This is how a warm-up page usually looks. Sketchbooks are great for warming up.
My hand was trying hard to translate for my eyes, so I was about on the third of six sketches of this one particular person in this one particular photo. Chas walked in.
I told him that drawing is a lot like exercise, in that you have to warm up your muscles before you can run.
I told him, also, that this person’s face was particularly difficult, so I had to keep trying to capture it until I was happy with the translation. I also explained that I was a little “out of shape.” 😉
“I’ll help you, mommy.” which he did, here and there.
He, too, was satisfied with the sixth drawing, that one in the lower right.
i love how each sketch is different from the last, yet so similar. i think it’s the eyes.
you asked about the chickens and rabbits (i don’t have your email) – the rabbit came first and she is free-range. honey bunny came to us last year, but spent her first few years of life in a cage 🙁 it’s been fun to watch her explore her freedom and go a little wild. the chickens are now free range too. we put them in their coop at night, but there is no containing them during the day now that they’ve tasted our little range (large corner lot in an old neighborhood = not so big range).
honey bunny sniffs the chickens sometimes, but hasn’t been agressive towards them ever. it will be interesting to see how the chickens behave as they get bigger. enjoy all your new babies!
You are right on about the warm-up. I tell my students that sketching is a search and you get better at finding it when you keep looking. I give them 1 piece of paper and a 4H (for the search or warm up) and an Ebony pencil for the “run”. The effect is that of a palimpsest.
Today was your Uncle Bill’s B-day. The last house he designed just resold and even though it’s a small house on a huge lot, the new owners are keeping it and not tearing it down. Bill’s fans celebrated with a party and in gratitude I gave the owners a drawing he did of the house.