Challenge

It is never about winning or losing but about the challenge! Those were the words I heard while committing to #75challenge. Now mind you I already committed to doing daily videos for my YouTube Channel, and run the edge challenge (I briefly mentioned it here). And let me just add that I haven’t had a “word of the year” for the last 3 years because none of it felt good to do but this morning, while on my first workout for the day, listening to my audiobook, I recognized that this year my words are: “Challenge yourself”. I am the type of person that goes all in – it’s the getting on the airplane at 18 without looking back, it’s the starting a business and…

I fell off the drawing wagon because I have been dealing with a serious case of poison ivy – and who knew that I was so sensitive that I almost had to go to the doctors for it – but I didn’t go and just slathered myself in calamine lotion and a gazillion showers a day. And then I’ve been working on an order that came through as well as wood-burning every day. Anyway, the recent lessons are all about shapes and light and shadow and things and absolutely boring and yet absolutely necessary to learn. It’s one of the things that I understand the concept of where the light hits and where the shadow is hanging out. Putting it into practice is a little…

Today, I am turning shapes into a character. It was simple enough but I know that perspective may be a but of a struggle. As many books that I have about drawing, I realize that seeing how it’s done on video is helping me a lot more but that once I get the hang of it the books will come in handy because I am drawn to a very specific style of it. But learning the basics is definitely going to help me a lot more moving forward. But I am slightly impressed with myself here – I mean check her out. Not too shabby for my first shapes into a person drawing. But yeah I can definitely see where getting the hang of perspective…

Seeing shapes for drawings isn’t something I paid attention to when I started wood-burning. Why? Well because there are plenty of patterns to purchase in order to get started and the biggest focus is shading. So now that I am challenging myself to draw and don’t let me investments go to waste, it’s really like going back to basics – like when we first learned to draw as kids. Training myself to see shapes may be a bit more challenging for me – not sure yet. But that’s what today’s lesson was all about. Seeing the shapes in geometric form and then bringing them into an organic shape. Drawing the landscape in geometric shapes first and then giving them a bit more of a natural…

I just finished my personal Drawing Challenge and who knew I could semi draw a shoe. It’s interesting that after wood-burning for a lot of years and not outlining when I burn that drawing requires to have those lines. Today was spend on noticing the lines and shapes of an object as well as contouring lines to add dimension to the drawn object. I don’t think I did too terrible at this drawing and keep spewing the mantra “just do it – it doesn’t have to be perfect” in my head as I draw a line, erase a line, and draw another line. Shading on a wood-burning definitely comes a lot easier to me than using a pencil – which is why I resisted to…

I’ve invested quite a bit in art education but haven’t actually sat down to do the lessons and the work to improve my skills and so the time has come to show up for it. I can wood-burn from most patterns – it’s time to improve my drawing skills. Ok I may be biting off more than I can chew but I’ve been wanting to improve my drawing skills for quite some time … this is evidenced by the fact that I’ve invested in over 10 courses learning to draw.I have no problem wood-burning from an outline and often find patterns available but I really want to develop my own line drawings and sketches for said wood-burnings. So this is Day 1 … diving into…