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!
You Sneak - you should have showed this to me at the museum! It's great!
ReplyDeleteI think that odd bat IS a mast top, and also that it is floating upright so you got it right: it is not lying down!
ReplyDeleteWhat you will learn is that although people peer over your shoulder, seldom do they make rude remarks. Usually onlookers are interested because they don't know how to do what you are doing and some have said to me that they have never seen a person painting before, except on TV - and maybe not even that. So think of yourself as an ambassador for the pleasures of making art. If they do make rude remarks, you can ignore them or tell them you are glad they can do better than you are doing - that is why you are out there, to gain experience and to learn how to do it better.
Something I learnt about a common onlooker comment from another painting friend. When someone says to her, "You should see my aunt's paintings; she is some good!" my friend doesn't cower thinking to herself ("...and I'm not"); she says, "Aren't you fortunate to have an artist in your family?" They puff up a bit and stop bothering her; they have been acknowledged, which is probably all they wanted in the first place.
ReplyDeleteYes - good point - they want to Know something about what you are doing... even if it's just to know Someone. To be fair, they are also just trying to think of some common ground to make conversation on; it would feel weird, actually, to both of you for them to just walk away without some vocal tip of the hat, and yet another artist tells me she feels interrupted at times. I guess "making" art Is personal and challenging enough to be a sensitive issue until one is positively hardened and immune!
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