Just keeping up with the on-going “30 Days of Sketchbook Joy” challenge…
Day 7: Pop of Orange Revisit
That day’s suggested prompt was “Observational Drawing”, but I wasn’t in the mood for that, so I decided to try one of the ideas that had occurred to me for the “pop of orange” prompt, earlier in the challenge.
I started out with a simplified landscape of mostly trees, painted in the Kuretake graphite colors, with the pop of orange being a tiny fox that I cut from a scrap of paper, painted, and glued in place:
However, after I looked at it again, I was disappointed with how light the trees were. I’d originally envisioned them being much darker… So I tried darkening them by adding branches in a few different media:
I’m still not completely satisfied with how it turned out, but it’s a start. I might return to the idea from another approach, at some point.
In the photo below, you can see a scrap of paper where I sampled a variety of different pens, markers, pencils, etc. to see how they might look. I actually think I prefer the test sheet to the final result, and I might try to do something else based on that one of these days, too.
Day 8: 5 Minute Timer
I wasn’t sure what was intended with this prompt. Drawing or painting for five minutes only is quite a challenge! Still, I thought I’d give it a try…
After five short minutes, all I had on my page was three rough blobs of color. I decided I’d let them dry, then come back to add ink details.
Trying to keep everything minimalistic, I ended up with this, which I find very “meh”. I could go back and add more to try to improve it… But on the other hand, I don’t know what I’d want to do. It’s not something I feel inspired by or interested in, so maybe it’s best to just let it go.
After looking on Instagram, I saw that probably the intention was that we spend five minutes on each bird or another small element of a sketch—not fill the whole page in five minutes—which does make more sense. It’s certainly a more reasonable aim!
The goal is apparently to force you to loosen up, but I’m not sure how often I’ll attempt it… I don’t like feeling restricted!
Day 9: Collage
I already did a collage, earlier in the challenge, but this time it was the actual “official” prompt. I didn’t have tons of time for it, so I kept this one relatively brief with a simple collection of mushrooms:
I thought adding an outline in ink pen might be a nice touch, but… Eh. I think it was better before! Oh well, it happens.
Day 10: Draw a Person
When I saw this day’s prompt, I felt very reluctant. Drawing people = difficult, not fun, and something that doesn’t come easily to me. Doodling faces, on the other hand, can be enjoyable, so long as I control the Inner Critic.
I started by painting some simple shapes in a single color—alternating face and hair/hat shapes:
Once they were dry, I came back with an ink pen and doodled a bunch of faces. They’re not all on the same scale or even in the same style. I tried to not make them too much the same, though there are some repeated elements.
Anyway, it was fun enough that I wished I had more at the end. I need to do this more often, just for the heck of it!
Day 11: Fast Fish
Yesterday’s prompt was “fast fish”, which I took to mean “sketch some fish in a fast manner” instead of “sketch some fish species that are speedy swimmers”.
My fish are entirely made up (and missing some of their fins, poor things).
I started by trying out a new medium for me—tempera paint sticks. I’m not sure this cold press paper is the best base for them… I tried smudging them a bit with my finger, with mixed results, then added some small touches of water soluble crayon, which I activated with a paintbrush. I’m not sure if these particular tempera paints move with water (because I haven’t even swatched them yet), but it felt like some of them might.
Finally, I added details in dip pen and burnt sienna ink. I decided it need a little more, so I put in additional details after this photo.
Eh, it’s okay. It was fun to try, at least!
Day 12: More Fish
Today’s actual prompt was “draw your day”, but no, not feeling like doing that, so I made it easier on myself and sketched another page of fantasy fish.
I started with the Kuretake Gansai Tambi Graphite Colors. (Yeah, using them again reminded me of how pretty they can be, so I’m been inspired to use them a couple more times in recent days!)
Just simple fish shapes, then let them dry…
After they dried, I added a few details in the same paints. There were small dried puddles on my ceramic palette, so it was easy to get a more concentrated color by adding just a tiny amount of water—and it uses up paint that’s already out of the pan. (It’s one of my favorite, “waste not, want not” things about watercolor that you can do this.)
That dried quickly, then I finished up with some black lines with an ink pen.
Very simple, but fun to do.
