29 Faces Challenge Day 4

Sketching throughout a magazine, especially when the cover has such juicy color or pattern, is one of my favorite ways to recycle and practice my craft. I was drawn to the red and pattern of this cover and decided it would make a unique 'flesh' for the face I would sketch. The clock was set for 8 minutes and I was off. 

I sketched the male face with a Uniball Needle fine liner then painted the negative space to bring out the form. Sketching fast and loose makes me let go of control and allow the shapes to flow more freely. Male faces are becoming a favorite of mine as well as this challenge! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit my blog and leave a comment for this challenge, that means a lot! 
Click HERE to view all of the faces in this series. 

Journaling, Workshops, and Sketching, Oh My!

Well, there are days and then.....there are days. If you know me personally, then most likely you know some hint of my medical journey, my miraculous medical journey. One day I will write it out, the craziness of it, the unexpected miracles along the way, but for today, I just chose to spend some time journaling about it, or at least about the spine. 

The amount of x-rays I have filed on my computer would convince someone that I was studying to become a Radiologist of some sort. I 'collected' my own, used them when I taught Science, and have a folder of them on my FB page so that home school friends can show their kids what fusions, joint replacements, and screws look like. I even have a plan that when this body decides to kick the bucket, it will go to a local med school so I can leave the world teaching. 

This morning, after choosing the next page in my book, which just so happens to be a chapel, I decided to sketch two versions of my spine, the lumbar and cervical, but not anatomically correct. I basically wanted to get a combination of the screws and plates combined with the hips and brain, but in a really loose, Sharpie sketch process. I then decided to write out some thoughts on living with chronic pain and my journey of kicking 14 meds a day down to one. Life today looks nothing like it did 5 years ago. Yes, there is always pain, but I have come to understand it now, not fight it, and that has allowed me to create, share, teach, and go places I truly never thought I could go again. Oh, and to the doctor who said once upon a time....you are looking at paralysis in both legs....boooyah. I know they have to tell us worst case scenarios but really, tell us with less excitement next time.

Next step, after ghosting the text with gesso, I began to sketch other figures, float in some transparent colors with Golden Fluids, and used my new, neon paint pens to highlight and isolate the screws/pins. I then collaged a few pieces on top, added some more juicy tidbits, and let the page rest. I am considering creating an entire series using my own spinal anatomy, we will see. 

You can view the entire journal with work in progress steps on my FB Profile page

As part of Juliana Coles 'Field Notes' workshop, we are sketching the world around us every day. I have incorporated the sketch practice as part of my daily pages, and am finding that it is transforming my artistic style by leaps and bounds. I doubt I would have pushed myself to sketch as often if it were not for this workshop so I am totally loving the impact it is having on me! These are a few 5-10min sketches I have done with my mini travel kit that stays in my purse. It makes riding in the car or sitting in waiting rooms the perfect time to sketch. 

Yesterday I was able to go and teach a fantastic  torn paper collage workshop in Ocean Springs at the Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Arts Center. It was lovely, the students were eager, pushed their comfort zones a bit to loosen up, and I do believe everyone was thrilled with their works when they headed out. This type of workshop does my heart good. We talk tips, shortcuts, impact, intent, and products, all within the context of having fun, slinging paint, spreading glue, and ripping paper. What could be more fun? 

I will be teaching other workshops at the Mary C. as well as in Mobile this summer and fall, so if you are looking to attend one, you can visit my website for all the details! 
Hope your Sunday is full of love for yourself and others, and hope the bones of your serenity stay strong as ever. 

Monochromatic Art Journal

I came across this "My Yellow Pages" address book at Goodwill last week and the page color resonated with me that it would make a unique monochromatic art journal. I decided I would keep it by my bed and use it to sketch in with graphite or Sharpie, just seeing where the color, line and pattern would take me. There was one white sheet attached which I used this morning for to practice blind contour drawing as well. I really love the contrast in this book and look forward to seeing the images come to life on the yellow pages. 

This was  a blind contour sketch I made using a red crayon, a blue sharpie, and a blue uniball. 

This was my first blind contour sketch and I love the fact that I decapitated myself and have a floating head, lol. 

This image was a 30 min sketch using just a Sharpie and I have no idea what the inspiration for it was other than mark making and weirdness, total weirdness. 

And this was a 5 minute quick sketch holding the pencil with only two fingers. I wanted to push myself to let go of control and just loosely sketch the contour. It was more challenging than I thought. 

Ok, I saw a photo of this crazy looking cat on Pinterest today but failed to pin it, and now am at a complete loss as to how to locate it, but I just adored the look on the kitten's face because I have seen it so often from my Yodaman. Crazy cats, they rule the world you know!

The Challenge of Drawing Perspective and Perfection

I am just going to say it, drawing the correct perspective and proportions is a pain in the butt! With that said, it is also a vital one to the artist if one is to master the skill of drawing to make things look the way they are. To a painter who works in realism, this is essential, to an abstract painter, not so much. Regardless of genre though, learning to sketch and improve your drawing skills is one of the first and best tools to add to your 'tool box.' 


As a kid, drawing came naturally to me. I didn't become an artist until my mid 30's, but the ability to see shapes and get a 'likeness' was something I at least wasn't afraid of, so going forth into sketching was something I found fun, my only problem was, I taught myself to draw from pictures, not from real life. Place a photo in front of me and I can draw it lickety split. Place an object in front of me and I am dumbfounded, or at least I used to be. 

(This is my version of George Washington when I was in second grade, notice I received a B-! ) 

Seriously, who grades art? 

My brain really sees well in 2-D, but I so wanted to teach myself to use it in 3-D because I knew if I wanted my paintings to improve I needed to practice my drawing skills. A few months ago I drew my first still life, then I painted it, and I LOVED that process. It wasn't that I loved the sketching per se, that was cool, but I loved that I gave myself permission not to seek perfection in the process, just to let the process be what it was, and learn from it. That is so difficult for beginning artists, they want to paint like the pictures they see in books, they want to paint like that NOW, but they struggle to understand that those paintings were birthed from often years of practice, practice, and more practice. 

This morning I began a sketch of the edge of my Golden paint box and one of my 4" by 4" collages. It was a simple sketch for the most part, but as soon as my pencil touched the page that voice in my head started saying, "Your doing it wrong." That voice wasn't the voice I needed to listen to. I needed to listen to the one that gently said, "Look at the line again Ardith, it is shorter and closer to the edge of the bottle. Find a reference point to make a marker, sketch from there." Two voices, but one nudging me to quit and fail, the other nudging me to learn and progress. The artist must learn to silence the negative and turn up the volume of the 'teaching voice.' 

Although there are things I see that I could have changed, improved on, or spaced out differently, I am pleased with the sketch. It is a learning process, it is not perfect and I don't expect that it ever will be. Yes, I could have sketched from the cropped photo you see here and gotten a much more accurate likeness, but I would have missed the point....to train my eye and brain to see things as they are, not as I think them to be. 

If you are new to sketching, new to art, or just learning to draw, be gentle on yourself. Turn off the voice of negativity, don't compare your work to others, and learn to listen to the teacher voice that nudges you forward rather than back. I like to tell my beginning students that we all are on a bus ride together. Some are just getting on the bus at the first stop, others have been on a while, have gotten off a time a two to pick up new skills and gotten back on with 'heavier luggage." Other artists have ridden the journey many times, and picked up so many skills that their luggage got to be too heavy, so they bought themselves their own buses and started to pick up new artists to join them on their journey. Where you are on the journey is important, but the realization that we are all on it together is key!

If you really want to spend some time improving your drawing/sketching skills but don't have access to classes Youtube is where you need to head. There are TONS of videos to teach you, but one of my first and favorites is by artist Larry Gluck, because he explains things so simply and is easy to follow. 

Look forward to seeing some of your sketches!