Getting Back into Art

It’s been a good day here in my little art studio, even though it wasn’t quite as successful as I might have hoped. Having finished my drawing of Flower Child — and being pleased with the result — I jumped into doing another cat drawing. This one, sad to say, wasn’t good. It was an instance of pushing myself a bit too far, and although I made a valiant attempt with a lot of erasing, re-doing, and trying different things, I wasn’t able to come up with a drawing that satisfied me. But I’m not giving up. I’m going to choose a different reference photo — the one I used was problematic for me — and I’m going to give it another try.

Despite that disappointment, I did enjoy the day. I even enjoyed trying to draw Hopie, the subject of my failed attempt. She’s a cute kittie, and sooner or later I’ll be sharing a drawing of her. Just making the attempt, however, gave me a lot of good practice and helped me take another step forward in improving my drawing ability.

Today was also the day I completed the “pear drawing” you saw yesterday. Done in graphite, it, too, was a great way to practice my drawing skills, and if you’ve read the previous post, you know that I learned a lot from the experience.

I’ve come to the point where being back in the studio feels good. I look forward to each project, each lesson I review, each opportunity I have to brush up on the skills I’d once developed. I’m in the process now of re-visiting different media, getting familiar again not just with graphite, but with charcoal and colored pencils.

Charcoal drawings have always caught my attention — not as an artist, but as an art lover. When I first began learning to use charcoal I had fun, but I really made a lot of messes. Not entirely my fault, of course! Charcoal IS messy. In my hands, it’s really bad. But, all the same, it’s fun.

Anyway, for my first “new” charcoal project, I choose another pear reference photo. Charcoal drawing is best done on gray paper, and I’ve ordered a new pad from Amazon. But I couldn’t wait until it’s delivered later this week. I was too eager to get my hands on those charcoal pencils and see what I could do.

I’m pleased to say that I can see improvement from my older charcoal drawings. Even though this little drawing isn’t what it’s supposed to be, I still am happy with it. Again, it’s supposed to be on gray paper, and then I’m supposed to do a background with white charcoal (which, for the record isn’t really charcoal at all, but that’s beside the point). I just used a page out of a mixed media sketch book, had fun with my charcoal pencils, and came away with a drawing that I think is actually quite good — for me.

Considering that this is the first time I’ve done a charcoal drawing in years, it’s not bad! And what impressed me the most is that it’s not covered with smudges and fingerprints, as happened with so many of my older charcoal drawings. I actually kept my fingers clean!

Once I get my gray paper, I’ll most likely do another pear, add highlights with white charcoal, and complete the background. I’m looking forward to it!

And yes, Hopie girl, I’ll draw a picture of you, too. Today’s effort fell short, but some days and some drawings are like that. Overall, I’ve had a good time being back in the studio, and it’s fun to get re-acquainted with all my art supplies.