3 Materials Challenge: Day 8
Our Internet was down, starting early yesterday afternoon, and it wasn’t back up before bedtime, so I didn’t bother trying to write a blog post—but I did complete the day’s challenge. In fact, I did it twice!
When researching the origins and “rules” of the Three Materials Challenge, I saw that one of the artists who started it specifically suggested abandoning a sketch if it’s not working out—and then starting again from a different approach.
Personally, I’m tending to go for the “just push through” method, because it’s a foregone conclusion that some of my sketches won’t delight me or be anything more than a disappointment. I’m just accepting that, or else I’d probably feel it was too much pressure and too embarrassing to post photos of them all. Anyway, that’s what works for me, at the moment. I’m fighting against perfectionism, a harsh inner critic, and so on. However, there may be times when it feels right to start over again, and when that happens, I will.
So, to get to the point, yesterday I decided to draw a simplified version of the hammered dulcimer. I chose my materials, specifically selecting a crayon that would be opaque enough to draw over a dark marker, and made my very quick doodle sketch:
The three materials I used were a purple Hello Hobby brush marker, a sky blue Sunny water-soluble crayon, and a color pencil (Kalour, “Chartreuse”, C066). My results felt even worse than usual—(and that’s saying something)—but since I had plenty of time, I decided to turn the page and try again.
The first time, I had made the mistake of using the marker for outlines, and by the time I remembered that I wanted the blue crayon to go over the marker, it felt too late and messy to try to fill in the whole instrument with marker. The whole thing felt blah and disappointing.
This time, I made the basic shape in marker, then added another layer of marker to make the sound holes, with crayon for the other details. (“Details” may be generous: The crayon was blunt and the drawing small, so it’s extremely simplified.)
Another change I made was to exchange the chartreuse pencil for a soft-toned greyish purple Crayola crayon (“Wisteria”), which I used to make scribbly swirls for the background. I debated whether a third material was necessary at all, and I’m still not sure it added anything, but I do prefer it to the bright green pencil.
At least I like this better than the first try.
Endless Art Challenge: Take Two
Remember my first try with the Endless Art Challenge prompt cards? The house with a face and hands? (If you’d been fortunate enough to forget that monstrosity, I’m sorry to have reminded you of its existence.)
I gave it another try. My new prompts were: “Ocean”, “Ruby”, and a wild card reading “Select Another Color Card. Use Both or Pick One”. Second color card was “Royal Blue”. Red, blue, and ocean made me think of a Terry Runyan-style scene with boats and cats, so that’s what I doodled:
I’m not saying it’s amazing, but hey, it’s a step (or even a whole flight of steps) up from that other thing I doodled—and I had fun—so I’m calling it good!
Seriously, I do think the deck of cards will be fun to play with when I’m just looking for a quick prompt that doesn’t involve getting sucked into the void of the Internet.
