Don't Mind the Arrow

Drawing Life

I'm not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination. I am a serial plant-killer. A while back, though, Morgan convinced me he would help me keep a succulent alive. When that worked, we went back and got a couple more. I'm happy to say they're all still doing well.  For this prompt, I figured I would immortalize one of our successes. I have no idea what the name of the plant is, but it's been growing pretty well since we brought it home; it shares a pot with one of those living stones plants (lithops).

I think this is one of my personal favorites of the drawings I've done this month. I observed it closely and drew it in detail, but unlike many objects I've drawn, I didn't get bored with drawing it. Maybe because the leaves are well-defined, and there aren't that many of them. Anyway, it was actually fun to draw and I think it's also a successful drawing. I may come back to this plant to do a real drawing sometime in the future.

A Sense of Proportion

This drawing could use one. I really, really wanted to draw the whole fork because I'd picked this particular one for its details on the handle. But drawing it very small would sort of defeat the purpose, too, making it difficult to work in the details. So I guess I sort of compromised and squished it instead.

As a result, it looks sort of like a dessert fork. Or a baby fork. Ah well, on the bright side, at least it looks like a fork!

A Little Spritz

I'd thrown back a few Everyday Matters prompts on this day because they were things I'd need to go outside to find and we were about to settle in for a night of TV watching. (It was Sunday, so the Celebrity Apprentice finale was on.) Then I happened across this one and it was perfect - we had to have a spray bottle, right?

We did, but of course not a plain, basic one. This was a bottle of Downy Wrinkle Releaser, I think. I don't care about wrinkles that much, but it's also a de-static-er, and that's very important in low-humidity Colorado. I still haven't entirely managed to wear a skirt successfully under all conditions (no matter how much of that stuff I spray on everything, skirt + tights on most days = a nightmare of continually yanking at the stupid thing), but at least it's gotten a little better.

Anyway, about the drawing - things like this are actually a great exercise in perspective because there are so many different jutting angles and shapes. It'll keep you on your toes, even if you think you know what it looks like. Which is why it's important to draw what you see, not what you think you see.

Cluttered Desk, Cluttered Mind?

I was looking at this drawing and trying to remember what the quip was about a cluttered desk. I looked it up: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then is an empty desk a sign?"

Well, I admire people who keep a neat and empty workspace, but mine only stays that way for a matter of hours when I clean it. I drew this view from the loveseat that is backed up against the table I use as a desk (the curve at the bottom is the top of the back).

Some things you might be able to make out on the table: 

• My phone, drawn in a previous prompt
• Today's prompt (the folded slip of paper near the front)
• The keys from yet another prompt
• Glue, from the school supplies prompt (I'm starting to realize I should put things away slightly more often....)
• A map, a ponytail holder, my old external hard drive, a USB cable, scissors and of course, my pencil sharpener.

Messy work areas are a lot more fun to draw than neat ones!

Soaking It In

This is a busy and exciting week for me.  I'm really considering what projects I want to continue and what they mean to me.  That's what happens when time feels limited - you have to figure out what you want to spend it on. I've been continuing to do a drawing a day for Every Day in May. With only 9 more days to go, I'm pretty sure I can finish out the month. I'd like the feeling of accomplishment for managing that. 

I'm also blogging every day this week over at my other blog as this is my week to be on Jeopardy. I've also taken on another project that I'll talk about soon, but hopefully with lower expectations for myself. (I am getting better at realizing that it's okay if you skip a day or a prompt, but you should still keep going instead of just giving up and moving on to something else.)

I didn't want to draw a boring old kitchen sponge, and I realized I had a couple of sea sponges to use in artistic pursuits, so I chose one of those. What I didn't realize is how hard it is to differentiate a sponge from a rock or a stale piece of bread. Oh well, take my word for it - it's a sponge!

Plain Brown Bag

There for a while, we had a lot of these smallish brown paper bags around - we get them from a couple of local stores we like, Fancy Tiger and Decade. But it's been a while since we've been shopping, and I cut up a lot of the bags to use as sketchbook material. At least I was able to find one that I was using to store some other stuff. I wasn't looking forward to working with one of the giant brown bags from Whole Foods.

This one is from the Tattered Cover bookstore here in town. I had a lot of  fun with the textures and shadows on the bag.

School Days

Those are so far in the past for me that it took me a minute to think of what I might have around the house that would be good to draw. Pencils and pens were pretty obvious, but after that? Luckily I remembered we had some Elmer's glue. Though thinking about it now, I guess crayons or scissors would have worked too.

I'm pretty happy with the drawing. I don't know that the angle the eraser was tipped at as it balanced on the pen and pencil really came through all that clearly, but that's okay. I was probably most pleased with the lid of the glue, which at first gave me pause. I wasn't sure how to communicate its form - but I had the same feeling looking at the teeth of the zipper the day before and it turned out pretty well in the end even if I wasn't sure what I was doing when I was doing it!

Oops

I somehow forgot to post yesterday, so I'll have to double up another day. Anyhow, here is the drawing from Tuesday.

This was actually a surprisingly fun one to draw, in spite of all the tiny little details. I mean, I stopped where I did for a reason, which is that I wasn't looking forward to drawing more threads or zipper teeth. But still, it was cool to see the results of actually working carefully on those details.

I added the prompts for items 150-200 and now I have probably 150 slips of paper to choose from every time. When Every Day in May is over, I'm going to try to keep at it - not every day, but maybe a couple of prompts a week. It's good practice, I can't deny that.

Tchotchke

This was another one of those days where I initially didn't think I had anything in the house that would fit the prompt. China? Ceramic? Not really our style.  But then I remembered that my mother has been sending me all the stuff that used to be mine which she has been keeping for some unknown reason. (Both "keeping it for some unknown reason" and "sending it to me for some unknown reason.")

So, that's why I even have a ceramic unicorn to draw.

Deal Me In

I wasn't happy with this drawing at all, but I didn't want to start it all over because I wasn't entirely sure what I could do differently to improve it.

These cards were ones picked up by Jacob when we were on our road trip to Yellowstone in 2007. We stayed for a couple of days in Salt Lake City, and we tried to see the capitol building but it was undergoing renovations. We checked out the gift shop, though, and Jacob chose  this deck of see-through cards.  They're pretty cool, but difficult to draw!

I can't really remember the last time we played any card  games around here. I have a cribbage board, but it's been so long since I've played that that I don't even really remember how to play it. Morgan and I have played rummy a couple of times, but it's probably been at least a year since we did that, either.