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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sketch, Sketch, Sketch

Sketch, Sketch, Sketch

But first a contest. Some time ago I opened an Etsy account but I haven’t done much with it. I’m going to but first I’d like some feedback about what to put in it. One thought I had was my watercolor monoprints. I decided to ask all of you and one of you who respond will get an original watercolor monoprint. I do a new blog post every weekend and post either Sunday or Monday.  When I post next weekend I’ll also check the number of comments on this post and use the Random Number Generator to select a winner. To have a chance to win you’ll have to comment. Here’s the monoprint…

Flowers on the patio

Now about sketching -- I had been in the habit of sketching constantly; I carried some sort of sketchbook with me everywhere I went. For Valentines Day my husband gave me a wonderful book on sketching, An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory. He was hesitant because he knew it was something I did and he wasn’t sure I would find it interesting. That’s because he’s a lawyer, not an artist. It’s a wonderful look into the sketchbooks of several other artists. I love it! It was also a wake-up call.

In the past several months I found that I was only sketching about once a week. I tell my students to do it daily but I wasn’t following my own rule. Recently we were in Chicago and I was back to doing it everywhere we went. It was obvious to me that I hadn’t been doing it as regularly – my sketching wasn’t as good as I knew it could be. It’s like anything else, one needs to practice. In fact, I have often said it isn’t the gift of being able to draw, the gift is that I actually enjoy the practice. Sketching is a way to keep the drawing skills sharp -- eye-hand coordination. It’s just for me so it really doesn’t matter if it isn’t any good or if I try experimenting with something just for the fun of it not caring if the result is good or bad. Or maybe I just want to work on something like foreshortening – that’s a tough one and I always have trouble with it.

It’s time to get back to regular sketching – everyday. I’m challenging myself. Just do it!

This is one of the Chicago sketches. Every now and then I’ll do another blog on sketching and show you some improvement (I hope.)

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4 comments:

Dean H. said...

Helen, I think any and everything you do can be put up on Etsy.
From watercolor monoprints, dolls, ornaments...whatever...it would all work! It's all handmade and art.

Of course if you choose to specialize, that's up to you.

Good luck with it.

Anonymous said...

Yay! I love to see your sketches, all the little pieces of inspiration that can result in a full blown watercolor study or monoprint. I will be watching. I love the print, it sweeps me back to a summer afternoon on the wide porch of the Grand Hotel, I can almost smell the flowers.
Barb Post

Anonymous said...

I agree with Dean. All of your work has your stamp on it. I am a huge fan of the pours. No, the monoprints. No, the dolls.... see what I mean?

Li

Catherine Kendrick said...

Hi Helen, I have always admired your work. Would hang all of it on my wall or shelf! Wanna bring a few over? ;-) Go for it!