Exploring Creativity
Painted an object on top of a scrap sheet of large paper which left a ghost image that begged to be used.
So I grabbed the Sharpies and drew loose outlines in various colors. That looked okay.
Watercolors were next. Better.
Thought it was finished, then splatter came to mind. A little dot of white gouache on the eyeballs and it’s done. Saved from the waste bin.
Not sure what will become of this repurposed scrap, but for now I count it as my daily dose of creative practice.
Onward.
May your day be filled with happy moments!
“Bird is the word” is today’s final 28 Feathered Friends art challenge prompt. Which leaves 72 days of The 100 Day Project and I’m uncertain what I’m going to do for the remainder of the time.
But, I’ve learned the answers to “What am I going to draw or create today?” appear as long as I don’t force it. The answers come where they will, not where I *will* it.
Some other things I experienced during this art challenge:
Showing up every day whether I felt like it or not, helped build my confidence. And sharing my work, whether I liked it or not, gave me accountability.
Some surprising things like The Secret Life of Birds showed up on the page. Some realistic drawings came out. Some not so good.
I listened to an interview on the Art Juice podcast with Gabriel Lipper and he talked about the Rule of 7s. If you do seven sketches, at least one of them is going to teach you something. And probably true with paintings too. We can’t land them all. There’s always a standout. One of the seven will certainly be better than the other six.
I like this concept very much and agree wholeheartedly.
Having a daily prompt gave me the constraint I needed to focus and create. Parameters are conducive to creating.
Conversely, comparing my art to others is detrimental to my creativity. I love the quote by Jon Acuff, “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”
And last, creativity lies not in the done, but in the doing.
Let’s keep making art and see what happens.
Onward!
It wasn’t long after a Robin made her nest on our back porch before her babies appeared. Downy covered and gangly with big beaks and unwieldy smiles. The most beautiful babies ever. Just look at that face.
This is my favorite photo of Mama Bird taking care of her fledgling, so I used it as reference for this sketch and today’s prompt in the 28 Feathered Friends art challenge.
Keep a look out this Spring for nest construction near you.
A few years ago a Robin made our back porch her temporary home. I used one of the photos I shot as a reference for today’s prompt, “Nesting Bird.”
I sketched it with a Derwent water soluble pencil (light wash) instead of a regular, have-to-use-an-eraser-to-get-rid-of-the-lines kind.
After inking, I brushed water on the leftover pencil marks and they provided just the shading and softness I wanted.
I struggled with whether to add color; the reddish brown on the breast. I made a photocopy and applied color to it, and my eye was still drawn to the black, white, and grey version.
I also tried playing with it in Procreate, but my skills with the app aren’t up to speed. Yet.
Sometimes it’s hard to know when a drawing is finished. There are so many videos I’ve watched of an artist drawing or painting a subject and just when I think it looks perfect, they’ll add a touch or two and like magic, it’s even better.
For now, I’m leaving this one as is. I’m happy with it.
What’s next?