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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Taking the time...365 Days of Drawing







With just over two months to go of this daily 2010 drawing challenge, unbroken so far, I decided that I need to push myself even more to learn and stay interested.

This challenge was always for me about improving my drawing skill set, taking it to the next level. Nothing more, nothing less. It has been VERY beneficial to do a different drawing EVERY day facing different uses of line. My skill set has definitely improved from the range of daily subject matter.

Now I feel the need -and interest- to take more time on some of the drawings and record the stages. To really work on the 'finish' when the mood suits me, perhaps over a couple of days as in the case of this drawing and the last one of the child I posted.

The challenge was to commit to drawing for half an hour every single day. It was not to churn out new ones every day as I have been doing for many months.

To this end, I post this drawing today, life-size, which I finished this afternoon. I started it Friday night, did about an hour and a half Saturday and another today. I started with a simple line drawing, then doing everything I could to break down the line, thinking mass, good shapes of light and shadow around values, making the half-tone value lighter than it appears (thanks Morgan!) and lastly edges. Lost and found. Hard and soft. Yin and Yang.

Sometimes the drawing looks better to me in the early stages!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love your sepia drawings!! Thank you for posting the drawing process....for someone like me with little skills it is soo helpful to see the stages you go thru...you are so gifted Johanna!!!

Johanna Spinks said...

Thank you Anon. Please know I am not gifted, but I have been given the gift of a truely great teacher. I appreciate your comment very much. With hard work, commitment and a love for what one is doing, anything is possible. Email me if you need at any time. Maybe I can tell you some good books that might help.