I am busy with a deadline, and am not even online much for a few days.
I found this from a friend, and it is inspiring and thoughtful. Enjoy!
Brenda Swenson has a drawing challenge to draw every day for 75 days.
We are supposed to use a black or blue pen, but I know I will not do that one.
Still, I play along because challenges are fun when done with others, and it keeps me doing at least one dang drawing a day even when I am slammed at work.
This week (and next) I am so busy with business. Deadlines of my own and new client:
a rushed “disaster” + need for a conservator. Not complaining, work=$$=art supplies.
I remember a time when it was high heels but that is another story.
All are done in an OE Cadic sketching journal with Cocoiro or Pitt pens or Uni-ball
(when I was stuck in a meeting) or a bit of watercolor, because I am a cheater.
But hey, this is my artistic life, so I am gonna cheat to please me!
I also decided that “enuf!!” with only showing “finished” drawings.
I think budding artists see them and think that is all artists DO. So, included are two of my thinking sketches, trying to work things out. As an architect I trained in moving ideas in my head through my hands onto paper. Above I have an idea for a painting for my yoga instructor, and am working proportions and possibilities or design ideas out on paper.
Below I am working out how to draw a difficult image, a Pauldin Chair,
in an unusual angle, with curves and foreshortening. Argh!
I finally got the hang of it, and may try a final drawing — and an Egg Chair.
And if you follow me than you know an artist who was a friend died, and so I sketched, bottom. I am back to turning to art for solace — after a cry + curling into my husband.
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In our last private communication, I told him we were holding energy
for his surgery, and it touched him that I remembered.
And in my last interaction on the feed, we talked about him not being an artist. As. If.
Suspending my normal post to pause on Jorge Royan’s death.
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Mostly Buddhism, and a drawing, my practice. . .
I am using Weeping Buddha and the lojong sayings and commentary from Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa as a study, together.
I’ve been practicing tonglen for almost three decades, and it is my main practice.
This is the second weekly installment. To start at the beginning go here.
I am starting again with the preliminaries,which I haven’t read in a long while. Preliminaries are important concepts or truths. I take notes from Trungpa, but I translate all this into my current understanding, such as it is in any given moment. It is all I can ever do, which is why I continue to study these teachings.
Boddhichitta translates as an awakened mind-heart.
I relate to having an open heart as having compassion for the pain and suffering of even and maybe especially my enemy. Worst case scenarios are good for testing your ability to have…
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I found Paul Antonio’s calligraphy videos through My Creative Resolution. He is so much fun to watch — I will try his techniques and have saves a number of his videos on you tube!
Have a good weekend — I’ve been slammed with work and had no time to post!
This gallery contains 14 photos.
Originally posted on Zenkatwrites's Blog:
I am using Weeping Buddha and the lojong sayings and commentary from Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa as a study, together. I’ve been practicing tonglen for almost three decades, and…
Amazing how fast this sketchbook filled with me drawing every day.
The more I drew the more I wanted to draw, and the habit begins.
A lot of Buddha heads, due to drawing in the middle of the night!
Looking at what happens when you draw the same thing over and over, I wonder:
Do you get it right? Or do you begin to love the variations?
This last prompted a decision: I will combine the lojong slogans with drawings of the Weeping Buddha, and in this way will glimpse the answer to this question.
I won’t be posting them like this, but one at a time. . .
The other posts in this journal, by week: One, Two, Three, Four.
I agree to Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which you can learn more about by visiting the site, or,
visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
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Bemuzin knocked my socks off with her blog about this glass artist. I never heard of Dale Chihuly. Sammy took some great pictures!
The spectacular Chihuly Garden Cycle show has come to Denver Botanic Gardens. Dale Chihuly, world-renowned glass artist, was born in Tacoma, WA in 1941. He studied in Venice, and has incorporated the team approach to glass-blowing in his prolific array of worldwide installations, both indoors and outdoors. In 1971, Chihuly cofounded Pilchuck Glass School in Washington.
Entrance view
I have been fortunate to view Chihuly’s exquisite art in galleries, museums and outdoor settings. I’m posting only a few of the many works installed at Denver Botanic Gardens, which will be on display through November 30, 2014. I plan to visit each month at different times of the day and evening to see how the viewer’s perspective changes through different lighting and seasons.
The next one is called “Summer Sun”, and all I could think of was Medusa’s hair.
Next is a closeup photo of the most beautiful yucca blooms I’ve seen…
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Another great blog on drawing, by Rob Adams.
I don’t know how to reblog his post,
so I will give you a bit and send you on to enjoy the post:
I said I would do this a while ago. So here it is, my take on pen and ink. Pen was really the first medium I seriously worked at. Oh there had been scribbles in pencil and daubs in the vile paint they make school children use but it was the first medium I seriously set about learning. At first I used Rotring pens. I had them from doing mechanical drawing for A levels. It seemed natural to carry on and sketch with them. There is not a lot to recommend them you have to hold them square to the surface, they give an unvarying line and block at the drop of a hat. However since I had never drawn with any other sort of pen I thought they were great. I still have a full set in a special box. My next discovery was dip pens made by Gillott compare to Rotrings they were wonderfully variable in line thickness and quality, this came at a cost of difficulty of use and the nasty habit of dropping a big blob of ink on your almost finished masterpiece! Lately after a foray into using fibre pens, (the same problems as with Rotrings) I have settled on using fountain pens with flexible nibs. They don’t quite offer the variety of line that the dip pens do but are far more convenient to carry about and sketch with.
Last week, the end of this challenge.
Oddly, I think I am the only one who did it!
No matter; I am developing a drawing habit.
Next I take the 75-day challenge from Brenda Swenson.
*sigh*
I know I will break her rules, because I LOVE sepia ink.
Oh well, my challenge, my life, my love of brown ink!
Another week of Sketchbook Skool.
So far, I think Brenda is the best teacher.
She was inspiring, articulate, but most of all she came back through
and looked at student work online several times and engaged.
This is important, especially to a newer artist who feels a bit lost or
like they are not very good — she commented and encouraged and corrected.
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visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
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Jet Pens has a short but handy post in their blog on notebooks,
including lines spacing and so forth. Passing it on!
Okay, we are into the waning moon cycle and it is time to STOP the lies!
I cannot work with one pen. . . Must.Use.All.Colors.AND.Medium.At.Whim.
Wow, I feel better having come clean with all of you!
Sketchbook Skool had us doing Selfies, seen here.
After my minimums, I ended up doing many images of my Vietnamese Buddha head,
and I did them all without one bit of pencil work
(though I must admit, like an addict for her fix, I was tempted.)
I enjoyed rediscovering contour drawing, and using it to meander about a page getting into more and more detail (Ganesha and cats!) And did a few more wash and ink drawings.
Happy PPF!
I agree to Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which you can learn more about by visiting the site, or,
visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
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Argh, a week of selfies.
What don’t I like about this challenge? Realism.
I found it harder to screw around with my own image, especially when I was
supposed to draw myself like you are.
Okay, I’ve bitched, now getting to it.
Suggesting contour drawings, sketches, pencil, watercolor, et all . . . DONE in two days!
What I have learned from this?
I thought I knew what I looked like, but I don’t, as I could not see
the likeness of some of them but Mitchell could.
My lips are thinner than I thought, and then there is that down-turned Irish mouth . . .
There really is another piece of blank paper and
you can always write crap all over the really bad drawings.
I cannot capture a baby. They are illusive and hard to see, their chubbiness.
That I have NO idea what how to mix my flesh color! STILL!
That you have to make bad drawings to make good drawings.
(Okay I knew that one, but it is good to reiterate.)
And I picked up my pen much more often this week than last, and yet I was busier.
You can see my commentary by running your cursor over the image.
I found it hard to read commentary on self-images in facebook feeds.
SO many people hate the way they look. Sad.
I found it interesting that Mitchell thought some looked like me when I didn’t,
and that he liked completely different images than I liked. He loved the one in sepia ink at the top. I like the one of me laughing. We both like the one at the bottom.
I agree to Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which you can learn more about by visiting the site, or,
visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back to dkatiepowellart.
Copyright is an important issue for artists. I cringe every time I hear art students speaking of how they want to post an image of an experiment where they copied an artist or photographer, but they know they can’t do that legally. They are copying it to learn; they are copying to practice; they are not going to try to sell it or rip anyone off. They want to have a dialogue with the artist and must do so in secret. Teh point is, that is stifles the sharing of ideas. EVERY artist has influences; every artist has copied a style to learn about it; and the world of lawyers has gotten out of hand.
Gwenn Seemel is an artist interested in educating artists and changing how artists use Copyright laws. She has a new post, “The new kind of copyright,” reblogged below, which includes a short video on this issue, and discusses Creative Commons (which I use). I recommend this blog and that you become informed on the issues. (And follow through to the funny funny comics and interview on copyright she links to!)
More on her Copyright for herself, Here.
A sample of Gwenn’s work from 2013, below, amazing!
Thank you to Sammy at bemuzin for this blog post!
I am asked how I manage to be so productive. We have our business together and I am working 25-40 hours/week. And I have several blogs — see the side panel —
and I have no commitment to writing on them at any certain pace.
Mostly I want to paint paint paint, and eat pie.
Okay, here is the trick. I dive right into my days.
Run your own architectural firm for a
decade while teaching 20 hours a week to University design students and the rest is
easy because you are so disciplined.
I literally hit the floor running.
I was born that way, bright-eyed first thing;
it’s a curse if you are surrounded by people that need to acclimate to having their eyes open.
I don’t need coffee, though I LOVE it and
have it loaded with fresh ginger and
brown sugar asap in the morning.
When I am not planning on lolling in bed with cats and husband, I get up, throw painting clothes on before showering, and head for my little studio. I breathe in the colors. Seriously. That is my meditation! Other people can pride themselves on their limited palettes but I love paint. I leave a bit of an unfinished drawing or painting on my desk (or if writing, an unfinished piece) then I can drop right into it. I love silence in the morning, a thought that at any other time is anathema — but maybe it is because loud music is not permitted early!
I don’t get distracted unless Jai
BITES me in the leg. At that point,
I must stop and pick him up or he will bite harder and harder until he gets what he wants. They start at love bites and progress.
If I have two hours or sometimes three
(did I get up at 5am or 6am?)
I can get a lot done. Again, years of design work and teaching have allowed me to get past the doubting voices and nay-Sayers in my head so I am pretty much going to DO IT.
I know when my creative times of the day and when I hit a slump. Knowing myself allows me to plan my days so that no matter the type of work, I can place it in the proper time frame. The most creative time is 3am to noon. I love to paint or write creatively early in the morning. My least creative time is afternoon, sooooo, I put repetitive things in the afternoon, like stitching many itty-bitty stitches or beading for a client.
I admit that I do most of the cooking, but Mitchell handles coffee and cat duties in the morning, and sometimes breakfast if it is peanut butter on toast with berries or sliced peaches, or eggs, or leftover Chinese! I answer emails while paint dries. Mitchell often reads news or cool stories to me once he is up.
After that precious time, the world owns me unless it is a day off. Sometimes I love what I am doing and it is not a terrible thing to have to go to work (which may mean turning around) and sometimes it is the worst thing in the world (taxes or government bids, which means legalese, which makes my eyes glaze over and I get very sleepy at the thought of either.)
So that is my secret: good habits started early out of necessity (and biting off more than I could chew.) Getting to it and not procrastinating or
listening to the negative voices in my head.
I wrote this while waiting for the Chinese food to arrive!
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visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back to dkatiepowellart.
Week two, still many obstacles in my life. AND, started Sketchbook Skool. Tuesday was a day off (YAY!!!!) and spent the day painting, including a recipe.
Saturday, Cathy Johnson posted some outtakes from her Sketchbook Skool class, a video on Mixing Greens. I put it on in the background while I was stitching, thinking I knew how to mix greens. Never say you KNOW. I learned tips which will allow me to mix from a small palette, the oranges and blue. I mixed my favorites “oranges and blues” to see the greens a small traveling palette might make, below. Some are muddy
(but also valuable) and some are amazing!
My Milk Bone was supposed to be drawn to go with my post, “I Was a Dog Growing Up.”
Work got in the way . . . And Sketchbook Skool. I posted my lessons on SBS Week One
this week, then after I posted realized I really like this wash and ink suggestion of
Danny Gregory’s (he calls it “fast and slow.”) I continue to create these, and they are a lovely way to loosen me up and not to be dependent on my beloved pencil!
I took a “wash” photo and an “ink” photo of a project in our studio right now to show how this was done. Caution note: If someone can MOVE what you are about to draw (or take it apart) then best take a picture. Mitchell is about to restore the spool platform rocker
below, and between my wash (drying, I went to lunch) and ink, he dismantled half of it!
I am not sure when I will be posting normal painting thangs.
After Sketchbook or when I am not overwhelmed with a project!
Happy PPF!
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visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back to dkatiepowellart.
I am taking Sketchbook Skool
for two reasons:
I want to be able to go “lead-free”
— to drop my dependency on pencil lines first —
and because friends are teaching. Some of the teachers are excellent pen-and-ink folks.
And all the kids are doing it.
From the Beginnings Class, techniques I am familiar with, and a sweet assignment, do draw something with a memory attached to it. At this point I am not hearing anything I haven’t practiced from the wonderful book by Kimon Nicolaides, The Natural Way to Draw, 1938. Doing the exercises, enjoying seeing other student work, and keeping Beginner’s Mind when I sit to draw, so it’s all good.
I cheated and used watercolors, however.
From the Seeing Class, again, a slow drawing exercise that I loved,
and have done many times, though I did not use toast since I am not eating much
toast these days. I used a small statue I have never tried to draw before, and
did it slowly and methodically. I added moon and earth, obviously.
I tried Danny Gregory’s technique of using a wash in a gesture, then going back in
and drawing ink slowly over the wash. This I loved, and will use again.
Lessons done, and Friday I will post my other sketches from this week!
Everything on this page was done with Cocoiro Pens, Pitt pens, and watercolors.
I agree to Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which you can learn more about by visiting the site, or,
visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back to dkatiepowellart.
I’m up for a simple challenge like this, or so I thought.
Laughingly, the first night I broke the rules.
I used multiple colors of the same pen and then used a waterbrush! EEEK!
The book: OE NOTES (my favorite journals, lined or not.)
The PenSSSS: Cocoiro Pens, in various colors.
Okay, so I am a rebel challenger. Let’s see if I keep up!
Why do a challenge? Gets me drawing. Lazy I am , so challenge it be!
Also, I am doing Sketchbook Skool. . .
Also, after a busy week I can see that I will be drawing in this challenge
at the end of the day, when the house is asleep . . .
Happy 4th and PPF!
I agree to Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which you can learn more about by visiting the site, or,
visit my web page for a more user-friendly summary on my terms.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back to dkatiepowellart.
D.Katie Powell Art 