Let's Draw at the Ekka - Brisbane Drawing Day Video

Things I Can't Draw

This Feb I started drawing my travel Zine. I had the notes and the ideas, but I had one major problem. I didn't like the drawings. I draw a lot these days but I draw very similar things. I never push myself so I thought I'd use March as a warm up month before I start drawing the zine. That is how I came up with the 'Things I Can't Draw' challenge. I made a list of all the things I hate drawing or never draw and set myself the challenge of doing one a day. 

So far it has been going well. I have found that most drawings go into one of three categories; 'This is more fun to draw than I thought', 'I can draw this if I spend time thinking about it' and 'I need lots of practice'.

Hands are something I draw every day but I always rush them and pig-headedly draw them without getting some reference. When I spent some time on them I was happy with the results. 

Scenery turned out to be really fun. I love how scenery drawings always come together when you ink them. The colours can be really expressionist and then the inked lines and details add life to the sketch. I'll definitely be doing more of them. 

Feet. I hate feet. I hate my feet. I don't like drawing feet. I will practice them more and hopefully grow to like drawing these weird mechanical yet organic objects. 

I'm only 10 days into the challenge but it has been fun so far. I have some hard days coming up but the results are pushing me through. 

What would be on your list of things you hate to draw? 

What I've Learnt - Drawing Vlog

I love drawing. I always have but I also suffer from artists burn out. I wanted to see if I could change my way of thinking and get more creative.

In work, I work so hard that by the time I come home I'm so tired that I only have enough energy to watch some telly. This was getting me nowhere both creativity wise and it meant I always had a lot of washing today at once. I got annoyed by this. I have mentioned on here before that I have started drawing more over the last few months so it seemed about time that I threw myself at a drawing challenge. It was a month long challenge where I tried to draw every day. It's funny how something can seem impossible before you do it and afterwards it seems impossible that you could think it was ever going to be that hard. It was great fun. I got a drawing out each day and although I wasn't happy with the level of skill they showed, I learnt a lot.

Here is a video talking about the lessons I learnt while sketching. Hopefully, they can help someone like me to not be afraid to pick up a pencil and scribble something:

Speed Drawing : Banjo the Otter

I asked my Mr to give me a speed challenge. He gave me the task of drawing a 'Banjo playing Otter' so this is a 15 min attempt at drawing one of the greatest creatures. The Otter.

The Endless Search for the Perfect Sketchbook

There are few words in the English language that set fear into the heart of my Mr more than 'I need a new sketchbook'. He knows that this means he'll have to scour the streets with me searching for the perfect blank pages for me to doodle on.
I absolutely love my sketchbooks. I am rubbish at keep journals or diary's so my sketchbook is the perfect reminder of where I was at any given time...plus doodling is the best. The perfect sketch book inspires me to be better and to draw more. All of my reasons for loving my book means that if I sacrifice the things I want from a new book, I end up hating it and using it as a notepad to write my Chinese take away order on. If I'm going to dedicate a year (or half a year when I'm being productive) then I want it to be the perfect book.

So here is my personal and insane criteria for buying the perfect sketchbook:

.No spiral bound books:
I realise I must be alone in this one since every sketch book in every store is spiral bound,  but it's one of the most important factors for me. I HATE spiral bound sketch books. The pages rip out easily, the spiral has a tendency to get squashed or break, the pages fall off....it is my general nightmare. I have tried and tried to get on board with this element of sketchbook design since it seems to be near impossible for a company to not stick a swirly piece of metal on their books, but alas I can't. Just say no to the spiral guys.

See through pages...don't make me laugh

.Thick paper:
This is the second most important factor. Sometimes I'll see a really pretty book, I'll see that the pages are thin or worst - see through - and I think to myself 'I'm sure it will be fine'....WRONG. Those pages need to be thick enough that I can build a fort if need be...or you know, something more reasonable like be able to watercolor paint on them if I want to. They need to be flat , not dimpled and if they are 'off white' then it's a plus. The joy of the perfect paper in a sketch book is oddly satisfying.  The touch of it, the smell, the smoothness of it.  I just love a blank sketch book. I want a book that makes me want to draw. That perfect blank page will actually make you want to deface it.

When I fall in love with a new cover

.Nice cover:
This one isn't essential, but if I'm going to be carrying a sketch book around every day it would be nice if it was pretty to look at. I've tried customising them myself but I like to hide my work on the inside. I'm never happy when I create the outside design. I found the perfect mythical sketchbook once , about 10 years ago. It had the prettiest pattern on it. It was so good I bought three. Then two and a half years later I'd used them all up. Since then all others pale in comparison...you can't forget your first love after all. Now I'm content if it's just a nice colour.

.A5: This is the last essential item on the list. It needs to fit in my handbag, hand luggage and in front of me while still giving me enough space to place my coffee cup (and optional cake). I can do a 'page full' drawing with detail or lots of little sketches. Plus in an emergency I can paint or draw across two pages for an A4 experience. People say that size doesn't matter. They obviously have never owned a sketch book. A5 is the perfect size. 

They trick me into thinking their perfect...but nope!

.Elastic to keep it together:
Now we get into the 'wouldn't it be nice if...' list. These are those things you add onto a list that aren't essential but would be great. Kind of like wishing the man you end up with loves cooking you eggs Benedict, has a high speed internet connection and an addiction to Netflix. A girl can dream.
An elastic attached to the book to keep it together is easy, a nice touch and makes it seem more professional when you grab it in a coffee shop because you just have to draw that funny dog that just passed the window. Keep it together man!


.Hardback cover:
Another non-essential, but in my magical make believe land where every drawing would make Glen Keane audibly say 'wozah' and unicorns prance around me, my sketch book also has a hardback cover. Is it essential ? No . Does it make drawing easier? YES. Are most of the great sketchbooks donned by a hardback cover..of course. I like to go between a hard back and a semi hard one...no jokes please, we are all adult here.

Take my money..no wait I changed my mind

.Doesn't cost a cabillion pound : This unfortunately has to be the last factor because I have been known to spend a disgusting amount on sketchbooks  in the past. I've spent the kind of amount where you lie if someone asks you how much it costs, or change the subject very quickly. The sad truth is that normally when you spend money the sketch book will be lots and lots better , but I  begrudge paying such crazy amount for blank paper...especially since if the kind of sketch book  I love happens to be in fashion then it will be everywhere for a fraction of the price. On these occasions it is perfectly reasonable to buy up a whole shops stock. When my baby sister was little she had a doll that she wouldn't let go of. My mum needed a way to pry the doll out of my sister hands because it was starting to smell so she went and bought 3 decoy dolls to distract my sister. What does this have to do with sketchbooks? Not much but it does prove that you can never have too much of a good thing. And that my mum was an evil genius.

I know that everyone reading this list will just be shouting ...'JUST BUY A MOLESKIN'..which is a valued point but they are so stupidly expensive for what they are and (as crazy as it sounds) the fact everyone has them kind of makes them feel a little soulless. Then again this may just be my bitter poor inner voice.

So the search for the perfect sketchbook continues. I may have made a break through on the case with my recent search. The shop had the perfect book but only in poo-shade so I ordered a prettier colour online. Will it be the one ? Who knows but a girl just has to keep searching.

Now I just need to find the perfect pencil........

Pun Sketches

Here are some drawings I managed to color today.

The Baking Gentleman

This past week has been a little slice of heaven. I have been paid to sit at my desk for 8 hours. In Korea they call it 'Desk Warming' and its the name given the to school holidays when foreign teachers still have to come to work. This means I had a chance to make a bit of a dent in my to do list.

One of my lovely friends is starting a business soon so he asked me to design a logo for him. He is a fantastic chef and was willing to pay me in bagels so I was all in.

The concept was icon and simple. The name of the blog and shop will be 'The Baking Gentleman' so I had lots of fun coming up with ideas.

Here is the process and the final product:

Kiddie's logo design

A local charity that my lovely friend works for were  looking for some logo designs. It was a very quick project and they wanted a 'child like' style but nothing too far away from their old design so they were still recognizable.

Here is what we came up with:

Website header for the site and facebook page

first draft

final colour concepts

Character Concept Course

At the moment I am taking part in a www.skillshare.com course called 'Character concept art: From inital sketch to final design'.
The course only cost $10 and I am enjoying every part of it.
I love drawing but as a CG animator some times drawing can fall below the actual animation itself. Luckily for me I spent my uni years with a fantastic talented bunch of stop mo and 2d animators so it was fantastic motivation to learn to draw but as most things work and life got in the way.
So I thought it was time for some revision. This website is the perfect option. Not only are all courses really cheap but I can do them at my own pace. My plan is to spend the next year doing as many courses as possible but here is what i've been up to so far:

I really struggled to come up with a theme as I have so many things I want to draw.
I chose the carnival theme because i'm addicted to the tv show parks and recreations at the moment which for some reason made my weird mind jump to this. Plus I have a weird obsession with early eras such as victorian times and I thought I could try and include some steam punk elements.
I'm mainly concentrating on weight lifters, snake charmers, bearded ladies, dwarf clowns and siamese twins.
I don't draw much so this is going to be a huge challenge for me so all of the feed back and critiques you guys can give me would be really appriciated.
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I am very new to anatomy and real life figure drawing so my lines of action need some work.
It definitley helped me to see which drawings were working better. I picked a few and very roughly started defining  shapes.

I've moved onto a refining stage and I just accidently started to concentrate on these two designs. I added a dog to my grumpy clown and I really like the bearded lady concept so I changed my snake charmer to a steam punk hot bearded lady.

I have kept the big body builder on the sheet to remind me I want to still work on him later.
This is only the first phase of the course but i'm really enjoying it.

Drawing on experience

I remember being in life drawing when I was 17. I was struggling so much to draw what I could see. It frustrated me to the point that I wanted to throw my pencil down and give up.

After seeing my frustration I remember my teacher telling me a fascinating fact. At the age of 12 our brains have reached a stage where we understand the world around us. When we can’t draw that world exactly as we see it we get angry. 89% of people give up on drawing at this hurdle. That is why most peoples drawing skills are the same as they were age 12. We never tried to improve.

I was in my life drawing class trying to push through this barrier when my teacher showed me a famous sketch of a lady. I have no idea what it was but it was beautiful.

He told me to take it home and copy it. This shocked me. Surely copying is wrong!

This is when I discovered the artist secret. Everyone copies. Not original work obviously but to learn how to do those fantastic drawings even Adres Deja copied the greats to harness their skills when they were starting out.

It seems quite obvious when I read it written down. As a young children most artist spend their days copying comics or the cartoons on TV but as a (almost) grown up it didn’t seem like an option I could use. It seemed weak and sneaky.

Of course there are still problems with this method. You can become too use to someone else’s style and not create your own and you might also rely to heavily on seeing the drawing instead of thinking about what it is you need to achieve but as long as you use it as a teaching aid it will improve your drawings beyond belief.

During University I was lucky enough to live with a lot of 2d animators. Each one possessed drawing skills I would have killed for. I started off the year being determined to improve. After drawing every day and copying my favorite artists I could see a noticeable difference. My drawings no longer represented something a drugged monkey would do.

Unfortunately as time went on and my job became hectic drawing took a back seat.

I look at the drawings I was doing a few years ago and I wish I’d kept up with the work since drawing is definitely a skill that needs practice.

Since living in Korea I have had a lot of free time to draw and although my level is still awful, I’m getting there slowly.

One of my favorite things to do, especially if I’m going on a long trip, is I print out drawing mood boards.

In ‘Word’ I copy and paste photos, illustrations, logos or even clothes I like the look of.

I carry it in my sketch book and when I get the chance I use it to firstly, help me practice and secondly to inspire me to draw something I can be proud of.

Its my own personal printed ‘Pinterest’.

My advice to anyone who’s itching to regain or gain their drawing skills is to print out some of your favorite images. You won’t have to waste time wondering to yourself what to draw on that daunting blank page and most importantly it will be a guide.

A silent teacher there to help. It is something I’ve done ever since I was 17 and I would recommend it, even to great artists. If you know you are in the mood to draw animals then print of a collage page filled with photos of animals and maybe some different artist’s representations of them.

P.s Make sure if you are copying that your practice drawings are just for you. Once you are only using them for inspiration then share share share.

Good Luck

30 days of drawing

Ladies and Gents, Pencils at the ready....and....begin