Breaking in the sketchbook

New sketchbooks are intimidating strangers. Their covers are smooth and pages blank, daring you to make that very first mark. Unlike those sketchbooks that are faithful companions for months, new sketchbooks don't hold any of your experiences, successes or frustrations. New sketchbooks are waiting to have their character decided by you. Intimidating. 

Or maybe I just think too much.

Either way, I finished my old sketchbook and bought a new one. As usual it's taken me a while to get going in it. For whatever reason the first few pages of my new sketchbooks get me into a rather frustrating "sketchbook block." Hopefully that ends soon.

These are a the first few pages of my new sketchbook and a few of the last pages from my old one, listed newest-oldest.

Drawing a cow really isn't that hard.

On Saturday I got to hang out with my little cousin Lexi.  Every time she visits Lexi wants to break out the paper and colored pencils so we can draw and color together, which I personally think is fantastic.

First Lexi taught me how to draw a cow. Can you tell which one is hers and which one is mine? Apparently drawing a cow is one of the easiest things ever to draw (or so I was told). Thanks to Lexi I am now a qualified cow-drawing teacher, so if anyone needs lessons just let me know.

After drawing a couple of cows, we moved on to paints. Lexi wanted to make a birthday present for her mom and I needed to work on an illustration for the Folio Society, so it worked out quite well. We set up my "special paints" (acrylics), found some "hard paper" (illustration board), grabbed my palettes (styrofoam plates) and spent the next hour making pretty pictures together. Lexi really got into her painting and discovered that she loves mixing colors (a girl after my own heart). It was so fun to watch her concentrate on mixing and painting.

Her painting turned out really well, don't you think? Needless to say, her mom loved the painting. I loved spending time with her and wish she could be my studio buddy. Too bad she has to go to school every day.

All You Need is Love, and Art

Today was one of those days that made me love being an artist. I was painting a piece for my senior show when I suddenly got this crazy-excited feeling inside about art; about experimenting, and developing, and peddling my art skills to publishers, and new inks, and the smell of watercolors, and the blinding hue of cadmium orange, and the feeling of my quill pen on illustration board, and the sound of my palette knife against my board, and the way paint covers my hands and cements itself underneath my fingernails (which is why I painted my nails today...), and the progress I see in my work, and the possibilities I see for it to progress even more. Basically, I absolutely love being an artist.

Here are a few recent pieces. Most are from my head painting class (wait, they all are...). I'd put up some work for my BFA show, but I want that to be a surprise come December.

My friend Brandon, who entertained me for 2 hours while I drew him.

Usually I don't draw people smiling, so I gave it a try.

In-class drawing

You know a true friend when they model for you at least 5 times; Amy has surpassed that number by at least 50. What a pal. One day I'll make it up to her in Sour Patch Kids.

Life as of Late

This semester is full of drawing and painting bliss. I've loved it so far, even though I'm still trying to figure out the whole balance thing. Between class, homework, BFA/senior projectness and work, there doesn't seem to be much time left for other things I enjoy, like sleeping, eating, socializing and running. Such is life. I'm taking a yoga class though, maybe it will help me achieve some sort of balance in my life while centering my chi twice a week.

p.s. I love drawing in ball-point pen.

Sketchbook Stuff:

Not Sketchbook Stuff:

I was recently commissioned to do a piece of the Christ child and Mary. They wanted it to look along the same lines as some of Da Vinci's "unfinished" drawings. It was a fun experiment involving graphite, gouache, ink and my cousin and her baby as models. Good times.

Sketchy

I splurged on some new pens the other day and it was pretty much the best decision of my life...or at least the best decision of the week. Here are a few pages from my sketchbook.

Figures

I was looking through some of my figure drawings and found a few to share. They're fairly recent, meaning the oldest date back to this past summer.

20 minute pose

3 hour pose

Head study