Preparing for the Future






I colored some pages of my sketchbook today. Just to be prepared for the future. I've noticed that it's more fun to start sketching when you have something to begin with. In these cases, colorful backgrounds. It's also fun to make these! I get to make splatters and all kinds of experiments with paints. Sometimes they work and sometimes don't. We'll see what will become of these.

Counting Sheep

Last Friday I was feeling creative and came up with an idea for an assignment. I cut out some pictures of interesting looking people from magazines and my students got to pick one. Then they had to glue this picture to their sketchbook and draw the dreams of the person. They were allowed to use other pictures and such as a model but that was optional. Because I thought that it would only be fair I let them choose a picture for me and they chose a picture of a SHEEP! A sheep.

Yes, well I got a bit excited with this one. But what better could you do on a Friday night?


Dream Big (pencil, watercolor)

A Lonely Lunch

Going Bananas (black fine liner, watercolor)

One day at lunch I had to eat alone and because there was no one to talk to I started to draw. This time I drew some fruits that I had with me. I'm really starting to like drawing with a black fine liner because it makes drawing feel so exciting. You can't fix your mistakes and if you manage to finish your work, you may feel a hint of pride. It's a terrifying but rewarding technique.

After lunch I decided to color my sketches with watercolor. We were just practicing coloring techniques with my students and I used my bananas as an example to show them. I had just bought a lovely book about watercolor sketching few weeks ago and wanted to use the coloring techniques described in it. The book is called Urban Watercolor Sketching and it's written by Felix Scheinberger. Scheinberger uses a coloring method called glazing where you let every layer of color dry before applying the next layer. So we started to color our drawings one layer at a time. I think that the results were great. Nobody even wanted to leave when I told them that they could go home! 

PS. I actually have a new better sketchbook now because the old one had so thin pages that it was incredibly hard to scan. So hopefully the quality of my pictures is going to be better from now on. The old sketchbook would have been fine for pencil sketching, but it's not enough for me this time. Using different drawing instruments, adding color and making colorful backgrounds is a part of the fun for me because it adds the element of surprise to my work.

A Horsedog in a Buss with Socks


Photographer's Socks (ballpoint pen)
A Horsedog (ballpoint pen)

I was sitting on a bus and had planned to draw something. We were on our way to Helsinki with our photography students and planning to visit The Finnish Museum of Photography’s #snapshot exhibition. Luckily there was a guy on the bus sitting on the next seat and he decided to lift his legs up so I had something to draw. His socks and legs and especially all the folds on them looked interesting to me. I've noticed that now that I'm thinking about drawing much more than before I see everything as a potential model for a sketch. I'm staring people too long and bringing old, half-eaten vegetables home...

I had also given my students an assignment regarding the museum. They had to choose one of the works there and take inspiration from it. The idea was to draw something related to that picture or to draw the work as it was. For my inspiration I chose Theron Humphrey's photos of his dog and decided to draw one where his dog has a horse mask on. I wanted to see if I can draw it so that it looks right but I wanted to combine the picture of a dog with my own simple background. I made this sketch with a ballpoint pen and it was actually really enjoyable technique. Easier than fine liner, because you can create more shades by pushing the pen harder, but almost as rewarding. The fact that I was drawing in a bus made it even more interesting.

Figuring out



Dreaming
Jamming
Some Action
Twins


Today we were drawing human figures and studying human proportions. I accidentally asked my students to fill ten pages of their sketchbooks with sketches of different bodies, limbs, heads, ears, lips etc., anything related to human proportions. And the moment I said it I realized that I have to do it as well... Me and my big mouth! However, it was actually a good thing for me to do. I felt really rusty, but then after few pages it got easier.

I took my inspiration from Andrew Loomis - Figure Drawing For All It's Worth. There's actually a possibility for free download of this book at http://illustrationage.com/2013/04/02/free-andrew-loomis-art-instruction-downloads/ . When you use these human frames it's easy to get the figure's actions look right very fast. You quickly know what posture works and what doesn't. Now I quess I should just draw more.

A Colorful Request

One day some of my students asked me to show how to use oil pastels and I quickly drew them some sunflowers. I used to draw and paint lots of sunflowers many years ago (I even painted them on a kitchen wall at my parents' house. My parents are awesome, I know!). So it was a familiar subject for me. It was easy, because I knew that the end result was going to be ok. I didn't have to be nervous at all. Maybe that is why the drawing looks boring to me. Maybe the excitement and nervousness is something I need, so that I can be happy with the end result. No pain, no gain?

Sunflowers (oil pastels)

Inkteresting Person

Our next exercise was to draw a person from a picture. The catch was to draw it with ink. This way you had to work fast and without hesitation. My original sketchbook was very cheap and the paper in it was so thin that you could see the previous sketches through the page. I used this to my advantage and drew my sketch again to the next page. Only this time I drew the "dark side" of the person I chose. So here's the original sketch and the weird version of it.
"The Dark Side" (black fine liner)
The original sketch (ink and brush)

Colleague

In a meeting, again. I really like meetings nowadays. It means I get to draw people that have to sit still for about two hours. I drew this picture of my colleague with a pencil. She moved a bit and it had some effect on the proportions. When I showed this to my students they knew who it was so I was happy. After a while one of the students started to wonder why this woman has a telescope hand. What a great feedback! The other hand really looks a bit too long. This remark gave us a good change to discuss about errors that "even a teacher" can make. I try to show my students that it's ok to make mistakes as long as you just do something! Nobody got hurt even though I drew a telescopic hand!


A Colleague (pencil)




Meeting and Eating

My aim is to draw a lot. So I try to make sketches whenever I can. I drew this one at a meeting. And when teachers have a meeting, there will be a slight mess. This time I saw tea and coffee cups, half eaten apples, papers etc. I used a black fine liner to make this sketch. The proportions are not quite right but there is no chance to correct errors with this technique. Still, I'm happy I made this one. Drawing different subjects is already getting easier and more natural for me.

At a Meeting (black fine liner)

I See Peas

The next exercise was to draw something that you see in front of you. Well,  I saw peas. I drew these with a black fine liner. Unfortunately my sketchbook has a pretty poor quality, so you can see the older sketches trough the page. I think I'm going to start a new book soon. But this exercise was a good practice for line shading!

Peas on a see trough page (black fine liner)

Getting Started

An Orchid (ink, watercolor)
My hand (colored charcoal pencil, watercolor)

























One of our exercises was to draw something that we see near us. First i drew an orchid and then my own hand. I had to use ink at least for the other one. The point was to draw without thinking about the end result. It was quite difficult not to judge your own work and actually I did. Still i managed to show my sketches to my students. I think that it's important to show them that it's ok to draw things that dont look perfect, and that's why I've shown them or at least someone all of my sketches in my sketchbook from that day on. With this exercise we also used watercolored backrounds that we had made earlier to avoid the fear of the white paper. I think it made drawing a bit easier.

My Thoughts

I like drawing, but I've always considered myself to be just ok drawer. I know that If I have lots of time and perhaps a model I can manage to draw something that even I like. But why is drawing sometimes so difficult and frustrating?

I work as a visual arts teacher and this year I decided to do everything differently. It all began when I read a book called One Drawing a Day by Veronica Lawlor. The book is full of exercises that you are meant to do every day and this way perhaps find your artistic potential. First I used these exercises with my students, but then I started to wonder if I could also find my own artistic potential. I promised my students that I would do all the same exercises that they have to do. I made this promise partially because I thought that this way I could understand better what my students are going through while doing their homework.

The most inspiring thing for me in the Lawlor's book is the notion that if you're planning to draw, just draw and dont judge your work. You can use any kind of paper and pen. It's not important. The important thing is to draw.


My sketchbook cover, an orchid (ink, watercolor)