A 365 daily drawing project begun in good faith, but thwarted by life, death, progress and other forces. I have since scaled it back to “regular” but I still aim to fulfil the 365 target.
The process has thrown up so many unexpected things, ideas, personal development, a noticing of what I notice, discovery of stories, and connection with other people, none of which would have happened otherwise. So I would recommend trying it, as long as you don’t mind loosing time and don’t value your sanity much.
I was talking to a friend yesterday about this kind of regular drawing and discussing if it gets easier as you go, if there are any patterns or systematic ways of doing each drawing that makes it easier as you go. But I have found that if I try and emulate a previous success it usually ends with a weak picture or a mess.
With each one of these I feel like I am starting again from scratch, like an adventure, and the ones that work really well are often those where I end with something I wasn’t expecting when I began. They transcend my plan.
I would like to experiment with materials more but usually they are done on the fly when I just have a pencil and a Uniball in my pocket. The onion picture below I did at home so had various different media available.
132/365 Beryl the patterdale terrier sleeping in the office. Uniball Micro. Notebook: Myrtle133/365 Small collection of winterified pots down by Shed A, on another rainiest day ever. Pencil and Uniball micro 10 mins Notebook: Myrtle134/365 Bowl of onions, Sunday afternoon. Kuretake multinibs, Sanguine oil sepia pencil, pencil and Uni-ball micro. 20 mins. Notebook: Myrtle135/365 Desperate attempt at hamster cage. Feeling unwell, if that’s a excuse. 20 mins Uniball micro, Stabilo point 88, disappointment. Notebook: Myrtle136/365 Occasional table. Still Ill. Pencil Notebook: Myrtle137/365 Youngest trying out some animation on the big telly. Straight to V-Ball. 10 mins Notebook: Myrtle138/365 Various vehicles parked throughout the day on Whiteladies Road. Pencil and V-ball. 5mins per car. Notebook: Myrtle.139/365 People walking on Whiteladies Road. Cold Spring Day. Pencil and Uni-Ball. 10 seconds – 2 minutes per figure. Notebook: Myrtle.140/365 Farm gate with distant golf course. 20 mins Pencil and Uni-ball. Notebook: Myrtle.
Progress, progress, limping into action. Always reminding myself how it gets easier the more often I do it so it encourages me to keep going. The pockets of time are there it is usually just a question of being ruthless with oneself.
So if drawing had value even when it was practised by people with no talent, it was for Ruskin because drawing can teach us to see: to notice properly rather than gaze absentmindedly. In the process of recreating with our own hand what lies before our eyes, we naturally move from a position of observing beauty in a loose way to one where we acquire a deep understanding of its parts.
Couple this with the basic idea of habit forming and applied consistency:
Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working-day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning, to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out. Silently, between all the details of his business, the power of judging in all that class of matter will have built itself up within him as a possession that will never pass away. Young people should know this truth in advance. The ignorance of it has probably engendered more discouragement and faint-heartedness in youths embarking on arduous careers than all other causes put together.
Back to my efforts. As ever there is a link to the Instagram post in the caption of the picture:
83/365 Week off art. Drawing the bed before the weeding. Buttercups and honeysuckle. I am officially in 3rd gear. Straight to Uni-ball micro. 30 mins. Notebook: Ethel.84/365 Tree stumps drawn on the slow move in Leigh Woods. Pen Notebook: Artemis86/365 Hanging branch of Russian Vine with a hint of shed. Pencil. Notebook: Ethel87/365 It was Three Dog Friday at BDH towers today. Beryl, Rufus and Ralph. Patterdale Terrier, Boxer and Cavalier Poodle Cross respectively. Some cubist elements due to constant movement. Uniball Micro. Notebook: Ethel.88/365 Throwback to last Thursday’s #BDHunzipped event. That’s Steve, John and Rob (the B, the D and the H respectively) on stage there, being asked questions about their twenty years since founding the company. I meant to do a series but I forgot my glasses so I basically drew this blind, then got lost in the endless spiral of a Rob’s scarf. Pencil. Notebook: Artemis89/365 Another catch up. Very fast doodle of the insides of the fridge at my beloved local chip shop. Filled with a variety of sugary enticing nastiness. Drawn at speed. V-ball. Notebook: Artemis.
I thought I would start posting these sketched here directly, as well as on Instagram. It gives me more free reign to add rambling thoughts afterwards.
75/365
Drawn without looking. I went in quite hard with the snapseed as you can tell.
I’m not sure what happened. I was waiting to go out and so sat and drew a chair, then watch myself in slow motion as I added “1/365” and then posted it on the internet.
Drawing everyday is obviously an aspiration that gets pushed aside with everyday business, work and (here’s the rub) mechanical distractions. I never draw as much as I want to. So launching the spectre of mild internet shame upon failure may well encourage me to do more.
I have always felt the activity was 90% looking, and judging by what what below one could say that is all that I was doing.
I am not one of those that drawing has some magic potential over photography, both encourage a paying attention to the everyday, and then a potential to pull something extraordinary out of it.
Hopefully I can keep this rolling. Once again it is largely for my benefit, but perhaps there might be some enjoyment to be gained as I stumble, question myself, draw badly with no signs of improvement, hate everything, hurredly scribble something at the end of the day etc etc, so follow me on Instagram for immediate and possible calamitous updates, if you so wish.
Anyone else on a 365 project?
(Below I have added the comment I posted on Instagram and the link to the original post. All but two are drawn from life. Day 3 is a copy of a Chris Ware sketch and Day 9 a study of feet found on the tumblr hashtag. I will probably just draw things from life from now on as I seem to get most from that. Also avoids infringing on someone’s copyright which is extremely uncool.)
1/365….. Oh dear, did I just type that? Yes, yes I did. http://instagram.com/p/o8R9xIny6M/2/365. Drawn straight to ink in homemade pocket book (message me for instructions) whilst waiting in car park for delivery of supplies for twin 10 year birthday Sunday afternoon pizza blow out. Two panel doodle comic comes free of charge.
3/365 After C Ware, ANLDB 1, pg 141.
4/365. Terrible attempt at clothing. Yes, that is a Test Your Pet pencil.
5/#365. Random dude eating chop suey(?) on the wall outside. Coloured ballpoint whilst waiting for fluid cache and landsat download.
6/365. Varoius clientele sitting outside coffee shop on Whiteladies Road. Drawn during lunch break. Pencil.
7/365. Windows and soil pipes. Pilot Vball on paper. Looking out window whilst upgrading PC render node and listening to Mex v Cam.
8/365. Page of horse heads. Drawn during Second Eldests riding lesson.
9/365 Foot studies from various sources off of t’internet.
10/365. Attempt at the northern side of the Tynedale Baptist Church, Whiteladies Road. Pencil. 20 mins.
Paul Greer 