This sketchbook spread contains a satellite view of a river, a referenced picture from a day we had both fall colors AND a thick blanket of snow, tractor, a monster scene where I was practicing foreground framing, and some other doodles. This is the only page so far with actual words!
Sketchbook entries: My dog who we thought was lost forever when he slipped through our gate at night. He is black and blind and deaf and there’s coyotes everywhere. Luckily a sharp eyed teenager saw him crossing a busy street and called us! Some other sketches are from a day at the pumpkin patch, and some mushrooms I found in my yard.
New sketchbook page with digital color! While I love the look of black and white drawings, they don’t feel complete without color. The challenge for me is leaving it at “sketch” and not get into fully rendered illustration. Resisting the temptation to add shadows and highlights!
On these pages, I practiced foreground character with dialog, a nature study of what I learned is called Rubber Rabbitbrush (which is practically the entire landscape in Nevada, but I always just called it “sagebrush.”) There’s a cyclops for no reason, a landscape study from a day I spent in the park with my daughter, a waterfall scene to practice environments, a coopers hawk after I saw one in my yard (it might have been a prairie falcon, I’m learning more about native birds), an action scene with a humanoid. Often I’m drawing human-like things as stand-ins for characters I don’t want to invent just now, it’s just a composition exercise. Then I drew a car because I reeeeally need to practice drawing cars and other machines. I still refuse to do proper perspective because it’s difficult in a sketchbook and because I’m making these for fun, and rulers aren’t fun!
Page 3 of my painting sketchbook. Working on personal mythology with my own characters, world, metaphors.
I’d say this is done in my “natural” drawing style. If I just draw without thinking much about it, let myself go into a flow state, this is what it looks like. Unfortunately, I don’t like the way I draw very much! My mind says “Keep it simple. Be deliberative and intentional with your lines. Slow down and think about what you’re doing.” My hand says “Wha? I just made 10,000 lines while you were blabbing.” I like how I’ve returned to the way I made art in college though, which is when I enjoyed it the most.
This painting went way off course from what I had in mind. I was going for wild, vibrant, and wavey with simple shapes and abstract/layered concepts. So, in that sense, this one was like trying to make a hot dog and getting a turd in a hamburger bun. There’s work to be done!
My other goals were to lean on my feelings, leave out intellectual concepts, experiment with new techniques, tools, and mediums, and to tell a story. Those objectives were successful.
