Everyday Matters #88

I recently joined the Everyday Matters groups on Yahoo and Flickr. I'd toyed with the project in the past, but I wasn't really sure how to tackle it. Funny how much difference it makes to me that the prompts are numbered, and they're currently on #304 or thereabouts. I don't consider myself very orderly in a lot of ways, but something about jumping in at the end or the middle bothered me. And the idea of starting at the beginning - well. Talk about an overwhelming task!

But someone in the Yahoo group said that she'd put the prompts into a jar and then reaches in to choose one at random. Finally, something that appealed to me. I printed out and cut up the first 100 prompts and put them into a box. 

Yesterday, I pulled out the first slip of paper.

"#88: Draw something breezy - something that blows in the wind - a flag, leaves, your choice."

Ugh! I was hoping for an easy one, of course. Well, not easy in the sense of subject matter, but easy in the sense of telling me exactly what to draw. No such luck, but that's the point of the whole thing, right, to get you to stretch yourself?

I thought about pictures I'd taken of prayer flags, and that seemed like a good subject. The picture that most caught my eye, though, was prayer flags with a big sunflower in the foreground. Okay, it has to be more than just breezy to blow a sunflower around, but they will blow in the wind.

There's the finished object - sunflower and prayer flags. Done with colored pencil in a Moleskine sketchbook. By the way, I'm suddenly really loving my colored pencils - but that's a topic for another post.

Comments

[Orange-platespinner.blogspot.com]

ooh, very good. I really like your technique. Makes me want to do something in colored pencils now. Look forward to more of your work. Elza

[Peachtreedart.blogspot.com]

No wonder you love cp...you use them so well...nice job!

[Nankestuff.blogspot.com]

What a great interpretation of the cue! I especially like how you handled the negative spaces! nancy

[Mary O. Martin]

Welcome to EDM! Great approach to this challenge, looking forward to seeing more from you.

[Phil Davis]

Hi Ursula, are you really a saint? I think your sunflower is great, look forward to seeing more of your work.
Phil

[Saint Ursula]

Thank you all very much!

Nancy, I often fall into the trap of trying to be too detailed and therefore get a background that's fighting for attention with the main subject, so I made the effort to ignore the fact that there was a house in the background and just make it truly negative space.

Phil, would you believe me if I said I was?

[Judy sidonie Tillinger]

beautifully done. i love how gentle the drawing is - like a soft breeze for sure.

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnp9i1h3htSpkP_j7fDlrQc-mc5fnFy_9E]

Beautiful sketch and definitely breezy! I think if I could do this with colored pencils, they might be my favorite too!

[Saint Ursula]

Thank you both .. I appreciate the comments about it meeting the "breezy" prompt. I was worried that the sunflower would seem way too heavy to communicate that concept.

[Dale McDonell]

This is so cheerful and I love the way you have drawn the sunflower and linked that and the laundry with a background that gives more impact to both. I can almost feel that light breeze.

You handle coloured pencils so confidently too. They are not a medium I've used much since I left school many years ago.

[Saint Ursula]

Thank you, Dale! This picture actually marks pretty much when I started using my colored pencils. I had done a couple of things with them years ago, but never felt like I really got the hang of them.

Now they're my favorite thing!