Don't Mind the Arrow

Almost Forgot

I nearly forgot to write my blog post today with yesterday's drawing. 

I pulled out this prompt right when Morgan was about to leave the house, and he has the only keychain. (I have a house key and a key to the car, but they're not very interesting together or separately.) So I asked him if he had any random keys laying around, and he brought me these.  (He really is the best.)

This drawing and today's (to be posted tomorrow) are the last ones in this sketchbook. I'm going to try doing the rest on flat sheets of paper and see if that gets rid of the dark areas in the scans that have been showing up on these. I'm hoping it's just from the book not laying flat - if I continue to have these problems in the next few scans, I'm going to have to figure out something else to do.

Call Me

I mean, no, don't actually call me. I kind of hate the phone. My phone is mostly a text-messaging device, and  I like it that way.  I hate calling people. I hate answering the phone. If I get past those things and connect with someone, the conversation part is fine. I just don't like the beginnings.

Of course, it was different when Morgan and Ifirst met. He didn't have a cell phone, and with me in California and him in Colorado, we spent a lot of time talking on the phone. And when I say a lot, I mean in the neighborhood of 4-6 phone calls a day. It's amazing we got anything else done at all.  But now that we're in the same household, my phone rarely rings. Works for me!

One of Those Days

Yesterday was another one of those days in terms of drawing. I actually started this drawing over because the first one was wrong in too many ways to fix.

When I originally looked at this prompt, I wasn't sure what I was going to draw. We don't exactly have a houseful of antiques.  I could draw one of the old photographs I have, but that didn't really appeal to me. So I wandered out into the living room and saw our cameras. A-ha! Here was something old, antique or vintage. I decided on the Brownie instead of the Nikon, Minolta or Pentax just because it has such a different look from those, which all look more camera-like. The Brownie definitely comes from a different era.

One good thing about doing these prompts is that often when things don't go right in a drawing, I would just abandon the subject and find something else to draw. But when the options are limited for what will fulfill the prompt, I grit my teeth and try it again. It's all part of the process of learning to  draw anything, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone where things are easy. (Not to imply that everything went right with this drawing, by any means, but at least I got it done.)

Architecturally Speaking

I like architecture. It's one of my favorite subjects to photograph, and when I draw, I often draw buildings.  I realized something recently though, which is that I don't really enjoy architectural drawing - in other words, closely observed exact drawings of architecture. I tend to work on the larger shapes and sort of fudge the details to just give the general idea. (This fits in well with my personality overall - I'm not a detail person. I want the overview, some of the specifics, and then I've heard enough.)

So for this one, I got comfy on the couch and started drawing the neighbors' house, determined not to fudge. You can see how that went - I was bored by the roof pattern and the pattern at the bottom and didn't even finish them. Ugh, it's like torture. It was a good exercise in close observation, don't get me wrong, but I'm going back to just suggesting details from here on out.

Have a Cuppa

Yesterday wasn't a very good drawing day. I drew the worst face I think I've done in my entire Daily Face project, and then I followed it up by pulling out a prompt while I was still in a terrible mood about that. I considered putting the prompt aside and drawing later when the frustration had subsided, but I was afraid I might not get around to it at all so I just sighed and dove in.

We don't have any really exciting cups or mugs, so I pulled out this one. I got it at one of those paint-your-own-pottery places, and the cup fits onto the bottom of the teapot. It's nice for those winter days when I'm sitting at my desk and want to keep warmer than just one cup of tea will do.

Tomorrow in addition to posting the next Every Day in May drawing, I'll have to post the latest of my Daily Faces. After some of  the days, the desire to just give up is really strong, but I'm going to keep at it. Overnight results don't happen overnight!

Funny Thing

This prompt gave me pause for a moment, because although I have sunglasses somewhere, I would have to go looking for them.  Glasses I have, but I'm getting to a point in my life where I prefer to wear them for drawing. That would present a problem for drawing them. Luckily, though, I recently ran across my old pair, so blurry drawing was averted. The old pair is a dark purple color - the only time I really branched out from boring shades of brown.

The last time I went to the eye doctor, he told me that I'd eventually find myself wearing my reading glasses more and more, and boy was he right. Somewhere in the last year or so I joined the ranks of people who hold menus and pieces of paper away from their faces to be able to read them. Next stop: bifocals. I guess this is one place where having a younger husband comes in handy - if I'm not wearing my glasses, I just hand things to him so he can read them for me. If his vision follows the same trajectory mine has, I'll have a good nine years of being able to use him like that!

Lend Me Your Ear

I feel very lucky that my husband is the type to pretty much not react at all when I approach him, sketchbook in hand, while he's writing a test for his class and say, "Can you be my model?" He just goes on about his business, and even apologizes when I tell him, "You can't turn your head like that!"

However, his reaction when he saw the drawing was funny. "My ear? You were just drawing my ear? When you have this handsome face to work with?!"

When I was done with him, I sat down on the floor next to Penny, who was sleeping in her dog bed, and drew her ear, too. She reacted a bit like she has lately when I bring the camera out - going very still and hoping I'll be done soon.

Spring Has Sprung

Really, it felt like summer had sprung first around here. We had some really hot weather, including it getting over 80 degrees just a couple of days ago. Now it seems more like spring, with cool weather (low 60s) and a thunder and hail storm last night, with more on the way. On the negative side, the storm last night prevented me from going out and taking any photos of the super moon, but it seemed like a fair trade to me.

When I pulled yesterday's prompt out, I almost threw it back into the box (yes, I admit it, I do that sometimes). But then I figured that I might as well do it now since it actually is spring here. I went outside and cut an iris from the front of our apartment, and put it in water on my desk to draw.

I like seeing the various flowers taking their turns at blooming in the spring. First it's tulips everywhere, then irises, then poppies ... and I don't know what comes after that because we're just now getting to the poppies. (And also because I don't know the names of a lot of flowers.)

And now that I look at the prompt, I see that there was a typo in it (not mine, I just pasted it from the main list). Oh well. This was a pretty quick little drawing and I was quite happy with it. I'm determined to get faster and more confident, and daily drawing is certainly one way to get closer to that goal. It's just a matter of sticking to it until you start to see progress, because then that becomes its own reward. 

Just Like in Art Class

Some of the prompts from Everyday Matters really remind me of the type of things they have you draw in an art class. For May 4, I pulled out challenge #7.

I ended up choosing this jar. The reason I say it reminds me of art class is because drawing something clear is always a popular assignment. I realize I could have drawn something solid, with the option of a tin in there, but there just wasn't anything else that really appealed to me.

I feel like I did all right with it. It's not perfect, but like I said before, I've decided not to give myself the luxury of an eraser for these challenges, so sometimes you just have to go with what you've laid down even if you'd like to move things a bit. I'm hoping it'll help me loosen up a bit and not be so careful with my drawings. I tend to take sort of forever over them because I'm moving and changing things little by little, always making small adjustments. I'm happy with the results when I work like that, but I'd like to be able to finish drawings more quickly - if not always, at least sometimes. 

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is

It's funny sometimes how the free association part of my brain works. I was thinking about what to title today's Everyday Matters post, and that popped into my head. I had to Google to find out who the song is by, though (Chicago). And luckily, I don't know it well enough for it to get stuck in my head on repeat.

Anyway, this is yesterday's drawing. I haven't been really happy with the scans recently -they seem to get some dark areas in the middle, I guess because the book doesn't lay flat in the scanner. I do smash it down with some heavy stuff, but it still seems to happen. So for today's scan I played around with the brightness and levels and the dark areas are improved, but the pencil work looks a little less fluid as a result. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

I don't own much jewelry, and I haven't worn a watch in about 5 years. I love watches, but when the battery runs down, they tend to get put away "until I get a new one," which is ... well, at least 5 years later, apparently. Getting this watch out made me miss wearing one, though. Maybe I'll finally get around to that battery.