(1)hand in hands
pencil, 11 x 8 1/2 inches
(2)playground tree
pen, 6 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches
Last night, after I'd tucked the girls in bed, I got online and discovered that, yes, Rowena is at it again!
I was feeling a little lost since the 100 in 100 ended. I got a commission out of it (thanks, dirk), and I'm almost done with that painting, but I miss the permission I gave myself to indulge a daily habit. So, I did a quick hand sketch last night and I'm going to join Rowena with The Last Hundred Days of 2009. I'm still going to be drawing/painting (my writer self is so deeply buried, she'll take years to revive), but I'm gonna go easy on myself and just say 100 life studies, whatever form they take (for example, this morning's was the above 5 minute sketch of a playground while waiting for my daughter).
My goal is to continue working my eye & hand skills, while completing a work each day.
And I'm going to take a page from the Jim Armenti playbook: Jim has observed that often when adults try to start something, they have in their mind the romanticized vision of what it will look like. For example, someone starting guitar lessons will promise themselves that they'll practice an hour every day. Then, after the first couple days, when it's too hard to sustain that effort in a busy life, they skip a day, then another, promising themselves two hours of practice on the weekend.
This is what happened to me a few times during the 100 in 100, and I would make up the drawings/paintings, sometimes two in a day, sometimes as many as five.
Jim advises a simpler and more honest approach: for guitar, keep your guitar handy so you can pick it up and practice for the five minutes you're waiting for the oatmeal to cook or the ten minutes for the phone call to be returned. So I'm going to carry my sketchbook with me (I didn't have it this morning, so all I had available to sketch on was a file-o-fax page), and sketch from life every day until the end of the year. Some days, I will have an hour, or even two, in the studio, and on those days, I'll be able to paint.
Join me?
8 comments:
Wonderful to hear! I will most certainly join you.
whenever you post a link that is. Work restarts as of this very night (O blessed goddess of El Mundo Bueno!) so committing to actually doing something myself would be unwise. But I do find your project(s) inspiring or perhaps the proper term is guilt-inducing. :)
carry on.
I try to do something every day anyway. However I do have skipped days and days I sit in front of the tv sketching all day. It all works out to keeping busy and growing.
no Ina, I do not compliment you to draw you in at Eschaton. I compliment you because you truly are a very nice person, very lovely.
You really should believe that, you know.
speaking of which, how is the masterpiece coming? people here are very excited about it.
love the hands in hands sketch, btw.
Thank you, everyone, for the kind words.
Dirk--The painting is almost finished. I'm at the tweaking stage, and soon the girls will start chanting, "Stop mama, stop mama!"
Ina, you "do" art because that's what you DO, dahlin!
You don't need 'a reason.' Really...Who gotta give ya permission?
Only thing i missed was a smiling self-portrait...did i miss it?
the spanish word for "smile" is sonrisa? euphony!
Woody, there are some smiles in there. But they are little Mona Lisa smiles, not big dopey grins. Check out day 18.
Post a Comment