Day #33

Challenge: Use pens as your material/inspiration today.  Draw with them, use them as construction material, or...?

What a cinch!  I am comfortable drawing with pens, but then I felt boring.  I decided to pair drawing in pen with painting with watercolor, something I am not comfortable with at all.  Lately I've been looking at a few loose paintings with pen drawings underneath and I really enjoy the effect.  I'm generally a big fan of layers.  I especially love this work by an artist I just happened upon today, I think it's all those fine lines and a bit of a retro feel.

So I drew a little picture of a tree and did some watercolor over it, then highlighted some painted areas with pen again:

So I wasn't 100% thrilled with this picture, and I really wanted to play around with the watercolors more, do I did a second painting with an base drawing in pen:

So I know that her features aren't proportional and there are a lot of light and shading issues, but I wasn't thinking too much while I was painting her.  Mostly, I was having fun using different brushes, strokes, and blending colors.  Here are a couple detail shots:

I find that I can be both very gestural and controlled, and I have to find the right balance to execute a piece to my liking.  Maybe this is why I stuck to sculpture!  I don't seem to have that issue when I throw an extra dimension in the mix.  

Handy

Blogger (or blooger as I mistakenly typed before that) was down last night when I intended to post, so here is yesterday's challenge.

Day 11: Work on the other hand.  Pick a medium you're comfortable with, then work with your nondominant hand.

I'm a righty, and I doodle trees and flowers all the time, mostly when I'm on the phone, so I decided to check out my left handed drawing skills.  Here's a typical righty drawing:

I was short on time yesterday and wanted to keep my drawing pretty basic anyway, anticipating that my left hand would be totally shaky and do things I didn't want it to, so here's my lefty tree drawing:

I actually love the gestural and free quality of this drawing!  I will have to keep my left hand in mind when I'm working on drawings or paintings in the future and I want to take a different approach.