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Although my Arizona trip didn't yield any amazing drawings, it did give me time to think about drawing, and this blog in general...
One interesting aspect of having a "drawing per day" blog, is the real or imagined audience that's created on the internet. It's positive, in the sense, that it forces me to stick with my plan of drawing everyday......however, it's negative in the sense, that it put's undo pressure on these drawings being "good" or accomplished.  I think this limits my willingness to experiment or push the boundaries of what I'm comfortable with.
I draw pretty slowly......which has always been a problem, and while traveling around AZ., I often was stuck with very little time to express what I was seeing or doing without resorting to cliches or formula.......
I won't improve by doing the same thing repeatedly........with that in mind, I'm gonna try for the rest of the month to work a little outside my comfort zone.
Bear with me.

                                                                juicer setup at the bar........

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                                                             When in doubt.....draw cats.

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I did miss this gal alot....

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                                                         man in airport, airport vehicles

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                                                                        vegetation 

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                                                                     The Van.......
                                                  It smelled very bad near the end

                                                               cole manes

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I had maybe five minutes to draw this before it got dark.....

It's hard to draw in the dark.

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                                                                         Corndog!

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So while my Arizona trip was great, as far as drawing time goes, it was kind of a bust.........
There was alot of travelling in the van, riding bikes, taking photos, getting food poisoning, and freezing in the Arizona desert at night.
Also, I brought two pens that both exploded, so I was forced to scavenge for pens in restaurants and in the cushions of rental cars......
It is what it is.

 Emi in the van.

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The first month is just about over.....and I have thirty drawings to show for it.
Thanks for following my progress so far.
I'll be out of town and away from the computer for the next eight days getting a tan in sunny Arizona, so I won't be updating.
But I'll still be drawing and will return with a grip of new posts.
Here's a kitty drawing to tide you over until then.

                                                                               Cute.

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Not the best likeness of Saska, but a beginning effort to do some smallish gauche paintings from life.

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This drawing is pretty odd....
I got a little carried away with the coffee grinder, and then just lost enthusiasm for the whole thing.
This angle of the kitchen could make for an interesting drawing with all the dish cleaning accoutrement and cupboards half open/closed....but that grinder is like a tonal dream, and the lure of fresh ground coffee kept me from concentrating.
Maybe I'll try again in a few months.

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Tough day on the drawing front.......I hit up hipbone studio for the life drawing session, but I just wasn't feeling it and left disappointed with the results.
Here's some heavily cropped leftovers....

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I didn't want to date stamp this because I liked the compositional starkness.....
but I stuck with the system.

P.s. I was really happy with how the knot behind the clipper turned out.....

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One thing I want to work on more, is drawing things that aren't figure oriented.
I always find it difficult to maintain a lively line and keep interested in just objects.....

with that in mind, this is the top of our cabinet at home.
We have alot of odd things.

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Originally I hadn't intended to use this drawing of Ira at coffee for today's post.
It was way too uptight, and my pen ran out of ink halfway through.
Then I decided that this is way more representative of the majority of life drawings I do........
Just that constant struggle to actually SEE and not over think the process.
"learn to fail better"
That's what we were discussing while I drew this.
Apropos.

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I had a long day....all I could come up with, is these wind-up toys

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I spilled beer on this drawing while in the grip of Blazermania..........but we won anyhow.

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I sometimes head over to hipbone studios and drop in on the life drawing session...
Often I'm disappointed with the results (life drawing's hard!)....but occasionally I feel like I'm making some progress.
That's how I felt today. 

Gesture drawing start the session out. I really hate this, but I try to draw fast....and pick up a general sense of the figure.

Then 5 minute poses......which I still struggle with.
I work on the shape of the head and hands on these.

Next is the 15 minute poses....I feel a bit more comfortable with this time frame, I work on a likeness (although not very good on this drawing) and try to come up with a way to represent the hair.
Also, I try to pay more attention to the spacial relationships of the arms and legs.

Finally the 30 minute poses. I feel the most comfortable with this. It gives me time to achieve a reasonable likeness, suss out spacial relationships, and begin thinking about shadows.

Another 30 minute pose....
All these are in ballpoint pen, on either printing paper or cold pressed drawing paper with low grit.

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I've been pretty busy as of late, so I didn't have much time or energy to dedicate to drawing today....
so I spent twenty minutes or so jammin' out this lil' drawing of Walter "Furry" Lewis.
I screwed up on the guitar and lost interest after that.....so I didn't draw his sweet peg leg.

bummer.

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Hey friends....
Halfway through the first month and I'm still makin' drawings......some (ahem) better than others.
It's been a struggle at times to get excited to draw......but the daily practice has been rewarding and sometimes frustrating.
When I came up with the original scheme for the blog, I wanted it to be really simple (a date, a drawing).
Soon I realized what a boring format that is.....so I'm gonna make an effort to write a little about the drawings on the day (how long it took, media, inspiration, subject, etc..).
Today's drawing is for Cardinal.....
the guru of camera drawing..

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