"Artist's Block." This is what it looks like, folks. I sat on the deck for about 2 hours, uninspired. Eventually, I had to do it. I had to open a bottle of wine. So, this is my left hand (again--it's getting a lot of attention lately) holding the cork, having happy time, pinky up because I'm fancy like that. Watercolor pencil into wet gesso (looks cooler in person because of the texture). Today was hot. And of course that means it was time to spend all day in dirt, upkeeping the landscaping, pulling weeds and planting a few new pretty things. Perennials are my style, because I can count on them being there next year too. I wish I had a green thumb and the patience required for annuals. Sunscreen was applied amply of course, and I didn't burn, thank God. As I was packing up to go inside for some lemonade, I spotted this little fellow sitting on a yet-to-bloom purple coneflower. (It's a grasshopper if you couldn't tell). My nephew waited for me to finish snapping a picture before he touched the leaf and it went leaping for a new hang out. Thought it fit my theme of "Precious things held". Brown Sharpie, watercolor wash. So, when I was younger, my dad would go on these extended trips for work to all kinds of exotic places...Turkey, China, England, etc. He was always gone for 3-4 weeks at a time. We all missed him terribly, but when he came back, he came armed with all kinds of gifts from all over the world. It was so exciting, getting my dad back AND getting presents all at the same time, as if the first thing wasn't enough. I still have a lot of trinkets that I cherish so. These black pearls, in their little yellow silk pouch are probably one of my favorites, and there's many more things that I cherish. Although, now that I'm older, I realize that more time with my dad would have been more precious. I love you dad!
Holding a starfish, poolside. Felt appropriate. Was also drinking ice cold beer that was going down really easy. So if something's not right, that's why.
So, today's "precious object" is this rose, held by a wine glass of water. It is hands-down the most spectacular rose I've ever seen. It has to have at least 40 petals on it. They are so tightly twisted in the center, that I don't think it will ever die. My sketch doesn't really do it justice, so I've included a b&w photo I took of it below. Amazing. Was sent to me from my mom for my art exhibit opening. So sweet the gesture, now immortalized in blue and red ink pen. I had no idea how many species there were either. Pretty cool.
Embarking on my second third of this journey, I want to have a theme of sorts. I concentration, if you will. The concentration for this third of the way will be called "Precious Things Held". In this pencil drawing, I'm holding a shoe from my own infancy. It's an adorable little suede saddle shoe, size 1. The proportion of fingers, I've decided, is the hardest thing in the world to figure out. Well, I guess that's why I'm trying to do more. Is this drawing a little blurry on purpose? Or was it divine intervention? We'll never know.
Ok, I'm 1/3 of the way through, and I'm done messing around. It's time to get serious. I never know what I'm going to draw until I sit down and force myself most nights. Tonight's drawing stemmed from some pretty wicked shadows that happened to be getting cast on my sketchbook from some gorgeous flowers my mom sent me for my exhibit opening on Friday. The shadows were so cool, that I just started tracing some of them, rotating the vase, then making more. It just sort of happened. So, it became an exercise in line weight and hatch marks. It reminds me of some kind of forest, with a sky in the upper left, and a river of sorts emerging from the foliage in the center bottom area. Ball point pen.
Today's journal entry is entirely comprised of symbols (in this case, the alphabet) used as mark-making and value structure building. I wasn't sure where it was going, but somehow a boat, alone in the water started forming, and I was like, "whoa" and ran with it. Pretty deep.
The kids found a dead baby robin in the yard today, right by our fire pit. Poor little thing, was probably either killed by a crow or it died in the nest and the parents had to dispose of it. Didn't mean to be a downer, but it made me want to draw today, so I did.
The sea of graduation caps. Last Thursday and Friday afternoons were spent in the gym amongst the graduating class of 2012. It is an exciting day for them, not so much for me since this is my first year teaching at this school, and I only knew about, um, 10 of them. So, I started drawing what I saw. Dozens upon dozens of these diamond shapes, very still and intently listening to the graduation speeches and such. So, that's where this illustration started, but where it ended today is a totally different story.
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AuthorTabatha Dougherty: artist, art teacher, confessed chocoholic. Archives
April 2020
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