Warming Up

It always take time for me to get warmed up, whether it's when I'm playing taiko or creating art.


I finally finished my Sketchbook today! I'm so happy. But looking through it, I can see that I started to like the drawings about halfway into it when they started to draw themselves. I admit, I did have help for those ones - Adam provided some doodles and lines as my "launchpad."


It always takes time to get used to the feel of the pens and pencils because they respond to each type of paper differently. It also takes time to let go and just draw and not think about what other people will "see" in the end. This is what the sketchbook is for! It is for failure. And getting warmed up.

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett

Failure isn't necessarily a bad thing. Fear of failure is worse.

Sick

And have really nothing to say. My body and brain are tired with just enough energy for doodling with pens.






Halfway through the sketchbook with less than 2 weeks to go. What should I draw next?

Chance as a Working Process

I've been reading about "Chance as a working process." Try this sometime... Draw a picture of yourself or someone else, but don't look at your picture as you are drawing it. You might want to put another piece of paper on top of your drawing hand. Concentrate on the major lines of the face and really look at the features - the eyes, nose, lips, ears.

Ok, I didn't do this drawing entirely like this, but once I got the Chance Outline down, I filled in with what I know, which is shading and defining the texture and lines.

Try this with taiko too... Have someone give you your first 8 counts of your solo and then let go... After you have that "launch pad," fill in the rest with what your body does with that.

I'm still working on the Sketchbook Project. Only one month left!