arts

A Little Texture Attracts the Eye, Doodle #78

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One of the hardest things for me to as an artist is to convey texture in my drawings. Over the years I developed into pseudo cartoonist. I like the simplicity of line drawings which can convey a lot with only a few lines. Once I started to play around with pastels I found textures can be conveyed with a few strokes of the chalk pastel. Even in acrylics I can convey texture by the way I lay down the brush strokes or the materials I use to create mixed media creations.

Now that I have switched back to pencil, pen and marker to create my daily doodles I have again been trying to learn how to create texture with a few strokes of the pen. Today’s doodle is a pencil drawing where I have tried to convey texture in the woman and her clothing using a few pencil strokes. While the work is incomplete I have learned to be more patient with the details and look for the texture in whatever I am drawing.

I think life is the same way. We spend so much time speeding through each day we forget to take the time to look at all the textures which abound in the people we meet and places we travel. It is the textures which give the world and people God created their beauty, their individuality and uniqueness. Life is all about textures so stop trying to smooth out all the rough edges and create what you want, instead be satisfied with what is already there.

It’s All in the Details, Doodle #77

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I must admit as an artist there are times I struggle with the details. I find that I am more creative and more satisfied creating quick sketches with a little color added to make the picture pop. Today’s doodle, “The Sunflower,” is a little more detailed than I usually create. In the back of my mind I would love to be a more detailed artist and have tried various books in order to learn. The problem with books however is books do not give you the feedback you need when you’re trying to improve your art work. If anyone wants to be my tutor I would be glad for the help.

What does this ramble mean? The answer is this. When it comes to living your life whether you’re a person of faith or not it is hard to learn what you need on your own. it is also hard to learn what you need from just a book even when the book is filled with pictures. In the end what we all need is for someone who is more learned than we are to come along side of us to help us learn what we need to know.

As an artist if there are any low cost or free art classes you can take, make sure you take them. It is in these kind of classes I learned I could draw more than just simple cartoons. If you are a believer attend a church where you have access to men and woman of faith who you can go to in order to help you understand the Bible more clearly.

The Pattern in Life, Doodle #75

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As an artist the first thing that pops into my mind when I hear the word pattern, today’s prompt, is a zentangle. As a football fan who is in the midst of NFL free agency and roots for a team in need of wide receivers my mind of course went to a wide out.

A wide out or wide receiver makes their by catching the ball thrown to them by the quarterback. A good wide out can find a way to gt free from the defender and catch the ball. A bad wide out, well he doesn’t have a very good pass to catch ratio. What does all this have to do with you? Maybe not a lot but it does offer us an analogy for being and artist as well as in our living our daily lives.

As an artist we must be a good wide out who avoids all the defenders (internal and external distractions to creating our art). These distractions come from many sources, critics, well meaning friends as well as other sources. The key to avoiding the defenders is to keep on moving forward with our art by practicing, practicing, practicing even when every ounce of our being is telling us to just give up.

In life we elude the defenders by doing as Paul says in Philippians 3:14, “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”There are always going to be obstacles in life, the key to reaching a goal is learning how to go through the obstacles and come out the other side stronger and more knowledgeable.  I hope you enjoy today’s doodle a zentangle of a cat entitled “Tangled Cat.”

Not So Shiny After All, Doodle #71

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It might seem odd me to offer up a horse and buggy for a prompt such as shiny but it’s not really. I live near Lancaster, PA so for the last thirty plus years I have my share of the black and grey Amish horse drawn buggy’s. The Amish from what I was told when I first moved to this area do not like shiny objects. There are various reasons why but  leads me to an explanation of today’s  drawing.

Life is made up of two types of people the shiny people and the people like the Amish who try and avoid being shiny people. Shiny people are those who love to flaunt what they have every chance they get. They brag about everything shining their accomplishments in your eyes trying to blind you to what lies beneath.

On the other hand people who are not so shiny do their deeds in the background. They shy away from shining the light on themselves. These are the people who may or may not have a lot themselves but use what they have to benefit others. One of the aspects of the Amish community I love is the fact that when one member of the community is down the others rally around them in order to help them get back on their feet.

One of my favorite verses is Philippians 2:3 which reminds me as well as others to, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

Life is a Mystery, Doodle #61

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babyOn this auspicious day of March 2nd the prompt for the daily doodle is a mystery. No I mean the prompt was to draw something based on the word mystery.  I spent quite a few hours pondering this one.

The reason I chose the baby and the puppy was because to me life is a mystery. Science seeks to explain life away as a process but to me life is more than a process. It is a miracle wrapped up in a mystery which can only be answered by a faith in God.  I know there will be those who disagree but that is okay. I hope you enjoy my picture “A Girl and Her Dog.”

The Boston Terrier, Doodle #60

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boston-terrier

The doodle prompt for March 1st was to doodle something ordinary. Well what is more or ordinary or more comforting then the face of your favorite . Whole I currently don’t have a pet my son does have a Boston Terrier the one pictured is not his.

Daily Timeout for Art

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girl-with-flowers

The final theme for February was gold. I could have gone in a lot of directions with this one but instead I chose to go with a piece entitled “Golden Haired Girl and Her Flowers.” The piece is a simple one done in colored pencil.

Daily Timeout for Art #56

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birs-and-berries

The prompt for today, berries. I turned a bunch of ideas over in my head until I came up with the idea a bird eating some berries from a tree. While the piece titled, “Bird and Berries” did not turn out the way I wanted I am still satisfied with the end result. I have set a course recently to learn how to be more adept with colored and watercolor pencils. I have always used pastels and acrylics for their brightness of color.

No offense to all of you who use oil paints or inks but oils are hard for me to use and inks cost more than I can afford. I decided on color pencils and am trying get more vibrant colors in my renderings. I am also venturing out with my drawings because I got tired of doing just landscapes or abstracts.I hope you enjoy today’s offering it is my truly venture into doing a lifelike bird.

Daily Timeout for Art #53

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fish-hat

I love art because it allows you to take what you visualize in you mind and put it down on paper. My process for art is to pick up my pen or pencil and as Uncle Jed would say, “Commence to Drawing.” There are times how ever when you get a prompt for drawing something and the prompt like today’s which involved drawing something to do with water turns into something entirely different then you planned.

Originally I planned on doing a building reflected into a puddle but what I chose instead was to add a gold fish bowl to an illustration of man leaning on a counter. The piece entitled “Gold Fish Bowl Hat,” is my diving into learning how to do simple illustrations. I love working with acrylics but drawing simple illustrations give a quick result to creating something .