It's only Tuesday, isn't it?
It feels as though it should be Thursday, at least. Oh well. Perhaps I'll be handed oodles of money between now and the real Thursday and I'll look back to today and be all kinds of grateful that I didn't miss out on those days after all. HA! Judging by past experiences, not likely. I got a call a bit ago from my daughter letting me know that after I left for work this morning my son accidentally broke one of the sliding mirrors in the bathroom vanity. I could have done without that.
Speaking of my daughter, remember how I said that I would hopefully be posting her "tea" drawing today? You probably have noticed that it's not here. Well, she left it at her mother's apartment. Perhaps later in the week.
I'm surprised at how many people commented on my "tea" drawing and said how much they appreciated the glimpse at the process I went through making it. I'll see if I can remember to do that again next time.
I will say, the whole "scribble" technique is time consuming and tedious. I used it on the illustration for the horror story last night and it felt like it was taking forever. Not that I minded really. As I'm doing it I tend to slip into a zen trance and time flies by. Anyhow, I sent off four versions of the final illustration this morning and I'm waiting to hear back. Part of me is thinking, "Not bad getting it to them on Tuesday when I had until Friday." And the other part is thinking, "It looks like crap and you should have taken until Friday and done it better, doofus. You will never hear from them again. NEVER." I can't wait to see which part of me is right.
As far as tedious drawing exercises, I'm not a stranger to them. Some time last year I posted my stipple "Brahminy kite" drawing (link) that I made in college back in 1993. I believe I mentioned that it was one of two pieces that I'd submitted to my college's (mandatory) student show to take a Gold award. The other was a scratch board drawing of some flowers that I did for a mixed media class. I only submitted it because the instructor went nuts over it and insisted that I do. Well, I finally decided to try to strip it out of the "fantastic" frame that I'd put it in for the show. This frame was so fantastic that it made use of duct tape and possibly Super 77 adhesive spray. Not being certain just what type of adhesive I'd used to stick it to the illustration board that made up the backing, I decided to cut around the edges of the drawing. In the end I won and didn't damage the drawing. Go me.
For those of you unfamiliar with just what scratch board is and how it works, here's a quick explanation. You have this semi-thick paper that has a black coating on it that you "draw" on by scratching the black surface away, exposing the white paper behind it. There are specific tools that are used, however I've forgotten their names. "Paddle scratcher"? "Dinker"? ... Hell, I don't know. I do know that a needle works quite well for detailed areas. It's such fun and done before you know it. There you go.
No point in dragging this out any longer. Here's my scratch board flowers drawing (click to biggify):
And a spot of detail:
I guess it's not so bad for my first and only try at the medium. I always liked the effect that could be achieved, but I hated the process.
I honestly don't know which took longer, the bird or the buds.
Speaking of my daughter, remember how I said that I would hopefully be posting her "tea" drawing today? You probably have noticed that it's not here. Well, she left it at her mother's apartment. Perhaps later in the week.
I'm surprised at how many people commented on my "tea" drawing and said how much they appreciated the glimpse at the process I went through making it. I'll see if I can remember to do that again next time.
I will say, the whole "scribble" technique is time consuming and tedious. I used it on the illustration for the horror story last night and it felt like it was taking forever. Not that I minded really. As I'm doing it I tend to slip into a zen trance and time flies by. Anyhow, I sent off four versions of the final illustration this morning and I'm waiting to hear back. Part of me is thinking, "Not bad getting it to them on Tuesday when I had until Friday." And the other part is thinking, "It looks like crap and you should have taken until Friday and done it better, doofus. You will never hear from them again. NEVER." I can't wait to see which part of me is right.
As far as tedious drawing exercises, I'm not a stranger to them. Some time last year I posted my stipple "Brahminy kite" drawing (link) that I made in college back in 1993. I believe I mentioned that it was one of two pieces that I'd submitted to my college's (mandatory) student show to take a Gold award. The other was a scratch board drawing of some flowers that I did for a mixed media class. I only submitted it because the instructor went nuts over it and insisted that I do. Well, I finally decided to try to strip it out of the "fantastic" frame that I'd put it in for the show. This frame was so fantastic that it made use of duct tape and possibly Super 77 adhesive spray. Not being certain just what type of adhesive I'd used to stick it to the illustration board that made up the backing, I decided to cut around the edges of the drawing. In the end I won and didn't damage the drawing. Go me.
For those of you unfamiliar with just what scratch board is and how it works, here's a quick explanation. You have this semi-thick paper that has a black coating on it that you "draw" on by scratching the black surface away, exposing the white paper behind it. There are specific tools that are used, however I've forgotten their names. "Paddle scratcher"? "Dinker"? ... Hell, I don't know. I do know that a needle works quite well for detailed areas. It's such fun and done before you know it. There you go.
No point in dragging this out any longer. Here's my scratch board flowers drawing (click to biggify):
And a spot of detail:
I guess it's not so bad for my first and only try at the medium. I always liked the effect that could be achieved, but I hated the process.
I honestly don't know which took longer, the bird or the buds.
Comments
so, what do you do with all this talent these days? (i'm not reading you regularly)