Exercises in Artistry--part 2 of 5

Experimenting with a pencil to create feathers

Continuing with the Sketchbook Revival lessons, I decided to participate in each session. I also decided to document my results. . .no matter how the results looked or felt to me.

Initially, I didn't realize that there were two different leaders on each day. So I went back to the original announcement and completed those lessons too. The second lesson on Day 1 was "Sidewalk Cracks: A Creativity Starter" with Carla Sonheim.

First, we free hand drew a bird shape with a fat marker. I learned how to shade and create feathers using a pencil and an eraser. She also shared how to audition where to put the pupil for the eye.

Carla shared a little about troubleshooting the body...namely how to fix a beak to make it more beaklike. She created the feathers with scribbling the area with the side of a pencil. Then she smudged the drawing with her finger which softened the drawing. I like the little bit of light that the smudging gave the bird's head.

Creating an animal from a base photo

She used the eraser from a mechanical pencil and removed some of the smudged pencil. It was a cool technique. I didn't have access to one of those erasers; but, my eraser also provided a similar effect. Finally, she used a color pencil the add a little definition and more marker to create some highlights.

For the second part of the lesson, she shared a photo that she had taken of cracks in a sidewalk. She said that she printed copies of her photo on plain paper. She would cut out the border off the paper and glue the photo copy into her sketchbook. She glued the copy in different orientations depending on what shapes she might see. I followed her "dog" drawing. I did see bird shapes as well; but, I liked the dog.

Mindful inspiration exercise result

Using a marker, I outlined the shape I saw. I liked extending the dog extremities outside of the photo boundary. We added a muzzle and legs. Then we used a color pencil to shade in the hair color. We used a second color pencil to add "fur" lines. I'll never look at a sidewalk without checking to see if it is worthy of becoming a drawing! What a great method to employ on a day when inspiration doesn't strike!

The second exercise on Day 2 was "Mindful Inspirations--A Thumbnail Sketch" with Rachel Rose. I liked her approach of being in the present and using breaths to meditate or center myself before beginning. We were supposed to use our thumb and pick something that we could draw that we could see from where we were sitting.

Getting in touch with our inner child exercise

I picked the top section of a special chair. After drawing it, we were to write four or five lines of words that pertained to the object. I wrote, "I am the chair from Grandma Irene with the cane seat. She had red hair and was feisty. Memories of Jello salad on lettuce w/mayonnaise. Sisters, family, fun, I was the center." Rachel emphasized not to correct the grammar. . .just write.

Then we underlined three to four words. I chose cane seat, feisty, memories and sisters. Last, we took a few minutes to sketch objects that pertained to one or more of those words. I chose to focus on the word sisters. My grandma had two sisters. She used to watch them come home from school. It was a good story to create! It was a fun exercise. I liked Rachel's tip of sketch for one minute each day. Her thought was often you would sketch for more than one minute. I agree. . .I take the same approach with quilting.

Playing with animals exercise

Day three of the Sketchbook Revival, we got in touch with our inner child. Charlie O'Shields of Doodlewash led us through a terrific exercise. First, he told us that we were on a nature walk and to pick something to draw with a pencil. I drew a few leaves. Then he had us draw a flower which we colored anyway we wanted using three different colored crayons. He showed us how to watercolor the flower. I loved his explanations. At that time, I didn't own a watercolor set or watercolor paper. I used color pencils to create some of the shading that he demonstrated. I liked the results. I did go to the store and purchase a set of watercolor paints. I think the last time I had watercolor paints was when I was in fourth grade which was a LONG time ago!

Star Patch quilt progress

The second exercise on Day three was "Playing with Animal Characters" with Nina Rycroft. We worked from a reference photo to create a drawing of a beagle. She used circles to create the spaces
for the head, chest and hip of the dog. Once we had our initial drawing, she shared how to alternate the portion of the head, legs, tail, ears to convey movement and to tell a story.

I estimate that I spent about half an hour on each of the exercises. . .truly doable and I am so amazed at the results. I'm noticing that I'm using some of the knowledge I picked up from previous exercises and using it with the current exercise.

Doing the sketchbook exercises has been a good break from quilting. Regarding quilting, I'm stitching a few echo quilting lines, some straight lines and lots and lots of pebbles. I've completed a quarter of the star patch quilt. At the beginning of the month, I thought that I could complete this project. . . .well, I thought wrong!!! I will finish it and those pebbles and the sketchbook exercises have given me opportunity to think about future projects!