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Twelve Twelve Twelve #1 (prologue)
I’m twenty-nine days late to the party but my first entry’s a no-brainer. It’s been a hard fall for me, but somewhere at the outset there was a day where things felt like they were working. I had spent the morning reading a story I had written the night before to my son. It was a perfect morning. Then, like I always do, I shelved the story.
I’m going to take whatever time I can find tomorrow and work out a first draft dummy for my first entry in this project. And then I guess I’ll post it here.
12×12 in 2012. But First…
I found this thing today and filled out the form but I’m not sure if I’m registered.
So, anyway… owls!
I found myself doodling owls a lot last year.
For no good reason.
But now I have a reason, kind of, so I’m drawing more.
I wanted to draw a barn owl.
Sharpie!
Oil pastels!
It came to this.
That last one was inspired by this. Oh, then there was this one.
It’s catching:
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Blah Blah Blah
Tired of my voice yet? I am. But it feels like it’s helping.
Watercolor Sketching
Alright, so after reaching this point where I lost interest in the story in the last post I thought I should try another way of roughing out a story. I went with watercolors because they were right next to me, I keep gravitating towards them and, as I discovered, my lack of proficiency in the medium allows me to experiment more freely.
I didn’t feel I was doing anything noteworthy until the seventeenth panel. And the two following were both surprising and pleasing to me. Number 18, especially.
I could see the finished art beyond that one. Thinking ahead is usually paralyzing to me but in this case I wanted to see it through.
Any lessons learned? I’ve known this about myself, that I see things in black and white, but I didn’t realize how deeply it defines how I approach my work. Though I love the look of watercolors in children’s books, I have more to gain from them as a means, not an end†. Meaning, the looseness and fluidity I found in sketching with watercolors is something I should let flow into the rest of my creative habits.
† And one doesn’t exclude the other.
Drawing
Watching this video of Jim Woodring drawing Frank with such care and precision made me realize I need to take more time with some of my characters. This penguin particularly.
I’m trying to see things less in black and white. I have a tendency to focus too much on balancing spontaneity and precision but this always winds up with me feeling trapped and a drawing that feels forced. What I’m realizing (finally) is that what’s at stake isn’t being able to draw a character the same way twice but being able to draw at all. Drawing might be difficult, at times it is probably guaranteed to be, but it shouldn’t be dreadful.
This video reminded me there is a meditative aspect in drawing a character slowly and precisely–something like tracing a mandala or walking a labyrinth. I know I will benefit from cultivating that patience. I worked on a story this morning. Somewhere in the middle of it my pace slowed and I found myself enjoying myself. After an hour and a half I started to get bored*. That will be a challenge for another day.
* But I didn’t start falling asleep.
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Behind Schedule
For a project to go on Etsy. I was hoping to have it done ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Afternoon on the Beach in the Fog
This one I’m actually going to blame on the scanner.
We stood on the shore and looked at the fog. If it was fog. Everything just beyond arm’s reach had been erased. Not blanketed, not shrouded, erased. The bay itself now only extended a few feet from the shore. We knew this because there were no waves. There was no bay full of ships, no ocean with tides. Just this shining ribbon of water between us and the edge of our story.
Fall Guy
I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with watercolors. That is, I know what I’m doing with them, I want to know what I’m doing with them, I just don’t know what I’m doing when I’m doing them. Anyway, inspired by this:
street scene
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Risiko
I don’t know how to translate the moments of my days into pictures and words. How would Lewis Trondheim do it?
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Things I Like
Leaves being blown down a deserted street on a clear fall day.
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