9.27.2012

All shapes and sizes

There are times {times being the last 3 months} where I sit down to draw and nothing comes out. I just sit there and stare at the blank page, put down a few ugly, uncomfortable lines, put the pens away, and give the paper to Mabel to draw on.

Yesterday I decided I just had to do it, make the ugly lines and let it happen.


Everything kind of turned out alright! I mean, it's no life changing work of art, but sometimes you just have to work through it and finish something. Maybe coloring or doodling all over the pumpkins will help you work through a creative block of your own, or maybe you've got some down time at work...whatever the reason, coloring is fun, so print it and color it, then show me what you've done!

I turned the jpg into a PDF and posted it on the internet so you can print it out.

2 comments:

ashley said...

... Sometimes you just have to work through it and finish something.

Words of wisdom.

Love the pumpkins -- we'll have to print them out for the boys to color when they come back in December. :)

mckenzie said...

Haha! I was just trying to talk about this artists' dilemma with someone the other day. I explained that you have to keep drawing all.the.time (no week-or-two-long gaps in between) or else you just lose "it" and everything comes out feeling like it looks like crap.

I've done the starting at your ugly lines blankly thing too.(Which is very disheartening and frustrates the hell out of you...) So then you have to keep forcing yourself to draw a whole lot of "crap" for a while until finally something inspires you and your mind is in the right place for drawing something that's NOT crap.

I do love what your "crap" turned into in your most recent post though and found it very motivational. I especially love how you colored it, and the little notes. It would make a cool insert in a garden memoir book. :)

I've done a lot of thinking about this subject (as I'm sure you have) and here's my theory: I'm not a sketchbook kind of person. Yes, I have sketchbooks but I tend to always try to draw things to completion in them because I like the feeling of fulfillment that it brings. Sketching just to sketch doesn't satisfy that feeling for me. Sometimes it's fun, but when I sit down to draw, reeeaaally draaaw, my brain is like... okay you have to create a "piece" here. Not just a sketch.

This is probably (no, definitely) a really long post, but I don't have a lot of drawing friends to talk to about this. ;)