EDM Challenge #14: Draw what you see in the morning when you get up

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I did this painting fairly quickly, first in Dr. Martin’s washes and then added gouache and some white paint to simulate  a bleary, early morning, shallow depth of field. As is my wont, I worked quickly, nay hastily, and then scrawled a note along the bottom with a dip pen in Tiger Yellow watercolor.

For some reason, disaster struck:

The paper decided to turn my lines into spidery muck. Thinking I could repair matters, I tried a different nib and a darker ink. Matters went further down hill. Finally I pulled out my fountain pen and made a irreversibly botched job of it. I even slathered on some white-out to mitigate the damage and … ah, hell, that’s why Photoshop has a cropping tool.

Ugh.

Turn the page, on to the next challenge.

EDM Challenge #13: Draw your telephone (land line, cell, old-fashioned?)

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For some reason, our phone follows the aesthetic of the Sony Sports Walkman from the early 1990s. That’s probably around the time when innovation in landline phone design was frozen too.

I laid down a bright coat of Dr. Martins Tiger yellow, then when it dried completely, I drew the phone with my extra bold Lamy Safari. Then I used my Lamy fine point to add details and to cross hatch. Finally I used a white pencil, a white charcoal pencil and a couple of other colored pencils to add more details and dimension. This took 15 or so minutes.

Then I took a picture of the whole damned thing with my cel phone.

BTW, some people have wondered what book I am drawing in these days. Well, most of these challenges have been done in the same book, a 7″ square wire-bound number made by Stillman and Birn. It’s one of their Delta Series with cold press Extra Heavyweight Ivory paper (180 lb.) and a rough surface. I like the paper in this book but am no longer a big fan of wire-bound books so I have been waiting for an opportunity to use it. If you are okay with this sort of binding, I think their books are the best being made today. I see they make hardbound books today and I’ll definitely give them a try sometime soon.

EDM Challenge #12: Draw what you ate for dinner

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Obviously I couldn’t do this drawing before breakfast. In fact I couldn’t do it at all. My dinner turned out to be a bacchanalia with friends at a fantastic restaurant so instead I have regurgitated a dinner I made earlier. I drew this on very soft paper (Strathmore Aquarius) in a book made for me by Roz and it has a tendency to suck up guache and give it a certain dustiness that’s quite appealing.

EDM Challenge #11: Draw your glasses or sunglasses

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This challenge seemed like a good reason to look back at a film I made a few years ago:

EDM #10: Draw your hand or hands (or someone else’s if you like)

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I was initially a little hampered by the fact that I just drew my hand, or at least my forearm, in Challenge # 8 a couple of days ago and wanted to do something different. My colored pencils have been gathering dust so I brought them out for this challenge. A few years ago, I spend a month or two filling a book just with colored pencil drawings but never really loved the experience. As you can see, I tend to cross hatch rather than blend with them so I decided that I might as well be using ink which is brighter and tighter.

While I was drawing, I kept thinking about a book I loved as a teenager and, once the Shrek version was done, I hauled it out: Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy. Hogarth, who was an art teacher (he helped found the School of Visual Arts)  but also worked on Tarzan comics, had an extraordinary style and his knowledge of anatomy is infectious. It’s worth spending time at his website.

My visit to Dynamic Anatomy inspired me to copy one of Hogarth’s drawings and think about everything that goes on beyond the surface. Look at that cobra-like thumb!

EDM #9: Draw a bit of “organized chaos” – your messy desk, your table stacked with books, etc.

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I have spent the last six months or so working on retooling various parts of my apartment, most notably my study. I have spent a lot of time sorting art supplies into little boxes and baskets and things.  It’s very exciting to my anal self to have a neatly pigeonholed studio, with clean surfaces where I can leave half-finished projects an dt have to clean everything u each time I finish for the day. I still have to do some work on the lighting and continue to clear out some clutter, but it’s all very satisfying and a long-term goal and fantasy.

Anyway, this morning, I managed to knock out a drawing with the Safari, and then cracked open my neat wooden box of Doc Martin’s and got busy painting. The whole thing took about 20 minutes or so and I got to work a half hour early. It’s  great feeling to have made something, day after day, before breakfast.

EDM Challenge #8: Draw your watch or other piece of jewelry

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Walking dogs, ironing, rousing Jack, an early meeting — I had a rushed morning and no time to relax and draw. At lunch, I pulled out a box of Crayolas and a ball point and drew my watch and arm in a notebook.

I used a light touch with the ball point and I could get a lot of variety in its line. Then I laid down a solid skin tone with one crayon. Next I layered a half-dozen different colors on top to create dimension and all the variations of skin. Finally I drew the arm hairs on top of the color, skimming the surface so the wax didn’t gum up the pen.

I have been using the same technique of ink pen and watercolor for a long time and I must say it’s a welcome change to try out different media.

EDM Challenge #7: Draw a bottle, jar or tin from the kitchen

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Today’s  EDM Challenge was a collaborative event. I was sitting around with Jack, my niece Morgan (who just got her Master’s degree in disability studies from Ohio State last month), and her friend Julie who was visiting from Philadelphia. I insisted that they join me in drawing a bottle of bourbon from my brother-in-law’s liquor cabinet. While I brandished my Lamy Safari, the young ‘uns selected from a jam jar full of Sharpies.

The girls grumbled a fair amount about their results but I think they’re terrific. It’s so interesting to see how different eye and fingers record the world around us.  When we were done, we drained the bottle — which made things look even more different.

EDM#7 by Jack
EDM#7 by Morgan
EDM#7 by Julie

EDM Challenge #6: Draw your favorite well-loved object … or a childhood toy

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Today I took my old Ted down from the shelf in my bedroom where he watches over my sleep and asked him to model. He slumped in agreement.

On my last visit to the art supply store, I impulsively bought a chunky rod of graphite and it has been lying patiently on my desk waiting to be called. I havent drawn with a pencil in ages but it seemed a good choice to capture Ted’s fur. It’s soft and smooth to draw with and the lines vary as I push down, seeking sharper edges sometimes, or just gliding with the broader facets of grey. My hands got rather grimy as I drew and I pulled out a pencil with an eraser tip to try to clean things up. The eraser couldn’t really eradicate the smudges but the pencil let me emphasize some finer details than the nub-nosed, crayon of graphite.

My brain flipped back and forth while I studied the tones before me. Should I blend the graphite to make shadows or should I crosshatch like I do with a pen? As you can see, I never made up my mind but went back and forth.

I do hope the drawing doesn’t blur away when I close the book. Maybe I’ll add a coat of fixative and a sheet of tracing paper to protect it.

EDM Challenge #5: Draw your bed

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Sleeping dogs are a great subject and mine spend a lot of time posing. These two lumps sleep with me every night, almost aways in the same configurations, Joe curled up a foot or so away  and Tim nestled right up against me, clamping down the cover so I can’t move with out flipping him across the bed.

I drew this minutes after I woke up, my trusty sketchbook and finepoint Safari by my bedside. Something about the scene made me  want to capture the feel of my favorite old book  illustrations and engravings. I like the way the lines curve around Tim’s back. It’s easy to get completely micro-involved with cross hatching the folds of a sheet but I managed to keep that impulse under control. First thing in the morning, my eyes are still bleary so I draw almost by feel.  It helps to keep things loose.