I’m kinda embarrassed with putting this up, even if nearly zero people read my journal. It’s a sketch of an idea I had sitting at my desk, looking out on the view that made me choose my apartment, and trying to be happy.
Trees Weathering from Christopher Lovejoy on Vimeo.
I’m so tired! I could barely stay awake to sketch this little dude.
He was meant to be an almost threatening dude crouching just out of notice in some Southwest stony desert. I was listening to a Devotchka song having something to do with Mexico.
Here’s the perfect time to call on the maxim of round 2: draw something. This drawing wouldn’t last long even in my sketchbook; it’s a miss. But now it’s a recorded miss, so I won’t forget what I was shooting for.
Saw this fellow near the subway station on my way out this morning. He had a very graceful walk, but his body seemed out of proportion: low head, short torso, broad shoulders, and his shoes seemed just a bit too large for his feet.
This snapshot shows his proportions:
And this one his grace:
Hopefully I’ll have a chance to revisit that, as I didn’t do his stride or his hands justice.
I tried to plan this one ahead a little, and thought I’d draw planes in construction, or deconstruction. The kernel of an idea like this helps me get started, though it’s easy to begin drawing the same thing repeatedly and fall out of imagination. Gotta try again later.
P.S. No drawing club for me tonight. I was pretty tired after work, and decided to catch up on sleep instead. Tho I would have been home by now anyway…
Here it’s Wednesday, and I haven’t drawn since Friday. I’d considered catching up, but that’s not really the point of the daily drawings. At first it was two-fold: consistency and commitment (ie. finishing a drawing now and then). The challenge I’d been denying myself is sticking with one drawing beyond a sketch. Well apparently consistency itself is a challenge for now. So I’m starting again.
This time I’ll post whatever I’m drawing every day, and they may be doodles, but I hope that by removing the pressure to make something good, I’ll continue to make something. I’ll also try to make time to draw at home regularly. I just won’t limit myself to that.
To start the second series, here’s a quick drawing I made on the subway of a man I saw just outside the station, and another thing:
Later tonight I watched Empire of the Sun, which I’ve been meaning to see about my whole life. Thanks Netflix. Here’s what came out after:
It’s Hammer Time, er, war and famine time! Really should have put this on watercolor paper, but I’d set out only to sketch a pose with those pants. Also, I was just going to paint a sun, but the texture of the brush was more fun this way, and I’m sure the plethora of explosions in the film had a part in the decision.
I highly recommend the film, by the way. Some of the shots really stir the imagination, and it has me thinking along a Lord of the Flies vein, imagining the world from another dimension, practically. Crazy that it’s one world.
I only drew one tiny thing on Wednesday. I had an idea to draw a really laid back guy in flip-flops and an open tee. I just doodled his legs and went back to playing Riven.
Thursday I’d left for work when I realized I hadn’t brought my pad or pens/pencils for the Drawing Club. I didn’t have time to go back, so I grabbed a clipboard and some printer paper from work, and used my trusty Bic Cristal pen. I’m glad I went, as always, though I think I need to switch up my media, maybe go back onto charcoal, or get back in my anatomy books. I had a tough time expressing any character. The model was great! Very evocative of the One Million B.C. theme.
Today on the train home I started a little animation in Animation Creator for the iPhone. I really recommend it. The tools are fast and you can upload directly to YouTube at whatever frame rate you like. Here it is after I added some frames just now to get the little guy out of frame:
I thought of it as a dreamy, floaty run when I was animating it, and it feels that way at 12fps. At 24fps the timing seems more natural, though the fluidity of movement isn’t there in the middle:
Drawn on my lunch break in a neighborhood park/electrical tower plot while listening to Brian Eno’s Deep blue Day, and similar. Drawn in ballpoint on paper, painted in Brushes on iPhone.
It’s a color study, accidentally. I drew an outline for the bigger jellyfish, but when I saw the bokeh fill without the line, I just left the line off entirely.
Four-toed [alien?] baby rampage. Rampages are all the rage.
Beyond last minute, this one is for yesterday. This is Gil-Scott Heron appearing on the 7th episode of SNL, hosted by Richard Pryor. For some reason it was really hard to draw today. I had to do other things before I was free for it, and then I just wanted to go to sleep.
