This was fun! Struggling a bit with things that aren’t birds, which probably means I should draw “not birds” more. Four legged critters in particular. I probably feel about them the way people feel about drawing hands, or feet.😆

A freehand scotch tape dispenser. I wanted to work on some curves, and these turned out ok, but, need to do more to improve my line quality. It’s not where I want it to be…yet! I’ll get there.

Okay this one nearly killed me. I'm going to have another go at the back ortho because I tried to do lines to describe the shapes and then I realised afterwards I probably should have done cross contours to describe the forms... But I'd already used ink and it would have been a mess. I guess it's already a mess but nevermind!

Not what I did for the previous assignment, but, I felt like I wanted something more challenging/interesting. I made a list of other items so I’ll probably try to start checking those off as well. I really like using the tools for this, but I may try some freehand ones as well. I like the “instant” precision you get with rulers, etc. but, I’ve seen some people on YouTube do amazing freehand work. The curves are freehand, but, more practice required.

Can't thank Patrick enough for sharing his knowledge in this course. I used reference from the Draw This figure drawing livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up8A2wmdFzU&t=4766s

Phew! I needed to take a step back and really thing about this! I'd already seen Draftsmen: Choosing Art Parents, but didn't really "think" about it. Even as a very young child I always loved Beatrix Potter- her art is charming and her life story- fascinating. Then, last week I was in a book store and saw an illustrated book of Watership Down- another childhood favorite (I love Richard Adams)- but I couldn't get over the quaintness of the rabbits and the volume of the work- so now Joe Sutphin is a new Art Parent- even BETTER because I could watch whole interviews and videos of him sketching and inking (using an ink pen AGAINST the nib direction! Such blasphemy- I love it! I can hear every grammar school art teacher shrieking in horror)...My high school and college memory is full of every Calvin and Hobbes cartoon drawn- it was me and my childhood stuffed animals magically inked onto paper. Only now, that I actually studied them from an artistic perspective, do I realize that all the lines are actually PAINTED!!! I tried to throw down the lines with the fluidity and exuberance that Waterson seems to do- but I only had a fat Sharpie pen- I can't yet imagine trying to use a brush (of course James and Janice Gurney are other idols so I guess I'll have to try one day). I really want to draw horses in a "classic" Western style and have always been drawn (no pun intended) to Remington's thundering horse horses and couldn't understand how he could accurately capture such motion in that era. Now, though I see he was quite racist in his depictions of minorities (even though it was the late 1800's: again Draftsmen: Separating the Art from the Artist) so I figured I'd try to post studies of more "appropriate" modern Western art parents for this course. PS: (Is there a way to make paragraph breaks in these posts?)

Well, this is the first go around at a master study. I chose Karrit Moss, who is an artist I follow on instagram. I really like the simple shapes and clean lines, which I am trying to improve in my own work. This kind of goes to the CSI part of the course, along with line weight aspects. Anyway, I included some pics of my jewellery, because I feel like I can achieve those things in metal, and the Heron drawing for comparison because that’s typically how I draw. Oh! The trees are trying to use that style, because trees are often what I use to try stuff out. Proportions are more…forgiving. 😆 link to Karrit Moss drawing an otter. This was really helpful to watch. No talking, just thirty minutes of real time drawing. https://youtu.be/P42lz4Ik5zg?si=qqhv1UyNIoos6d3v

Hmmm…apparently I don’t follow instructions that well. Anyway, these are obviously not freehand, but, I wanted to try some more complex shapes.

This is a great assignment! Learned a bunch just doing this quick little drawing.

Well, I think these are an actual improvement over my first assignment, so that’s a good thing. YAY!😆