30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 30 (Thursday, 5/23)

I can't believe it's the last day of the challenge! I have enjoyed myself, and I hope the few of you who followed along the whole, tedious time did, too! I honestly found myself reaching for skills that I had not used in a long time for a lot of these drawings, and I'm glad I made myself do it. I have also reawakened the daily desire to make art that is a gluttonous thing; the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets. So, today is the last assignment. I think I might take a few days with it, and I am going to try to combine a literal and a metaphorical interpretation.

30. A self portrait

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views
23. An object that you always see from one view, from another
24. A room, where a corner is directly in front of you
25. Something dead
26. Something alive
27. A landscape
28. Something you owned in the past

29. Something you hope to own (Or have or see) in the future

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 29 (Wednesday, 5/22)

This is a partner to yesterday's challenge, and a nice way to almost wrap this thing up:

29. Something you hope to own (or have or experience) in the future

When Tony and I got married, we did it in the courthouse and never had a big wedding. We still want to have a ceremony at some point, and I really really want to wear a wedding dress. Plus I wanted to do one little fashion drawing before this thing ends :)

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views
23. An object that you always see from one view, from another
24. A room, where a corner is directly in front of you
25. Something dead
26. Something alive
27. A landscape
28. Something you owned in the past

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 28 (Tuesday 2/21)

28. Something you owned in the past

My son actually has one of these now, but my siblings and I had one throughout our whole childhood. It probably still lives in the basement at the house I grew up in in Woodbine. Pencil and sharpie. 

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views
23. An object that you always see from one view, from another
24. A room, where a corner is directly in front of you
25. Something dead
26. Something alive
27. A landscape

30 Drawing Chllenge: Day 27 (Monday, 5/20)

I can't believe the drawing challenge will end this week! It feels like it has been way more than a month. Well, it has, with the skipped weekends... but I digress. I feel as if I have been reaching for some skills I haven't used in a while, so this has been useful. The first challenge of the final week is:

27. A landscape

I mad this on a really fantastic ipad app called Procreate while following along (not very faithfully) to the Best of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, which is a hobby of mine. This was the first time I thought to reconfigure the scatter on the airbrush tool to make leaves! woohoo! 

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views
23. An object that you always see from one view, from another
24. A room, where a corner is directly in front of you
25. Something dead
26. Something alive

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 26 (Friday, 5/17)

As a counter to yesterday's melancholy,

26. Something alive

One of the blossoms from our magnolia tree? sidewalk chalk. 

Previous Challenges:
1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views
23. An object that you always see from one view, from another
24. A room, where a corner is directly in front of you
25. Something dead

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 25 (Thursday, 5/16)

I don't have a good lead-in for this, except that you can get kind of creative with it depending on how you take it...
25. Something dead

A dead and shriveled gardenia blossom from my backyard. graphite.

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views
23. An object that you always see from one view, from another
24. A room, where a corner is directly in front of you

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 24 (Wednesday, 5/15)

One more perspective exercise, and one that drives me crazy:

24. A room, where a corner is directly in front of you.

Previous Challenges:
1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views
23. An object that you always see from one view, from another

As I mentioned above, I hate this perspective. I never liked one point, and I don't remember how to do it correctly. So I just picked up a sharpie, threw a little New Orleans wonk in it, and called it a day. 

\

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 23 (Tuesday, 5/14)

Today's challenge could be very similar to yesterday's, in a way, but if you find an object that fits the challenge really well, I think it could be fun.

23. An object that you ALWAYS see from only one angle, from another

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character
22. One object from three different views

This perspective is a little strange because you can see the real life table and no surface is drawn in, I am just now realizing, but this is a picture frame that sits on my mantel, from the back. Pencil and sharpie. 

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 22 (Monday, 5/13)

I skipped another Friday. I'm sorry; I am a horrible drawing challenge leader. Anyway, today and for the next few days are some perspective-type exercises.

22. One object from 3 different views

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object
21. A TV character

Three relatively sloppy pen studies of a banana. This banana is slightly more ripe than I can handle. 

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 21 (Thursday, 5/9)

I planned this one with something specific thing in mind, but now I don't know if I'm up for it. Either way, we are stuck with it because to change challenges on a whim would just be to draw what I feel like drawing, which is not the purpose of this exercise. So,

21. A TV character

Previous Challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow
20. A transparent object

Jesse Pinkman. Graphite... BITCH!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 20 (Wednesday, 5/8)

Today is another continuation of the fundamental-type stuff we have been doing the past two days. This is something I personally really enjoyed when I was first learning to draw. It's also something I haven't really done in a long time!

20. A transparent object

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare
19. An object with a strong shadow

This guy is a little drunk and wonky! conte on construction paper. 

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 19 (Tuesday, 5/7)

Today is a continuation of the theme we started yesterday, and may be similar depending on how you interpreted that challenge, due to the nature of light.

19. An object that casts a strong shadow (and its shadow, obviously)

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say
18. An object with a strong glare

The only thing at all interesting about this image is that I created it on a Buddha Board, which is a very cool board on which you paint with water. Your strokes start black and fade gradually, so you have to plan ahead to create different grades of gray. The philosophy behind a Buddha Board is that it is meditative to create evolving and temporary creative works. It's a product I love. 

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 18 (Monday, 5/6)

Hello everyone. You may have noticed that I skipped a day on Friday. I had friends form home in town from Maryland, and thus afforded myself a three-day weekend. Sorry I didn't give you a heads up. Anyway, today and for the next few days I planned some fundamental-building type exercises that might be fun and might not depending on what kind of person you are.

18. An object with a strong glare

Previous challenges:

1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country
17. The first word you learned to say

This is an item that should be familiar to anyone who spent a lot of time with me in my early 20s: A straight razor that was intended for cutting hair but that I began bringing with me everywhere as an all purpose tool/ protection. This is graphite, a little bit rough, but I am happy with it for the time I had to do it. 

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 17 (Thursday 5/2)

Here's one to force you to talk to your parents:

17. The first word you learned to say


1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday
16. A symbol of your country

"kitty"

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 16 (Wednesday 5/1)

16. A Symbol of your country, which in many ways is related to yesterday's challenge, a symbol of your favorite holiday. Often, the ways in which we celebrate holidays reflect the culture of our nations.

Previous challenges:
1. Your bed
2. Someone you love
3. An animal
4. A food item
5. Your favorite room in your home
6. Something that reminds you of childhood
7. Something in your kitchen
8. The view out of your favorite window
9. An eye
10. A hand
11. A mouth
12. Your favorite feature on your body
13. Your favorite feature on someone else's body
14. a Leaf
15. A symbol of your favorite holiday

An American Bald Eagle. Black and white conte, yellow glitter crayon, pencil on construction paper.