Saturday, September 10, 2011

Jumping into Illustration Friday.

I'm so excited.  I've been letting my art kind of sit by the wayside, and I work on it when I have time.  I have kept up with my photography, but my drawing and painting skills are kind of getting rusty.  I just wasn't feeling creative (it's been lurking over me for quite some time), but all at once I've been feeling more creative than I have in years.  I guess my slump is over.  I wanted a sketchbook that made me want to use it.  Our local library has an ongoing book sale (a quarter a piece or five for a dollar).  I went and found some of the biggest hardbound books.  The one I chose for my first sketchbook is over 800 pages.  Yep, high ambition.  I taped the spine and added an apt title.  I also gessoed some of the pages, but I think I'm going to just tape paper in over the original pages.  I think it will work splendidly, especially when you consider 'real' sketchbooks cost about ten bucks a piece and I now have a huge one for less than a quarter.  Now that's being economical.  

A goal I've had for awhile is to participate in Illustration Friday which gives prompts to draw every week, and more recently to participate in the Virtual Paintout which uses Google Streetview as a resource for their monthly locations to paint.  I figured if I got in the habit of doing them, then I'd get in some much needed practice for my drawing and painting.  I've already got some sketches for this week's IF prompt, and I'll be looking for some usable views for this months location too.
My new awesome sketchbook, made by me.

Home by Novogratz had a buck-deer-pegasus a few episodes ago, I really liked it, so I did a quick sketch.

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "Boundaries."  All I could think of was an old woman sitting on her porch with a gun defending her land.
So, that's that.  Wish me luck on filling up my 800 pages with lots of wondrous sketches.  I'm thinking it will be a challenge, but a fun one.  Plus, be on the look out for new non-photography works in the shop.

Have a great weekend!

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