365/4

I didn't work very hard on this today. I found it difficult to finish much of anything. Tomorrow I am sure will be better.

From 365:Body

365/3

Today it was difficult for me to stay on task, so on a very large paper, I started two sketches. I decided that all this week, I would work on the same sheet of paper and try to create a nice composition from the week's work.
So these two aren't worked as much as my last two sketches, but they are still interesting to look. I think the basic lines are a great foundation for the completion of these two. We will see what tomorrow brings.

365/2

I have to admit that I couldn't stop thinking about this project for most of last night. I was up nearly all night, so I had plenty to think about. I felt excited about art again for the first time in a very long time, for that I am already thankful for this project.

Only time will tell how long I will stay interested in my subject matter and I am very excited about the prospect of putting the drawings side by side to do a final once over and critique next year.

I chose to work on a larger paper today that was already toned. I chose a light blue 9"x12" charcoal paper. It seemed to work well for today's task. I changed the position of my hand and chose an open palm up pose.

I spent a few minutes looking at my hand and then started blocking in some basic lines. I had to stop and start several times throughout the day, there were many interruptions, including a sick Ms.V. Despite the day's challenges I still managed to finish and was happy with the result.

I enjoyed the challenge of the foreshortened fingers. It gave me some good practice at looking. I don't think I looked hard enough when I was working on the contour of the thumb and palm below the thumb. It doesn't have a very effective fleshyness. That is something for me to consider in the future.

I do think today's overall line quality is much more interesting than yesterday. I spent extra time at the end working in some thicker darker lines, making a few things pop out more. It did give some greater sense of depth.

365:Body

In the last few years I have watched and seen the progression of the 365 project. It has come from blogs all over and covers many subjects, mostly photography, but more recently a recipe 365 even became the center of a major motion picture.

My inspiration came from one of my friend's who just told me over pizza that she is starting a 365 project in photography. Another friend of mine, Tim, he did one in 2008 (http://tm366views.blogspot.com/). I didn't want to do a photography 365, it seemed that it didn't focus enough on the direction I intend to take this year with my work.

I did some searches and came across a tutorial on why anyone would want to do this tedious project. (http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/) I knew that had made major changes in my life in 2006 to lead a more creative and productive life and here I am in 2010 and I don't have a better grasp of my style, I am no better at my craft, and I have not done a great job of marketing myself.

I know that this 365 project will help me accomplish all of those goals and also it will get me writing and thinking about art again. It will also help me work on two of the components that I feel make a good artist better: inspiration and practice, both which require lots of patience and time.


Here comes the practice: My plan for this 365 project is to create a piece of art about the human body everyday for a year. It sounds so daunting, but I don't think it will be. I can do mobile uploads of the photos I take of my projects from nearly anywhere.


Also, I greatly miss the idea of practicing drawing. I can't recall the last time I sat and did a short sketch of anything. I picked the subject of my 365 to be the human body because it is a dynamic and ever changing subject, which many people, including myself, love to look at.


There is also the aspect of getting in the process of writing about my work again. In the past, nothing helped me progress my skills as an artist than writing about my work. It made me actively participate in the critique process of art. When forced to think about line quality, composition, balance, line weight, etc, it engages the mind in how things can or should be changed. It also helps create a focus on what I love about my own work and eventually will help me prefect my own style.

I will be uploading and maintaining the catalog of pictures of my work here:

365:Body

Wasting no time and solidifying my commitment to my work, I started today. In the future I will be taking much higher quality photographs and also most of these works will be for sale in one of my stores.

Thoughts on 365/1:

I felt really rusty beginning this project. The pencil felt nearly uncomfortable in my hand. I procrastinated by sharpening my pencil several times. I used watercolor paper with a light silver wash over the paper. I started with a 4H and then layered it with a 2B for variety in line and tone. I have known for years that I need to work on my overall line quality and variety. This sketch really shows it. I can already see that I need to work on darkening the more interesting and important lines in the sketch. In the future, I will also lose the eraser, I used it very little, but I think I will eliminate it completely at the end of the week.
I also noticed that my brain was no longer trained to keep my eyes on the subject. I spent more time looking at the paper than at my hand. This isn't lack of seeing will surely slow down my progression in this project. For the time being I may start each day with a few minutes of just looking at my subject for several minutes before I get out any paper at all.

Blogging My Way into the New Year!

After a long spell of introspection and a deep search for inspiration, I am ready to tackle this year head on with a long list of projects and products!
I am expanding my online presence and creating better branding and categorization of my products by opening up two additional Etsy Stores. I will list then names and links in separate blogs as they are opened in the near future.
I also plan to expand my business to a new venue: 1000Markets. I've been reading over their policies and taking a look at other sellers and I think it may be the right niche for me. I like that they don't have suppliers or vintage sellers.
In addition to these other online stores, I began my own dotcom in September, I should be finishing that and launching it later this month.
Also, I have an idea 3 new blogs which should keep me working, drawing, painting, creating, and writing all year long.
The 365:Body blog is a daily project, which will include sketches and studies of the body.
The Art History:Know my past is a weekly or bi-weekly project that is going to trace my current art loves back in time through their inspirations and stylistic counterparts to hopefully uncover more about my own work.
The Abstract Violet: crayon collaboration, will be a monthly project that will include discussions on abstraction through line drawings done by myself and my daughter together.
Stay tuned!
2010 is going to be a great year in life, love, art, and inspiration!