The 100 Day Project: Day Twenty Six

Well, here we are again then. This time with something different, or the same, depending how you look at it after my previous post.

I follow @drawdailytogether on Instagram and have been meaning to draw along each week, but never have... Until today. The first photo for this new week of drawings was just the type of subject I fancied doing. I didn't quite plan out how I would make my shorts/reels for this different way of working so today's video is a bit all over the place I think, but I'll figure it out. Time lapse is probably the way to go.

I drew out the scene in pencil first as I haven't done this type of thing in such a small square sketchbook before. I then went over the lines with my Lamy Safari Vista with Rohrer & Klingner Sketch Ink in Lotte. I used my Roman Szmal Urban Sketchers Palette to colour with Blue Sky, Ultramarine Intense and Shadow Grey. It's been a while since I sketched a scene like this (I more often focus on one building), and I enjoyed it.

I'm not unhappy with the result. I quite like it actually. This Royal Talens Art Creations sketchbook isn't really made for such wet media, but it copes pretty well and I quite enjoy watercolour on non-watercolour paper. It does strange things and that can be fun.

Rebecca x

The 100 Day Project: A Quarter of the Way Review and Revelation

 Good evening, loves.

At this quarter way point in The 100 Day Project, I wanted to reflect on the project so far, and adjust course if necessary. When I looked through all of the pages, my favourite ones were the following four:

They are all watercolour pieces with line work involved quite heavily. That was food for thought. Then I did some art separately from this project yesterday, as part of a Patreon drawing session with Katie Moody. We were drawing our art supplies and I used my go-to style of ink lines, coloured with watercolour. I can't tell you how happy it made me after all this abstract stuff. I really enjoyed myself and I loved the finished illustration. That was all pretty telling... 

This brings me on to the remainder of the project. I'm not going to continue with the abstract play. I would like to complete the 100 days though! And I could think, looking back, "oh that was a waste of time", but this has been a really useful exercise. Abstract art is something I really admire and enjoy looking at, but through this endeavour, I have discovered that I don't like doing it myself and in fact, I am no good at it either. And that's ok. I don't have to have FOMO with abstract any more. I'm not missing it, and it's definitely not missing me! LOL.

Since picking up art again a couple of years ago, I gravitated towards a line & wash kind of deal with a bit of mixed media thrown in sometimes (a lot different to the acrylic pop art stuff I left behind in my early twenties). Sometimes the line would be pencil and the wash would be markers etc. but that was the general gist of it and my style was pretty illustrative. I always questioned whether this was really my thing, or if I was missing out on some other medium or style, or even if this was 'art' enough - I'm sure I can't be alone in this. But now I know that it really is my thing and my style, and that I'm not missing out. It's ok to admire other artist's work and not make work like that yourself. The art I feel drawn to make (can we just take a moment to enjoy that pun?!) IS 'art' enough.

This knowledge feels like a gift.

Rebecca x

The 100 Day Project: Days Twenty Four and Twenty Five

 Oh gosh, we're a quarter of the way through the project already! 

At this point I'm reflecting on the work I've done so far, and what I might want to do with the remaining three quarters. More on that tomorrow...

For now let's look at Day Twenty Four:

 This page was initially going to be another charcoal and watercolour piece, but it turned out horribly. So I painted over it with White acrylic paint, and into the wet paint, went some random bits of collage I have collected. I then added some acrylic ink and paint over the top of it in various ways. It's ok. I'm kind of 'meh' about it.

Let's move on to Day Twenty Five:

 So today's piece I like even less. I just wanted to play with my gelli plate really. I'd seen the magnolia tree in bloom and knew I wanted to include that somehow, but otherwise I was just whacking paint on and it shows. In hindsight, too much of a good thing. Less would have been more, no doubt. After the multiple layers of acrylic paint and inks, I finished it with a bit of an oil pastel drawing. I think it's a mess! Haha. Some of the texture and colour is quite interesting, but, no.

Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Rebecca x