Kathryn Downing

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Daily(?) sketches 13–16

You know how they say it takes 20 times of doing something in order to make it a habit? Well, I didn’t quite make it to twenty before I started neglecting the sketchbook. I’m not giving up though.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Daily Sketches 9-12

Sometimes, I just don’t know what to draw. For these, I started watching TV and pushed pause (we have a DVR box) when I found an interesting face/hat.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Daily Sketches 7-8

I took a trip to the Iowa Historical Building today to draw some of the taxidermy. I some ideas in my head involving antlers and lots of critters so I thought I’d draw some animals that wouldn’t move. I didn’t remember the museum lighting being so low. It was extremely dim inside the exhibit making it hard to see much detail of many of the animals. I drew several sketches, but some weren’t blog worthy. I also took photos to look at later. They’re on Flickr, so if you’re interested you can compare them to my chicken-scratch drawings.

Since I was there, I also checked out a WWI exhibit (which had some nice illustrated posters) and an exhibit on restored Iowa paintings. The display on how paintings are restored was really interesting. There was supposed to be a video demonstration as well, but it didn’t work no matter how many times I pushed the button. The paintings themselves were eye-opening for me. Some of them were the typical boring portraits of people I’ve never heard of, and landscapes of non-descript locations. There were some that were strangely intriguing though. I may have to do a something with beards/mustaches. There’s something about the unruly growth of hair that is rebellious and slightly creepy. I was also amazed at the care and detail taken with most portraits’ faces, but many of the torsos/bodies lacked much detail and many seemed amateurish. There was one painting in particular of a man with shelves in the background that I really liked. The shelves were filled with taxidermied animals and at first glance you’d think the guy was Dr. Doolittle or Snow White with all her little friends. I thought about taking photos, but the flash might have damaged the art and my camera sucks in low lighting without it.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Daily Sketches 3-6

Here are more sketches from this week. I don’t know who’s worse at sitting still—the dog or Troy. I felt pretty silly baby-talking Princess to get her to keep looking at me. She kept wanting to burrow into the blanket where I couldn’t see her face. So far, I’m not overly pleased with any of the drawings, but I’m going to keep plugging away at it. I’m sure I’ll get better. 

Monday, February 16, 2009

Stop making excuses and draw already!

I recently ordered and have been reading a book called An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers. I also went to the recent faculty art show at Grand View where everyone was asking if I was still producing art. Of course I said yes, and was too embarrassed to admit how little I’m producing and what a creative slump I’ve been in. I’ve been caught in a never-ending cycle. I don’t draw/paint much because I’m not happy with the results. I’m not happy with the results because my skills are out of practice. Add to that the feeling that I’ve never really found my voice as an artist. I think the only way to get there is to draw. A lot. For me drawing is more about ideas producing ideas than painting is. And the more I draw, the more I should start to develop my own style.

So I made myself a commitment to draw every day. It doesn’t have to be fancy and it doesn’t have to be good. Kind of like my pushups, I’ve just got to do them and get it over with each day. With enough practice I should be able to progress to knuckle pushups and clappers, but if I do nothing I’ll have weak flabby arms that I’m feel like I have to cover up all the time. I’m sick of trying to live up to some expectation of what my art should be. I just want to do it for the sake of doing it. Here are my first two sketches:

Now I have to hurry up and get started on tonight’s sketch so I can get some sleep!