Carrying on with postings from the past, I bring you this one, written two years ago today. The 100 Day project was a collaboration with my husband. He selected 100 photographs from his archives that matched a list of categories I had given him. I then attempted to make art out of his choices. We both enjoyed the process. In the pursuit of truth, I must admit that I didn’t make it to 100 days.
For today’s sketch, I wanted to try to draw a photograph of a sunset that Bill took during our trip to Italy several years ago.
This is the view from Medieval Assisi, which sits on a hill well above the surrounding landscape. He had shared it with me during our joint “100 Day Project,” back in 2023. I had never quite finished making 100 pieces of art out of Bill’s photos. This one I had wanted to turn into an art quilt. I had even done a fabric pull in anticipation.
It seems like an impossible task when I think about it now. But the first step is always to get a good drawing, from which to make a pattern. For this drawing I used graphite and colored pencils.
There’s no way for pencil to get the lustrous glow of a sunset the way a photograph can. But I did manage to render the shapes reasonably well.
On this sketching Sunday, I have two quick (sort of quick) sketches for the viewers to consider. First is my value study for the chickadee painting I am planning.
This image is a combination of the two chickadee photographs that Bill gave me for the 100Day Project.
He also gave me this delightful and slightly mysterious photograph of Lu’s face, as she peered through a wood structure at the CITY Museum in St Louis.
I did this study,
I intend to refine the drawing further, then ink like I did her brother’s portrait a few weeks back. This will be no. 44 in #The100dayproject.
Today I am pondering a painting subject that illustrates wintertime. Pretty quickly I settled on the humble chickadee. It is an ever curious, constantly moving little bird. Today our backyard chickadees are flying back and forth from the tube feeder. Each bird selects and grabs one sunflower before darting up to a tree branch where it consumes its quarry.
Fortunately for me, Bill has shared two photographs of chickadees suitable for my planned painting. But working out a composition that uses both birds is not coming easily to me.
Chickadee 1.
Chickadee 2.
My first try at a composition is awkward and unsatisfactory to me, so it won’t even get shared. I decided to make ink sketches of these two photographs, which will get them familiar and warm me up to the task.
On an 8 by 8 inch piece of paper, the little chickadee, which measures barely 4 inches, can be drawn at its full size. First, I worked out the placement using pencil, then inked the contours lines, adding value with various types of marks. My sweet subjects, black and white IRL, were rendered with ease.
This one is very curious indeed.
This one is demonstrating his love of sunflower seeds.
My two chickadee drawings are numbers 42 and 43 in the 100day project.
Now I need to figure out a scene that will serve as a setting for the two birds.
It feels like months since I worked on the 100 day project. But I have new inspiration that pushed me into making a sketch today.
Bill took this photo earlier in the year.
I have no idea how he got our grandson to pose AND to smile. There must have been a story to go along with this image. I’ll have to ask about it. Anyway, the photo touched my heart and motivated me to get out my pencil, eraser and Micron pen.
Here is my initial pencil sketch.
I worked on it sporadically over a few days, trying to get all the proportions and subtleties of the face accurate.
Today I inked my lines, refining shapes as I worked.
I used number .05 and .005 Micron pens, adding light hatch lines to indicate contours and shadow. The boy has a multitude of freckles, which I felt unable to render with any degree of delicacy. So, you get to see Henry freckle-free.
I believe this drawing brings me to Day 41 of the 100-day challenge. While I feel no particular urgency to reach 100 pieces of art before a year has passed, I’ll continue to plug away at the project. Bill continues to offer up excellent photographs for my artistic consideration.
Daily Fiber 