Continuing on in playful mood, I find that early on in a drawing, I rapidly find myself reluctant to finish. This distrust of completion – or just plain laziness, if you prefer – ever plagues my creative output. I have several incomplete pieces inspired by the exercises in this Part 3 of the course. I shall have to set aside time just to finish off these projects in order to be able to send a selection to my tutor for assessment. At least they should feel like ‘easy wins’ compared with starting afresh with a blank sheet.
I decided to ‘dirty up’this pic using a black conte stick to rough up the areas of grass in the shade of the buildings. It added a bit of gravitas and made it a lot more fun to draw. Pictures that are fun to produce can (but not necessarily) be more interesting to view. Certainly, for me at least, if I’ve been bored by drawing it is communicated clearly into the resulting outcome.
Once I’d added bright yellow highlighter pen to the sun kissed houses to the right, the white of the paper took on a faintly lavender tinge. I will use this effect again in the near future I think.
Lesson learned: if I’m not having fun, change things up a little in order to turn a ‘task of work’ into a game to be played.
Maureen Walker's blog: An Artist's Journey 