I am Catching Up

...Slowly, but surely.

I'm almost caught up to today's drawing! I fell a day or two behind in the last few weeks, and it's so hard to catch back up once you do that. As soon as I get all the way up to the present, I'm going to stay caught up.

Where did I leave you in my last post? Day 40? Well here you are, 10 more pictures. 

My second attempt at apples. Very different from the first one! Sometime I'll sit there and give it a bit of color.

Unfinished coffee mug. I'm too lazy to go back and finish it! Maybe some day..

I had fun with these 3-D glasses that someone left at work! I think I might do another drawing of them sometime.

Yes, I fell victim to my pattern addiction again. Butterick 4790, only $.99! Some day I'll buy the 5 yards of fabric and make it. Maybe sooner than I think!

I had to listen to this song over and over and over at work for 5-8 hours at a time. It was on a music player, that would shuffle through about 30 seconds each of 12 different songs. It drove me insane! But now I know the first 30 seconds of Elvis's "Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me," along with this song. 

It shall be forever ingrained in my memory. =/

I've just discovered how much fun it is to draw maps to pretend places. The countries here don't even have names yet, but I put in the required castles, pirate ships, and mysterious forests!

It was a long day at work, and people kept asking me questions. And I couldn't think of half the answers! They never ask me the easy ones, it's always "What type of fusible should I get for..." "What type of fabric is this?" "What is the difference between worsted and sport weight yarns?"
Look at the picture, folks! There's your answer! 

Two of the three items are things lying around in the break room at work. The little gourd-dude is something that was lying around in my imagination.

 

And for day 50, a half-finished Map, to yet another unknown, unnamed world. Those are the best, you know. Places nobody has ever been to, and where you can imagine whatever you want! I can't wait to go there. 

And there you have it! That is up to day 50, and, Lord willing, I'll have more for you in a few days. Thanks for bearing with me and my slow postings. By the end of March I hope to be back to regular blog posts.

Feel free to leave feedback here or on the Challenge Facebook page! 

~Laura~

Okay. I'm Back!/Days 33-40

Oh my goodness. 

I've fallen a bit behind on here, and in my actual drawings! I'm working to catch up both places, but you'll have to bear with me for now.

Most recently, I decided to change the whole "draw ten minutes a day" thing to "draw at least ten minutes a day." That happened when I spent (I cringe to think how far over ten minutes it was!) about an hour on a sketch. I felt guilty about that, but the drawing turned out nice! Here are seven drawings for you. I hope to have several more on here in the next few days, and be all caught up by the end of next week.

I spent some time around Valentine's Day trying to do Valentine's Day themed drawings. I was distracted on the 14th itself, though. Cupcakes, one of my true loves. =)

This one isn't very special.

I like this one better! Even when they're just stick figures!

We had cake in the break room at work. Nothing this fancy, but it inspired me.

Another one of my favorite songs, this one by Downhere. 

I'm sorry, but I can't remember what this costume is. It is from the same book as a drawing I shared earlier, on Fancy Dress Balls--What to Wear. If only I could show the original picture! Such detail on that dress!

Oh, I had such fun with this one. All but the first are contour drawings, and I didn't pick up the pen until I had finished all the outlines. Then I went back and did some of the details. I think I'm going to do more drawings similar to this one. I like how it looks like an apple, but it's not exact. They overlap, and vary in size.

It just makes the whole page interesting to me.

This is the drawing that took too long. I spent 22 minutes drawing it out, then had to trace, color, and paint it, bringing the total time spent up to around an hour! But it was worth it. I used water-proof pen and watercolor pencils. I don't care to use the watercolor pencils all the time, but it worked so well for this, where I wanted so many different colors! It meant that I didn't have to mix up ten different paints. I think this was easier on the paper, too, since it isn't heavy enough to use much water on.

This is another style I'm going to try to do again--there are more things I love, that I want to include!

Thank you for reading this, and I promise to start posting regularly again! Both our computers were down and out for a week or two, and then I was just lazy. I'll do better now. 

Have a nice night!

~Laura~

Time to play catch up!

My computer is back up and running (for the moment) so I'm going to go ahead and blog today, even though I usually blog Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. If I wait, it probably won't be working.

SO, you get a nice, long post full of pictures.
Let's start with Wednesday's, shall we?

I'm not too awesome at feet and shoes. But these turned out kind of okay.

Day 29--February 2nd, 2012!

This one has a story behind it. On Facebook, my friend made his status into rather a chat room, and we have been using it for the past five months. Between the bunch of us, we reached 10,000 just the other evening. This is my 'tribute' to The Status. I just wish I'd had more time to finish the drawing.

Day 30. Just doodles. It was relaxing to sit there and draw something that didn't need shading or proportions or delicate little details. Something that couldn't be done a right or wrong way, it would be just perfect the way I did it. =)

Can you identify the stick people from Day 31?

I was out of ideas, so I checked out Pinterest for the first time. This little guy was just too hairy and wrinkly to NOT draw! And I have a coworker who goes just crazy over bulldogs.

I think I'll name him Ralph.

Hopefully, I'll have another picture for you tomorrow!

~Laura~

A Sad Way to Start the Month

This post was supposed to contain more pictures. I was supposed to put yesterday's and today's drawings here. What happened? How could we let February get off to such a dismal start?

I'll tell you how.

Our 'downstairs' [desktop] computer, Angus, died the other night. He's pretty much done for, poor fellow. My brother has been working to save all the pictures we have loaded on there, but once that is done we won't be able to do much more for him.

If it wasn't sad enough to lose one trusted friend/computer, the 'upstairs' laptop, Zeus, is on his last legs also. He will be going in for surgery in a few days, I just hope he recovers quickly.

The library computers work well for plain blogging, but they won't let me post pictures. =P

But for now, Happy Groundhog day, I will blog again as soon as possible!

Keep drawing,

~Laura~

Days 26 & 27, and Goodbye, January!

The other day, I bought a calendar full of 1930's fashion drawings. All of a sudden I've become obsessed with vintage clothing, and here's another outlet for my obsession!

I'm very happy with the way this one turned out. She doesn't have the same tilt to her head as the original, but I didn't want a photograph! I think she's kind of cute. Wonder what she's thinking of?

This one I'm not so fond of, but I won't rip it out, either.

I should have taken 2 more seconds and given the right-hand girl a neck! Just a plain old neck would improve her appearance quite a bit. It might counteract that huge chin I accidentally gave her. Sorry about that, lady, but you have a really cute hat! Surely that counts for something?

Wow, I just finished the first month! And I didn't miss a day. Haha, I feel accomplished now! Only 285 days to go. After these first 27 days, I don't think the rest will be a huge problem. =)

I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but a few weeks ago I signed up for an art class at the community college. I was really nervous about it for a while, but had just adjusted to the idea, and had myself all psyched up for it when they had to cancel the class. Not enough people signed up for it. =( I had just bought myself a new sketch book two days before, too! So the sketch book was returned (I'll buy it again when I need it and have a coupon), my class money was refunded, and now I shall lie in wait for another class. It's a little frustrating, but what can you do but resign yourself to reality?

Anyway, I'll see you next month!
~Laura~

Back to Normal--Days 24 & 25

Okay, so I'm back to my cheerful self again! Some days I'm just all down-in-the-dump-sie, and then it's gone again in a day or two.

SO. There are two pictures for Day 24 here, but I'll let them explain themselves.

I just added on to 23's drawing. Unfortunately, the pencil doesn't show up too well in these pictures, so you can't see the hastily-drawn sea and clouds behind the tower.
It might be Rapunzel's tower on a cliff that used to jut out from the land. But now the waves have eroded it, and the tower stands on a natural tower of stone. The Prince will have to come by boat to rescue her, and then they'll float away, watching magic lanterns gleam...

Okay, I think I'm happy with this little sketch. It could use a bit more shading, but that'll be done next time.

Anybody else have some 10 minute drawings they'd like me to show on here? Give me a link to them, and I'll post them in my Tuesday blog.

~Laura~

So yesterday I drew a picture of a tree again. I don't like it as well as the first one. BUT, this one is in color, so it's got that going for it.

It's too chunky where the branches split off. And the watercolor pencil didn't dissolve as much as I wanted it to. But what's done is done, and I'm stuck with it. ;)

Today I was thoroughly uninspired. And in a blue funk. So my picture turned out kinda...boring, uninspired, and lousy. But what can ya do? Absolutely nothing, except draw.

All of a sudden, I feel like I'm losing enthusiasm. I feel like I can't draw worth a hoot, and why bother drawing if I'm bad a it? And was this art class that starts on Tuesday, was it really such a great idea if I can't draw?

Painting I find a bit easier. But I haven't been doing much painting. You can't really paint much in 10 minutes, unless you know exactly which colors you're going to use, and have them mixed ahead of time.

Anyway, I feel dismal and dumb and dismayed at what I've gotten myself into. But I'm not quitting. Not in the first month. Not in the second month. And not in any of the other months, either. I refuse to quit, even if I hate the whole sketchbook! 

So there, Self-Pity-Monster!

I'll give it another go tomorrow. After all,

"Tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it."

Yet.

~Laura~