish.” I don’t use colored pencil a lot, which added another layer of challenge, on top of the shiny and the difficult angle. I do think I’ll be playing more with colored pencils, though. The ones I have with me at school are actually watercolor pencils–I almost never use them with water, but I feel like the color is more saturated in them. (Maybe just because I’ve never used quality colored pencils. I don’t know.)

Another ballpoint pen sketch, this one of the top of my fridge, which makes a convenient printer stand and catch-all. The perspectives and proportions in this are a little off all around, which is sometime I need to work on in general. The shadows are a little confused, too–blame it on the uninspiring lighting in my room. But still–any sketching, no matter how mediocre, is better than none.

I’m really making an effort to sketch more, as well as post more on this blog, so lately I’ve been combining the two, and posting my sketches here. I’m not going to make this entirely a sketch blog, but until I have more finished artwork I can post, I’d like to keep some of my own work on the front page of this blog. I did this sketch today in ballpoint pen, sitting on my bed and looking at my desk. I enjoy working smallish sometimes–this is about 5×5 inches. (You can click on the photo to make it bigger.)

***

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” (Pablo Picasso)

I’ve been reading a lot of excellent sketch blogs lately, many of them done primarily in watercolor (Laurelines is one of my favorites), and perhaps because of them, I’ve had a strong urge to sketch lately.

In watercolor.

I don’t actually have my watercolors with me at school (although I do have watercolor pencils and a single large paintbrush), but I’m almost tempted to ask my parents to bring them up to me when they visit this weekend. I’m a little confused by this sudden desire, though, because last time I checked, my relationship with watercolors was one of deep and mutual dislike. I am a control freak and I’ve always felt that watercolors are better suited to artists who can, um, go with the flow.

Besides that, I’m so out of practice with pencil sketching that my attempts at doing the same with watercolors will only lead to ugliness, frustration, and even less sketching than I already do.

Should do more sketching with a pen, though. I enjoy it and paradoxically, the inability to erase frees me up and makes me less concerned with getting it “right.”

(Pictured is a colored pencil sketch I just completed, of my bottle of olive oil. I need to work on shiny/ reflective/ see-through surfaces.)