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My Challenge:
My #100DayArtChallenge is focused on making art a daily habit. I am a beginner and need to focus on foundations, including physical handling of mediums, observational skills, proportion, value and composition…the works! I drew a bit on and off growing up but stopped altogether 11+ years ago. I picked things back up last Autumn and am loving the journey.
The Plan:
My current plan is to rotate topics every 4-6 weeks to add diversity and discover what I like most. I intend to draw from live observation (aim: 50%) or photo/art reference every day, balancing between lessons, observation/copy, and fun exploration. My main mediums are charcoal, pencil, pen, and watercolour. I will try to do this in the afternoon (after work) but before 9:30pm.
I have some life situations coming up in the next couple months that will challenge me doing this everyday, but I want to start now to help motivate me through the rough patches.
Day 1:
Composition study of a movie scene/watercolour practice. I’ve been going through the Composition for Visual Artists course and have been paying more attention to how composition affects mood. One scene I love in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the introduction to the Shire and Frodo Baggins. I did a watercolour sketch of one scene (though I ended up overworking in some areas and underworking others). I hadn’t noticed how this shot is quite balanced, with the trees framing left and right and the grass framing the bottom. The contrast isn’t extreme and Frodo is facing into the scene rather than unbalancing it by facing out. Anyways, I think they did a great job showing the peaceful nature through composition.
Hi Kelsey, welcome to the challenge! I like this landscape… what a nice start!
If your life is anything like mine, showing up is half the battle so make sure to keep this fun.
I’ve noticed that people who go overly academic or microscopic often disappear after the first lap… my advice: make sure that you are in control of the challenge and not vice-versa.
Good luck!
Thanks, Ian! I’ll take your advice to heart…I’ll try to keep control and pace myself. Some days will be easier than others, to be sure.
Day 2:
I went for a walk and diverted from the main path to bare earth, which led through some woods and along a wall. At a clearing there was a random old door with light coming in from underneath. I thought that looked so neat and took a picture to draw later. I decided to practice doing the value scale (again described in the composition course). I also practiced with a new charcoal pencil (the orange Nitram charcoal stick), so that was nice.
Day 3:
Well, I made a post yesterday but I have no idea what happened to it! I’ll try to repost again…
I worked in the Beginning Drawing Atelier book yesterday and really struggled with blocking in forms. I keep using the border as a guide to gauge where to put my lines, but clearly that won’t work for live drawing. Pictured below is my blocking work (on the bottom right, obviously) compared to the original on the left.
Day 4:
Today was a really busy and I didn’t get home till about 9:30, so today’s practice was short. (If you see me posting and it seems like the day/afternoon, it’s cause I’m in the UK right now doing research.) I am going to try doing some value practice in watercolour.
I used a picture I took from the inside of the Elizabeth Lookout Tower in Budapest. It’s a small dark staircase but there are a few windows with light pouring in that made for some neat shapes on the stairs. I drew in the shapes and started erasing some of the linework in preparation for painting tomorrow.
Day 5:
Did the watercolour today of the Elizabeth Lookout Tower. Like many other old buildings, people have been putting locks on whatever bars they find, which can then be seen on the light coming through the windows.
For the painting, I have been following advice of keeping to a rather limited palette. I used burnt umber, ultramarine, crimson, and yellow ochre (Winsor & Newton watercolours). The paper warped rather badly today and I’m a bit sad about that.
Day 3:
Worked from Juliette Aristides’ Beginning Drawing Atelier book today. Juliette teaches as Gage Academy in Seattle, which wasn’t far from where I used to live. I love her books and kept hoping one day I could run into her. She is the reason I know about Ateliers and want to master charcoal and the figure. Anyways, I’ve got a long way to go still.
I have no idea what I’m doing when I block in. I can’t get the proportions correct and get lost once I start doing the finer angles. I have to measure things from the border to get it even somewhat close. Is that what I’m supposed to do?
Sounds like my next lessons need to be on blocking in and still life…
The whole thing:
The way to do a block-in will depend on your approach and the purpose of the drawing. Have you done our sight-size drawing course? If you like the Atelier approach that would be a good course to take (also Juliette’s course and the Russian Drawing Course).
No I have not! I plan to pick up the Russian Academic Drawing course again once I finish the next segment of the composition course (to finish off the Level 1 courses). I was planning to add in sight-size later on. Do you recommend the other way around?
Day 7:
Mostly went over videos from the composition course, but I did some thumbnails of art from Mary Blair, who did art for Disney (Peter Pan, Cinderella, the Small World ride, etc) after seeing Bill Perkins go over some of her art from Alice in Wonderland. It’s not as much as I’d like to have done, but it’s something.
Day 6:
Fixed a few things from yesterday’s watercolour. I went to the park with my charcoals and sketched thistle for a bit. The spikes on the leaves actually make a sine wave-type motion, which is pretty cool.
Day 8(?):
Well, I knew one of these days was going to be no-art. Unfortunately I got a bad headache midday yesterday and could not draw (or read, or work) for most of the day. Today I did some more tonal sketches from photos to see what should be my next ‘bigger’ work. I settled on this unfurling fern after struggling to get the pinna angles correct, which means I need the practice. I haven’t done all the clean up so you can see where I struggled with angles and some of the reworked sections.
The frond looks like some alien bug-plant hybrid in real life- that’s why I took the picture to begin with. It’ll be interesting to see if I can get that impression to come across in the final version.
Day 9:
Bit off more than I can chew. Tried using gouache for the second time in my life, used a new paper, new colours, new subject all at the same time. Here’s what progress I made today:
I need to finish the background and detailing and fix some pinna. Work in progress for sure.
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