Drew’s 100 Days of Sketchbook Completions

[Drew Art]

So after thinking about what I’d like to do this year I decided to revisit some of my sketchbooks and just start filling up the pages with whatever is already there and draw over it or incorporate it. This challenge forces me to go back and examine my growth as an artist. I get to look back at old ideas and breakdown what went wrong or why I stopped at a certain point with that drawing. Essentially this is forcing me to overcome one of the biggest issues every artist faces: completing an idea regardless of the results. I have some basic rules to follow that are fairly simple and easy to commit to:

Rules to Completing my Sketchbook(s)

1. There is restrictions to whatever mediums I can use so long as:

• A) I don’t mix mediums that don’t mix together
• B) The paper can paper can said medium being used
• C) Allow myself to learn how to use new mediums without worrying about results

2. When visiting a new (or old) page the following must be kept in mind:

• If the page has been drawn on before work a theme around or against the drawing already.
• Any page (regardless if drawn on or blank) must have roughly 80% of its space covered in something creative.
• An old page that has a drawing should be worked on with the same medium or related mediums in order to prevent page from being wasted.
• Any old page already filled to the 80% mark will be skipped. Unless I plan to add touch ups or draw on top (highly unlikely).

3. There are no specific guidelines on what I ought to draw, this is more or less an exercise in spontaneous creativity. Whilst that is happening I do need to take a before and after photo to show my process.

4. If/when the sketchbook is completed before 100 days a video review will be put up (on my instagram or elsewhere) reviewing the overall experience, process, and final critique.

That’s basically it. Here’s Day 1:

Today I revisit one of my smaller sketchbooks and started on page one (bottom photo). After looking at it for a couple of minutes I couldn’t recall what I was going for but had to somehow draw around the body. So I went wild and started to think about fruit and fitness and figured why not? This was done using pen and stablo highlighters.
I’m honestly kind of impressed that I managed to incorporate the woman in a fake food-fit poster but do love that I pulled in off. I guess the focus for today was: some bits of fitness fashion, color theory, collage, and character design. I wonder what tomorrow will be.

[Drew Art]

Day 2:

Today I didn’t have anything on the second page on my sketchbook to draw over, just a totally blank page. Took me all day to figure out what I wanted to do and decided to go to Barnes & Noble to look up some images to get inspiration. I came across a book on Sci-Fi art and a book on flower arrangements. An idea stuck me, “why don’t I draw sci-fi characters that involve plants and mechanical parts.
like before I wanted to fill up the page and thought the main focus should involve character design and color theory. I drew four individuals that cover a large portion of the genre: a scientist who took things too far; a mysterious creature that is mechanical, organic, and magical; an extraterrestrial plant that became an alien life form that was experimented on; and a robot lost to time but is slowly being destroyed by time and nature. The main colors were blue, red, yellow, and green as they typically cover different color wheels. These were the results:

The Mad Scientist

The Being of Unknown Origins

The Extraterrestrial 

The Robot

*Bonus:

I really enjoyed the concept of the Mystery Being so much that I actually did a clean refined version.

I had a lot of fun with today’s experiment.

[Drew Art]

“Day 3”

So my birthday had passed this weekend which kinda interfered with my drawing schedule. But I still managed to eventually get back on track. Kind of. I’m making up for lost time by doubling up and tripling the artwork on some days. Like Day 2 I had another blank page to work with. It seems to me that I left numerous amounts of empty pages in my old sketchbooks and hadn’t noticed that til I started this challenge. Anyways, since I had free reign I thought I’d try for another set of four characters from a different genre, fantasy. I really didn’t know how things would turn out as this is not one of my strongest subjects but figured I should just go for it and revisit it later if I choose to. Like the sci-fi drawings I wanted to draw characters that I typically found in all forms of the genre. I drew (from left to right) a fairy, a knight, a wizard, And an orc. As I was developing designs I kind wanted them all to sort look the same so I choose the cool blue to unite them by largely using a set of cool colors. I kind of like it. Hope I get to revisit these.

The Fairy:

The Knight:

The Wizard:

The Orc:

[Drew Art]

“Day 4”

For the third time in a row I have another blank page. This time I decide to work off of a genre almost everyone is familiar with, horror. Like before I try to draw a set of 4 characters that are unified but distinct from one another. I wanted to clarify that for these character designs I’m using a Pentel Calligraphy brush pen and a set of colored pens to fill in the space. The two mediums actually don’t mix well which gives the colors a rough grayish tone from picking up some of the black outline. I actually like the effects it gives because it feels kind of lively to me. Anyway getting back to the point I wanted to do some monster drawings out of the horror genre. Specifically, the undead. There are many different creatures that fit into this category which can making choosing hard so I decided to draw the “life cycle of the dead.” As you can see We have a ghost (mid-left), a dried up zombie (mid-right), a skeleton (right), and a surprise addition; Frankenstein’s monster. The first 3 mentioned are fairly straightforward: if you die but your soul can’t rest you become a ghost. If you died with all your flesh gone but somehow animate your bones that would be a type of possession. If you came back by means of magic or science gone wrong you might become a zombie (results of physical decomposition may vary). And final something of an oddity, the nameless creature from Mary Shelly’s book. Frankenstein’s monster, as most people are familiar with, is comprised of part taken from several corpses and reanimated to life creating a monster that is kind of in a limbo of life and death. I wanted his look to be simple as a small drawing but definitely plan to revisit the design: 

Frankenstein’s Monster: is he technically alive or undead?

A Ghost:

The Zombie:

Bare Bones:

[Drew Art]

“Day 5”

I just realized I didn’t check the grammar in the 1st rule of this Challenge. It’s suppose to read as:

”There are no restrictions on what kind of Mediums I can use.”

Now onto page 5. This time around I finally reached a page that was left with a subtle sketch of a dragon. As usual I plan to fill the page with color and design in mind. I find that I have a habit of only using highlighters and pens which is interesting to say the least. Anyways here’s what I came up with from its first stage (as an original sketch), a mid way stage (color application), and final stage (use of pen outlines). 

[Author]

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