Look For the Good

I was happy with today’s “Shapes and Forms” drawing exercise — #37 in my series of 100.

Each morning I pull wooden blocks at random — so there’s no advance planning or preparation for these exercises, except that I alternate between using 1 “white wooden egg” and 2 “white wooden eggs”. Which, as you know, aren’t really “white” at all!

Today was a 1-egg day, so I drew out 2 wooden blocks, and surprise! Both blocks were somewhat spherical in nature. One was a round ball — a true sphere — and the other was a large oval shape, but not quite a perfect oval. It’s more like a potato, if you ask me.

How fun to draw these 3 “rounded, curved” shapes all in one exercise. First, though, it was a challenge just to set them up. They kept rolling off! I finally positioned them in such a way that they were still, and I quickly set to work with my templates. I’ve come to love using my templates to get the shapes and sizes accurate. How did I ever do shapes and forms without templates? Not very well, obviously.

I’m still having vision problems, so I’m not expecting any great results from these daily exercises. I’m only hoping to see (1) an improved attitude on my part (2) more accurate shapes and forms from my use of the templates, and (3) maybe some slight improvements or understanding of shading techniques.

More than ever right now, it’s important for me to stay positive, to focus on whatever good I can find in the drawing exercises I do. This morning, I was pleased because I can clearly see “good things” in this drawing.

My shadows are much, much better than usual! I think this is because, with rounded or curved forms, I can more clearly understand where and how the shadows fall. I think I did a good job on adding the texture to the oval and sphere. And… maybe the shading is a little better… maybe?

These days, I’ll take whatever good I can find, wherever I can find it! And being able to find even a little good makes me very happy.