The purpose of a sketch a day is just to do it - sketch! It doesn't matter if it is an involved sketch or if it is a simple contour or gesture drawing. There are no rules except to sketch each day.

Life parameters can dictate the time investment, but a sketch a day commitment is designed to elevate the personal priority of sketching ... to enforce sketching. Making it into a "resolution" validates the activity (invests it with a bit of a challenge even!) and defends against competing demands. The sketch a day is designed for practice - to reinforce basic skills, and to provide daily contemplation on the issues of two dimensional representation.

Several of us are doing a sketch a day, and I would enjoy hearing from anyone else who decides to join in. We share our efforts, support each other, keep each other honest and... hopefully we'll have some fun doing this!

Click on any of the sketches to enlarge...
and don't forget to check out older posts!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

August 31, 2011

    This is a whole paw-paw and a half of a paw paw with the seeds showing. There were two rows of seeds in this one, but I don't remember if there generally are. This one was extra large - over four inches long, over 2.25 inches wide and over seven ounces. That's big for a paw-paw or "custard apple". They grow wild in Virginia and elsewhere along the east coast and are just getting ripe and falling from the trees. They taste a bit like a mango but with a little touch of something else - persimmon? I believe they are what is known as "an acquired taste" but we had these with ice cream tonight and I'll make a milk, egg and cinnamon custard with some tomorrow. 
     You have to click on this one - even doing it twice helps - to blow it up to see what's going on with the shadow near the end of the left paw-paw. I have an unfortunate alignment of the shadow on the fruit and the shadow under the fruit... It's the kind of thing I somehow see so much better after I've scanned and posted a sketch. I can probably fix this one, but it's instructive to note (once again) just how much it helps to see something in a different way.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2011 at 6:10 AM

    don't seem to be able to comment on the painting blog but I am enjoying the color, especially the warm breezy Caribbean sky one!

    I think the subtle other flavor I usually pick up in paw-paw is rot? That's what I am smelling with my mind's nose (which also enjoyed the dead fish picture) with this very evocative picture!

    cp

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  2. EmSeptember 2, 2011 at 12:03 PM

    Thanks - and I'll check on the comments thing in the painting blog.
    Enjoyed? Hmm... I suppose paw-paws And dead fish are an acquired taste (ask my dogs which They prefer)! Maybe you don't get to the good paw-paws before the critters...

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  3. Amy MannSeptember 2, 2011 at 7:42 PM

    Where do you find paw-paws? I've never noticed such fruit around here... I'd love to try one.

    I don't see what you mean about an unfortunate alignment of shadows... nothing bothers me, it's a nice drawing!

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  4. EmSeptember 2, 2011 at 8:14 PM

    Paw-paws tend to be small thin trunked trees with huge oval leaves, in deciduous forests. You can plant some but I've heard you have to plant some seeds from various locations since all the trees in one grove tend to flower at one time (and make pollen at another) and thus bear no fruit. We've planted seeds from lots of places, but they're still small!

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  5. PullerJanuary 17, 2014 at 1:35 PM

    Banana! Is the other flavor.

    ReplyDelete

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