Challenges and Surprises

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Character design sketch

Kept seeing the "Make the art you want to see" quote on Facebook. Guess it was originally by a fellow named Austin Kleon, and it was actually "Draw the art you want to see".

Just as repetitious ads and billboards make me want to scream with boredom, I get weary of clever quotes quickly. People complain about cat and food photos on Fb, but my top thumbs-down vote is with quote-cliches.

Still, Kleon's phrase sticks with me, because it is a challenge. Doing just that is not easy. 

In actuality, I try to draw the art I see in my head. It's never exact. But enjoyable nonetheless, because the drawings are different enough from the visions to keep surprising me.

And that's about it.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Three Resolutions

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 Prelim sketch-in-progress: Listening for Elves; 1895

Stubborn.

 2014 was a different year for me art-wise. Rather than try goal-setting, which just makes me cranky, I just tried being a bit more organized, something I've stubbornly resisted in the past. It worked pretty well, because it bought me time. As a result, I learned more.

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 Detail of a head-study sheet.

The addition of some structure carved out time to take workshops, get out and meet artists, and dig into social media for active study instead of aimless scrolling. And while my sketchbooks have always been used hard, I was able to expand that use, and man did I learn.

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Preliminary sketch-in-progress for Lunatic.

I'm not much for resolutions either, but am caving in to three:  

Gonna keep a lid on my stubborn, keep to that bit of structure, and hope to keep learning in 2015.

Thanks for reading this, and for checking in now and then.