Everyday matters.

It must have been at about six years ago when I heard about Danny Gregory's book Everyday matters, on a blog by a Dutch woman who kept her own visual journal much in the same style. I remember reading about it, thinking it was pretty cool, but not for me. I can't draw, you see.

And then I started making ATCs and keeping Art Journals and taking drawing lessons and learning about watercolours and then all of a sudden, that book popped up again and I decided to order a copy.

It is not a 'How to' book. It is not a book you just sit and read. It is a book you read, absorb, get inspired by. Because as much as the fact that every day matters, everyday things matter, too.

And after reading the book from cover to cover, and looking at all those amazing drawings, I grabbed my sketchbook and started drawing myself. And then I got my Moleskine out and draw those drawings again, in that same fineliner pen that bleeds a bit but gives a nice effect when mixed with watercolours.





And then I added some journaling:


What book has inspired you to art?

New faces

So last night I stumbed across this Youtube video:


It's a different way to draw faces. I start with a shape and then eyes, and work my way down to the mouth. So I decided to give it a try:


I like! When I draw the mouth, I have no idea yet if the face will be a man or a woman, a child or an older person. I just let my pen decide, not so much me, if that makes sense. (Might be the allergy pills at work, who knows?)

And they become their own little characters.
The spoilt child:

The librarian:

The 70's schoolteacher:

The man who, in a previous life, was quite the big man in town:

The shy 30-something:


Think I'll keep this up for a while and see how it will develop for me.

Sketchbook video

Three updates in a day? Well, it's almost 11 pm here in the UK, so almost tomorrow..

Just thought I'd show you the sketches I've been doing lately. It's all Leslie's fault, she got me started on this!



Please note that this video is labelled 'PG 13' due to 2 nudes.. Not that I think anyone I know would mind, but hey, you never know who might get offended. Which truth be told I'd take as a compliment because that means that my scribbles actually resemble a nude lady. ;)

This is what I'll be doing today

Peanut shapes. Yeah. I know. Sounds ridiculous. But I've been looking at Youtube videos on drawing, and these seem fun. Of course I'll do them on paper, not on screen.



Matthew Archambault is an adjunct instructor at the School Of Visual Arts in New York and has his students do these peanut shapes in their first week at school. He considers it a great warm up as well as a shape that will help you draw figures later on. In this student's sketchbook video there are two or three pages filled with these shapes at about 6:14 into the video.

I'll be sure to let you know how I get on.

It's too hot to paint....

so I just draw!

First lines:


and then comes the fun bit; adding shades and shadows.


But ohhmyyy hands are difficult!



So let's try that again!


Here I thought I was finished:


but even though in the picture I used you could not see two fingers on each hand, it looked 'wrong' in the drawing. So I added them:



When this sketchbook is finished I'll be sure to do a flip through video, so you can see the bad and the ugly too.

Still sketching

Between working in my Art Journal and working on a Top Sekrit Project I can't tell you anything about just yet I have not giving up on my sketching.

This is what I did last night;

I am pleased with the result, although it looks a bit wonky but then the picture I used was wonky too.
I especially like how the nose turned out, am getting better at doing them.


Still need tons more pencil work before moving on to paint, but it's going really well so far.

More sketches

Tye got me a set of sketching pencils and of course I had to try them out.
Here is my first outline:


And then I took a longggg time just trying to get the shades right. It still looks nothing like the picture reference I used, but atleast it looks more like a real person than the first sketches I've done did.

I sketch

For years and years, I've been envious of people who can draw. My art teachers to say the least were never excited about my work, and I gave up on art altogether for a long time until I stumbled upon art journaling and mixed media. But in my mind you had to have an exceptional talent to learn how to draw.

The other week, Leslie of Comfortable Shoes, posted this blog post about how learning how to sketch/draw takes practice and you need to stick with it in order to get better at it. You need to do the work, put in the hours, and develop a skill.

Boring, I know, because if you're like me you want to have the skill NOW, not develop it slowly over time. You want to be able to play the guitar NOW, not take lessons and start with just hitting the same boring notes over and over...

Annnyyywayyy....

I started to do some light sketching from memory, on a piece of paper I quickly grabbed one evening as I was watching TV, and the result was not half bad. Not as horrible as I remembered my sketching skills to be from when I was in secondary school. Maybe there was hope after all. ;)


I talked to Leslie about wanting to draw more, and she advised me to not use loose sheets of paper to work on, but bind them together so you can keep track of your progress. But at the same time you should not care too much about it, you're still learning...

Soooo... I took the front and back cover of a catalogue, glued them together so it was a little bit more sturdy, and some paper from my printer and binded it together with my trusty dental floss. So here you go, my very own, cheap as chips, sketchbook:


My Love and me went to the park yesterday, and of course I took my sketchbook and some magazines. Here is the first result, in simple mechanical pencil. Let's just say the sketch is 'inspired by' the photo rather than a picture-perfect copy...


But on its own it's not half bad...


I promise I'll keep working on it, filling out this sketchbook as I go along. I've got tons of magazines and if I can't find any more faces in the pile I've got there's always Flickr...