Saturday, November 3, 2007

Priceless Postcard #3

Seems I may have closed the competition for the last postcard a bit early, because I had a few stragglers late in the day. I'll work on giving people a bit more time between posts to enter. To win this free postcard sketch, leave a comment and send me an email with delivery info as per the instructions.

Teapot

This sketch shows some of my struggles with picking up drawing after a couple of decades. I chose an unforgiving subject, and it shows some. While fruits and vegetables are pretty easy because little mistakes aren't obvious, errors in the geometry of a teapot are almost as conspicuous as flaws in a study of a face. Also, I have been using printmaking paper with little sizing, so it is very absorbent. I love the look of the diffuse washes, but controlling them feels like painting on a sponge.

But I don't know if I'm going to look in my giant box under the bed for some watercolor paper. The truth is I like slightly clumsy materials. Our drawing teacher used to have us draw with carved sticks dipped in ink as an exercise to break us out of easy habits and force us to look and work harder. My drawings can be a little slick and facile when I get too comfortable, and the current materials are certainly keeping me from that.

3 comments:

Francesca said...

I found you through a comment you left on the NaBloPoMo site and in a greedy coffee-fueled moment -- I am hankering for that gorgeous little postcard!

What a great idea you have. And I will come visit again, definitely

Dawn-Enigma Artist said...

what a creative idea! sign me up!

thanks for visiting my blog.

Nat said...

I'm going to flip a coin for the winner. Stuntmother heads, Enigma Artist tails. The coin I just found on top of the bookcase seems to be a 10 euro cent coin. In the air...it's tails. Congrats Enigma artist... sorry stuntmom. Card's in the mail tomorrow.