April Doodlewash up to Now

Day One-Rainbow

Here's what I have for the first two weeks of #DoodlewashApril2018 and #WorldWatercolorGroup. I'm not sure how to categorize watercolor pencils. 

Bunny rabbit, iced treats, dandelions, french fries, birds, zoo animals, bubble gum, partial Monopoly

I'm not that linear when it comes to the calendar, so a daily prompt helps but then I see the whole page as something to compose and things get juggled around a bit. See the sidebar for the daily prompts.

Olive Oyl, daughter of Coal Oyl, I believe

When we played Monopoly, my Dad was always the top hat and I tried for the sports car. Hated the thimble. The Scotty dog got lost. I think my sister took it.

Birds, Olive Oyl again, the rest of Monopoly, Shredded Wheat breakfast cereal, my favorite toy, pets and cake

I always wanted to know if anybody really did like their Shredded Wheat hot? Why???!! And I always crumbled it up before pouring on the milk because it's way too awkward to eat it whole like they showed on the box. These are things people don't know if they only read the box and never try the cereal. Now I just get the Mini Wheats with sugar already on it. And I saw this most beautiful cake on Instagram a while back and couldn't forget it. *mouth watering. heading for the pantry right now!*

Tomorrow it's Inktober! Are you in?

Want to get better at drawing? Want to have fun with other artists all over the world, drawing every day for the month of October? Jake Parker has just the thing for you!

See how it all started here on Jake's YouTube. Suggested materials are listed in the video itself and the video description.

If you can't think what to draw, here's the official prompt list from Jake Parker himself!
Scroll down some of my examples from previous years here.

Imagine All the People

How will I ever get 100 drawings of people in 5 days?!

That's probably one of the first things that pops into your mind when you see the proposed global drawing challenge on blogs by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel. The idea is to draw 100 people in one week. It starts tomorrow, Monday, March 6, ends on Friday, March 10, and I'm in!  I'll post each day on my Instagram for sure and on my Flickr photostream and on this blog as time allows.
 

Start with something simple.
Ever since I first saw it, I have admired this contour drawing, a self portrait by John Lennon.

Lennon is remembered for his music but he began drawing long before he had a guitar. He attended Liverpool Art School between 1957 and 1960, before his sessions with The Beatles became a full-time occupation. Lennon would always maintain “Art came first.”

I became aware of the principles behind contour drawing through Betty Edwards' book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It was revolutionary in 1979 when it was first published. It's the first book I advise my students to buy if they want to improve their drawing skills. I use my own particular adaptation of contour drawing all the time, especially in my sketchbooks.

Why not try a few contour drawings as warm ups and then just keep going tomorrow until you have 100 of them by the end of the week? If you like to use your watercolors, why not try simple 6 stroke figures like the ones I demonstrated here.

Don't forget to share your efforts using  #oneweek100people2017.

March Momentcatchers and Multitasking

In my usual multitasking approach, I am combining two online drawing challenges today; Candace Rardon's Momentcatchers (a watercolor every first Saturday of the month) and "One week 100 people" a global challenge starting up on Monday. (I'll post more about the 100 people challenge here tomorrow)

I took a moment or two to set out a bunch of sketching supplies to see what I might use for the the upcoming week's drawing challenge. Bing! THAT'S what I'll draw and paint this weekend for my contribution to the Momentcatcher's  Challenge---the pile of sketching stuff I'm using! This will be my third post for the year on this challenge. I plan to add one a month on the first Saturday of each month.
See more about the Momentcatchers Project at http://www.candaceroserardon.com/2017/01/moment-catchers-project/

In another spate of multitasking, I took some photos at each stage of today's sketch.

1. Drawing with my Sharpie Stylo Fine tip black waterproof pen in my new Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbook.
I chose this sketchbook because its thick, smooth paper is particularly pen-friendly yet allows for wet media, should I have enough time to add watercolor washes.

 2. I wanted to try out both the smooth paper of the S&B Zeta and my new very pointed tip travel brush. It's a #6 round Voyage by Silver Black Velvet

So I mixed up a semi neutral grey with my DIY Altoids mini travel tin and washed in the shadows over the pen drawing.

What do you think? Does it make that much of a difference from the simple line sketch?

3. Finally, I added watercolor washes over the previous two stages and used Picasa to superimpose a little text list of my choice of supplies for the challenge. I do that sometimes to see what it would look like if I add narrative to my sketches. I think if I do decide to add text by hand, it will be slanted to fit the angle of the drawing of the sketchbook page. You can see what it looks like without the text added on my Flickr photostream here.

I hope this qualifies for my Momentcatchers entry. There IS watercolor in it. :)

Oh, and here's a shot of my work in progress.

PS. My cappuccino got cold. I got carried away yet again and that part of my multi-multi-multi tasking failed.

Get Ready for Every Day in May drawing challenge!

I know there are quite a few people out there who have committed to a drawing challenge where they are making a sketch a day for the entire year! Keep it up! You are already 1/3 of the way there!

For those of us who need a challenge a bit more within immediate reach, how about committing to a sketch a day for the month of May? That's 31 sketches more than you have right now!

That's the list from Janet Burns

Don't forget to check out the daily uploads at EDM Every Day in May on Flickr. Get a Flickr account, join the group and upload yours!

See you May 1st on Flickr! Follow the link and look back at my EDM for 2015.