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.
Definitely promise to possibly pick up the pace on these perhaps maybe.
As always you can get instant updates on the Instagram.
125/365 The After Effects User Interface and the back of Tim Marriott. 15 mins whilst rendering. Uniball micro. Notebook: Ethel.126/365 Trying that thing where you include yourself in the picture, like that other person but not as good. Started with my hand and ended up with a very distorted version of my front room. Repurposed a page with an unfinished mind map on rigging in maya (the fourth in a series hence it petering out). V-ball. 15 mins Notebook: the very-soon-to-retired Ethel.127/365 Fairly rapid rendition of handmade jug still life. Time is limited. 5 mins Uni-ball eye micro Notebook: Myrtle128/365 Piano, Guitar, Drum-machine, Stool. 20 mins Pencil and Uniball Eye Micro. Notebook: Myrtle.129/365 Very gnarly old tree. Black Stabilo point 88. 10 mins Notebook: Myrtle130/365 Got a lift into work today, therefore car drawings. Uniball micro Notebook: Myrtle131/365 Dormer window in the new bit of the house. Drawn whilst waiting for previously mentioned lift. Uniball micro. 7 mins Notebook: Myrtle
117/365 Recently rediscovered missing parts of a vintage 16mm projector, the rest of which was donated to a beloved local cinema some 14 years ago. I’ve been in touch and fingers crossed all the component parts will be reunited soon. Uniball. 10 mins Notebook: Ethel118/365 Lunchtime sequential drawing of a random member of the white wire brigade enjoying the Indian Summer in various states of smart phone reading. Uniball 10 mins Notebook: Artemis (homemade)
119/365 Horses and riders at this weekend’s lesson. Drawn without looking (no glasses). Tried to pick up the pace on the second page. Will try and Vine these as an animation when I get the chance. 45 mins Blue Stabilo point 88. Notebook: Ethel
120/365 Selection of barns and various farm building near Tickenham, North Somerset. Drawn whilst hiding in the car from the cold. V-Ball. Notebook: Ethel. 20 mins121/365 Windows on Whiteladies Road. There’s plenty, I could do a whole book of these. Uniball micro. Notebook: Ethel Approx 20 mins intermittent whilst waiting for playblast renders.122/365 @mrtimmytimtim‘s coat hanging on the second floor door at BDH. Just tipped a third of the way through btw. Straight to Uniball. Notebook: Ethel Cumulatively about 15 mins.123/365 Saplings in Leigh Woods. About 10 mins all in. Notebook: Artemis. Uniball micro.124/365 Architectural detail, Bristol Temple Meads Railway Station. Waiting on Platform 5, sllightly hungover. There is no Platform 14. 15 mins V-ball Notebook: Artemis
102/365 Lunchtime car drawing. 10 mins Stabilo point 88. Notebook: Artemis.103/365 Fixing mechanism on the Draper Telescopic Trestle that supports my standing desk. Drawn whilst waiting for a thing. Uni ball micro. 7 mins. Notebook: Ethel.104/365 View from window at work. It’s taken some time this one. This is probably the fifth update? I thought I’d get the leaves done before they fell off again. Drawn whilst waiting for large framed Arnold test renders. Time: unknown. Pencil. Notebook: Ethel.105/365 Japanese anemones. Catching these before they keel over too. DRAW ALL THE FLORA ASAP. Coloured Stabilo point 88. 20 mins. Notebook: Ethel106/365 More work on the sketch of the beloved Vittoria begun on 91/365. Still warm enough to sit outside so. Pencil. 15 mins. Notebook: Ethel.107/365 Various species of scooter from outside Whiteladies Scooter shop. Some of them might be the same scooter, some of them may be the amalgamation of two. Lovely day though. 10 mins Straight to Uni-ball Eye Micro. Notebook: Artemis (homemade)108/365 Tea break drawing of the Gardena THS 400 which I recently have been wielding up ladders, trimming the hedges,bushes, trees and other rampant plant life as one does in the Autumn. 7 mins Straight to Uniball Micro. Notebook: Ethel.109/365 View across to the Ring o’Bells and the Holy Trinity from the Grove. Another bonus summer weekend, a walk in the park, football, jumpers for goalposts etc etc. Time for the bears to start hibernating soon, no? Two colour Stabilo point 88. 15 mins. Notebook: Ethel110/365 Desk fan. Dealing will the heat generated by the all heavy heavy brain activity. 15 mins Multicoloured Stabilo. Notebook: Ethel111/365 Shoes, trainers and boots of various kinds. Season changes, footware changes. Ka-Ching🎶!!! You know how it goes. Straight to Uniball Micro. 15 minutes. Notebook: Ethel
112/365 Half full glass on patterned table cloth. Multi-coloured Stabilo. 16 mins Notebook: Ethel.113/365 Dismaland doodling. Quite good there, it is. Very lucky to get tickets, thanks S. Anniversary treat. A reminder of life before parenthood. Uniball. Notebook: Artemis.114/365 Another lunch break pass at the architectural complexity that is the Vittoria. One more go after this and I think it might be done. Pencil Notebook: Ethel115/365 Saplings in Leigh Woods, drawn on the move whilst discussing the merits of time travel in narrative forms. It was agreed Days of Future Past was a bad example, I cited Philip K Dick’s The Skull as a good one. 5 mins (with distraction) Black Stabilo Notebook: Artemis.
116/365 Busy old week, just managed to fit in a big finish for the blessed Vittoria. I think the notebook paper has taken as much as it can with all the scratching away. Omitted the benches and the chalk board but they were always in different places each sitting. Pencil. Notebook: Ethel.
Again, who cares if I’m not daily. This collection contains drawings made during our 2 week family holiday to St. Ives Bay between Gwithian and Hayle. We had a wonderful time and it was something all of us needed after a particularly textural year. My only regret with these is I didn’t take any colour facility, but I was resting.
All images link through to the Instagram post from whence they came. An angel meets a fairy every time you click through and give one of the drawings a like.
90/365 White ladies Road walkers walking. Long day doing very slow test render frames, heavy ray tracing. Took to drawing people going by outside. There are two trees framing my vantage point, so I had 2 to 4 seconds (depending on pedestrian velocity) to see the individual, then made the marks after they had disappeared from view. Reminds me of a life drawing exercise where model and easel are placed in separate rooms, sometimes separate floors to promote the act of looking. Bonus traffic cones. V-ball. Notebook: Ethel
91/355 The hallowed Vittoria on Whiteladies Road. Home to the occasional accidentally lost evening. Currently doing a nice line in sandwiches. A bit rusty and I bit of more than I can chew with the architectural aspects. At some point one realises one should’ve measured stuff. Probably will return to this. 30mins. (Lunch break) Pencil. Notebook: Ethel.92/365 The washing up needed doing and I could only find a biro. 5 mins. Pen. Notebook: Ethel93/365 Fallen slightly behind in uploading these, so prepare for high volume. We just got back from 2 weeks in St. Ives Bay, and although the area has a reputation for art and drawing my main plan for the holiday was to do very little. However drawings did occur. Here’s some windows from the nearby town of Hayle. Straight to V-Ball. 2 mins. Notebook: Artemis.94/365 View of St Ives from the beach across the bay. If I had taken watercolours I could done a sketch of this every hour a not come up with two the same, the light and colour are constantly changing. Straight to V-Ball. 10 mins. Notebook: Ethel.95/365 I spent most of the holiday trying to be without my phone. So when my Youngest completed a rather impressive sand castle complex then asked me to take a photo, I crumbled with regret. The only option was to draw it instead (like they did in the old days). In the face of my obvious disappointment at the result, Youngest deemed it an accurate reflection of his efforts. Pencil. 15 minutes. Notebook: Ethel.96/365 One of the life guard stations on St. Ives Bay beach, partly hidden in the dunes and the grass. They attend from 10-6 to save your life. Blessed are they all. Pencil. 20 mins. Notebook: Ethel97/365 Sitting in the Ice Cream Parlour on the sea front of St. Ives (I wasn’t eating because I’m watching my figure), looking across the bay with Porthminster Beach on the right there. Fond memories of St Ives from many years past when lack of children meant we could visit out of season, and walk the empty beautiful streets at leisure. Still good though. Straight to V-Ball. 5 minutes. Notebook: Artemis98/365 Various people on the beach on St Ives Bay. Including surfers, families, lifeguards, hikers, dogs, flags, kites. Most of human life passing the time. Straight to V-Ball. 20 mins. Notebook: Ethel.99/365 Super fast rooftop study. Waiting for the shopping expedition to return. Hayle. Pencil. 4 mins. Notebook: Artemis100/365 That’s number ONE HUNDRED😀🎉🎉🎉🎉👌👍 Houses and shop fronts through bushes. Hayle. That’s bunting not Tibetan Prayer Flags #notbristol. Multicoloured biro. 15 mins Notebook: Ethel NUMBER ONE HUNDRED, I said. Dooosh!101/365 Godrevy Lighthouse viewed from St Ives Bay Beach. The last one for today you’ll be relieved to hear. Again given a watercolour set and the inclination I could’ve made a sketch every hour and ended the fortnight with a hundred and a half of pictures all very different in colour and mood such was the transient nature of the light there. Pencil. 25 mins Notebook: Ethel
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.
Paul Greer 