Loop to Loop

We've entered the busiest time of year in my university office.  Most days I just want to come home, collapse and eat nachos or hot fudge or both.  I'm stealing 10 minutes to leave these loopy photos here for you.

reclining husband on the phone

My husband is a talker.  If you know him, you're laughing at this understatement.  My yakking spouse made a decent first subject for the next exercise in the Art Escapes book - loop gesture sketches.  Movement and shape are captured using one quick continuously looping line.

still on the phone - switched to the other ear

This gesture method was a fast blast and the inner perfectionist slept through the whole thing.  I think the lines captured his pose & energy, but then, I was there and know what these actually represent.

Definitely adding this to my sketching warm up repertoire.

Art Before Taxes

Our tax man appointment is next week - early because of FAFSA due soon.  The 30 Day Challenge is in a holding pattern.  I am NOT giving up.  I AM doing paperwork.  Bleh.  Not my favorite kind of paperwork, but life's not all watercolor rainbows and happy stickmen.

Until next time - a few recent sketchbook pages...

The leaves were a natural for my first go at water soluble graphite pencils.
The sketchbook (start of this trek in that book) grew from an evening of dot, dot, dot...

I discovered posemaniacs.com last month - a website of figures in multiple poses.  It is a boon for those of us not terribly excited to wander around searching for moving strangers to sketch.  The changing pose option is fantastic for rapid gesture sketching - trying to capture just the line and movement of the figures.

A study of water drops (from photos).  We'll pretend the big ones are marbles.  Next time using real water.

Friday Fail - Weekend Recovery

It happened.  I made it a whole 11 days and then Friday - FAIL!  I didn't draw, doodle or sketch the whole entire day. Sigh.

Saturday we took part in the university homecoming parade.  Feeling guilty about Friday, I brought my little sketchbook.  We arrived early.  Directly in front of us was a float of flowers & straw bales & college kids bundled up against the first chilly fall day.  Then I did something I haven't done for many, and I mean MANY, years.  I opened the sketchbook in public.  The decorations were first, then the students in coats and hoods.  It was only two pages of incomplete figures - my models kept moving - but it was a milestone in this little journey.

Sunday evening came and I wasn't in the mood to be artsy.  We'd been working out in the cold all afternoon.  I was achy, tired & growing a headache.  Milo was sleeping across the room and I didn't want to get off the couch to attempt drawing him.  Humph!  I scrolled through my Pinterest board for ideas.  Guess I could do some gesture drawings of my hand . . . ten 20 second sketches, then ten 40 seconds and finally 2 minutes.  They started bleh, but as the 2 minute sketches progressed, I began appreciating how the lines improved and was glad I'd kicked my lazy self in the heinie.  I was still achy, sleepy & needing aspirin, but I had drawn.