Day eighty of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Another quick sketch today.
The subject might seem familiar ;)
Again, a good shape for a form and line study. Handy for days when everything else feels a little manic.
As with yesterday, the original sketch was drawn with a 4H pencil and then overdrawn with an HB pencil. No shading today, though.
I had some puntastic responses yesterday (at least on Facebook), so don't let me down today, peeps!
Day seventy-nine of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Another quick sketch yesterday.
Nothing super exciting. Literally, a plug.
But a good shape, shadow, form and line study for me. Bringing it back to something more simple.
The original sketch was drawn with a 4H pencil and then overdrawn and shaded with an HB pencil at different weights.
Day seventy-eight of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
A quick sketch today.
I planted six Pacino Gold sunflower seeds in pots and placed them in the front room on 9 April. By 15 April - only 6 days later - they were appearing above the soil. Even though the packet states they'll appear 14-21 days later.
I hope they'll have multiple heads this year, and last year's sad single flower situation (albeit quite pretty) will be resolved by them growing up in full sun half the day in the front room.
Last year I started them off in my bedroom, which gets the much softer morning sun (and is also diffused somewhat by my blinds being shut a few hours after sunrise!)
They're looking good, with most having a second set of leaves growing only three days later.
Day seventy-seven of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
I contemplated meeting some friends for drinks at a local pub to celebrate my birthday today. But, unsurprisingly, everyone else had the same idea it being the first weekend after lockdown has relaxed somewhat. The two most spacious beer gardens in my local area were booked out, so it was safe to say everywhere else would be.
I also entertained the thought of us meeting in the park at Ally Pally. The weather was expected to be sunny but still relatively chilly.
In the end, I decided I really just wanted a day of creativity for myself. Photo editing has been slow the past week or two for various reasons, so I had hoped today would give me a better chance at that.
It's not going as productively as planned, but my sketch was done by 15:45, so that's a start!
I decided to attempt to sketch this self-portrait from nine years ago. I think I did passingly well. At least my fingers don't resemble sausages too closely :P
The original sketch was drawn with a 4H pencil, then overdrawn and shaded variously with a 6B, 2B and HB pencil.
In addition to photo editing, a Skype call with Dad late in the evening and a cheese care package courtesy of my good friend, Don, there's still much to look forward to.
One advantage of spending my birthday alone this year is that I don't have to share any of my delicious cheesy goodness with anyone. At least, not the edible kind ;)
Day seventy-six of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
This possibly takes the cake for the worst sketch of the project so far.
If not, it's up there with the tuxedo cat (her name's Susie, by the way!), aeroplane and beetle and possibly some others.
Which is a pity as it seemed to start off so well. Oh well... I knew I could never match Ron Mueck's skill anyway.
I was lucky to be in Melbourne for the 2018 National Gallery of Victoria Triennial. I was able to see the brilliant work of Ron Mueck, Yayoi Kusama and many other artists in the flesh. And catch up with fellow photographer and longtime friend Chris Zissiadis.
The triennial took place this year, so I've missed that. But maybe I'll be back in Australia in time for the next one in 2024.
The original sketch was drawn with a 4H pencil, then overdrawn and shaded with an HB pencil.
Day seventy-five of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
So, yesterday I made a new friend, and I found out I lost an old friend.
However, those things don't equate.
One was a cute little baby snail (pictured and sketched) the other was a school friend from my latter years of high school.
My school friend and I weren't super close. We'd become friends on Facebook many years ago after losing touch when high school ended in 1994 but we only actually DM'd once.
He messaged me in November 2019. It was not long after I'd returned to London, while I was still hobbling about after a car accident in Tasmania.
I can't recall if I'd been open online about how I was struggling with the perfect shitstorm life was at that point. But somewhere in there, he must have picked up on it.
He messaged me privately with a really supportive message, sharing his own similar but different experience, which, to be frank, made my experience pale in comparison.
I wasn't in the best place when I received it. I read it and keenly appreciated it. But I wanted to properly reply. Not just a quickfire response. So it took me a month to do so.
Unfortunately, that was the only exchange we had in many years. Because Nigel was one of the good guys.
Amongst other things, he was one of my fellow students who made me feel welcome when I was, once again, 'the new kid'. Even though I was a seasoned professional by that point. This being my fifth new school when many only have to deal with two, and their 'new kid' experiences are collective ones when they happen.
From what I know, I completely understand why, but it's still heartbreaking. I wish I'd known what was going on. I could have returned the favour in sending a message or ten of hope.
I know it probably wouldn't have changed anything because those who did know - I'm sure - did all they could to support him. But I would have been more than happy to return the favour tenfold that he did me with that one message when life just felt overwhelming.
For completeness, though it feels weird writing this after what I've shared above, yesterday's sketch was initially drawn with a 4H pencil. Then variously overdrawn with a 2B, an HB, H and the 4H pencil more heavily.
If you need to hear this right now: you are loved.
Day seventy-four of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
I don't think I have a lot to say about what is now yesterday's sketch. I'm actually pretty happy with, despite various shortcomings (shading is questionable (as usual), proportions are a bit off, detail kept to relatively minimal).
If I let my eyes drift as though I'm looking at one of those magic eye pictures, her locks look more like a two-faced alien in profile. But I'm relatively happy with how I rendered her hair if I focus on the sketch.
I wavered about shading in her back as shown in the source image but decided I would probably be unhappy with the results and wish I hadn't. So I didn't.
Throwback to wandering around the Hong Kong Protestant Cemetery on a hot and humid day, getting bitten like crazy by mosquitoes and only registering the banners on the fences warning of the potential of them carrying Japanese encephalitis on the way out...
The initial sketch was drawn with a 4H pencil. Overdrawn with an HB and a 6B; shading with the 6B.
Day seventy-three of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Hands up those who think this sketch looks like a jet pack?
My one regret for yesterday's sketch: I shouldn't have shaded more than the vertical spaces in the centre. I feel like the shading intended to create depth just took away from a drawing I was actually pretty happy with before that.
It was just as I was about to call it "finished" that I realised I'd missed off the button on the right. I drew that in, then felt I should shade to the left of the curve on the button section. So then I added more shading elsewhere.
In retrospect, I should have shaded nothing. Nothing!
Oh well.
I drew the original sketch with a 4H pencil then kept it simple with just an HB pencil used at different weights.
Oh, and it's an aerial view of a personal fan bought a couple of summers ago.
Even if you sweat like a mo' fo' in summer (as I do), I do not recommend if you have long (or even longish) hair. They will catch your hair even if you think you're holding it far enough away.
Painful and embarrassing and inconvenient. Only occasionally amusing. Would not buy again.
Day seventy-two of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Yesterday's subject was, if I remember correctly, a leaving gift - along with other Union flag-themed items - from my friends, Debbie and Tanya, on leaving the UK in 2002. They were intended as a reminder of my time here from 1999.
This particular item proved convenient when I was not able to carry a full-blown wallet. Specifically: on numerous occasions when out dancing with a smaller than usual bag and no pockets.
The purse was a compliment to the custom-made, detachable velcro pockets made for me by my Mum, designed to attach to my trousers-worn-under-skirts for holding my ID and cards and coins. She came up with that solution when I was 18, as an attempt to stop my ankles from being bruised by me putting notes and coins in my socks and then dancing furiously for three to five hours a night.
This purse currently holds a collection of foreign coinage. Previously, that collection was kept in a smaller, holographic one when not used out and about. Before that, I kept plastic spiders in it. Because, of course.
I feel like I conveyed some of the variations in the slope of the purse in the sketch. But it would, undoubtedly, have benefited from colour pencils to carry off the shading. Similarly, I tried to convey some of the "shine" on the purse, but it's a bit meh.
As usual, I sketched this with a 4H pencil. Then I overdrew it with a mixture of 6B, 4B, 2B, HB and 2H pencils.
Day seventy-one of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Yesterday's subject was a gift from my friend, Liane, from several years ago when we finally met after many years of virtual friendship on Myspace and LiveJournal.
I can't currently find an up-to-date link for her music. If I could, I would share it with you, as she is very talented. And also a lovely, sweet person.
The original plush toy looks rather content and friendly. My illustration of it appears more than a little frazzled and tired. I can relate.
And yes, I realise, factually, this is a lion, not a lioness. But I'm calling it a lioness for the purposes of titling yesterday's sketch. Let's call it artistic licence...
Day seventy of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
So, somehow she became a front-on rendering, despite the angle of the original. This I cannot explain.
There are proportional issues. And you can see lots of erasure and grubbiness from said erasure (especially around the breasts, oo-er!), but I think I mostly got there in the end.
I drew this late afternoon but did some paid work straight after rather than importing, editing and posting it then.
I then spent a pleasant few hours catching up on the phone with one of my newest patrons: Phil, a long-time friend and talented photographer, for only the second time this year.
So I'm just getting caught up on posting now.
Day sixty-nine of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
As unflattering as this sketch may be, it's not the worst one I've done for the project.
My right leg is a bit on the chunky side versus the source image, as is the slipper sock encasing it (the first slipper socks I ever owned. They were so soft and lovely!)
The angle on the front pillow is a bit too pronounced. And I didn't worry about the polka dots being true to life in terms of placement and focus, but I think it works for the most part.
I sketched with a 4H pencil, then overdrew and shaded with a 6B on the slipper socks. The outline of the skirt was with a 4B. Other elements were drawn over with a 2B and an HB pencil.
Day sixty-eight of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Yesterday, in the final quarter-hour of the day, I snuck in a more simplified sketch of an illustration I'd saved as a potential element of a collage for last year's project.
I'm still undecided on whether it's easier to draw from someone else's illustration than to draw from my own photographs.
This year, after all the work we did in the front garden last summer (not at all coincidentally), just after a snowfall, we had our first orange snow crocus bloom. It was the first time I'd seen one in the almost five years I've lived here.
It was lovely, but it did fade very quickly. I captured an, unfortunately, out of focus photo of it one afternoon. But by the time I had another chance, it was withered and sad, like a deflated balloon nestled on the bark.
Instead of drawing that (though I may sketch it another day), I present to you a more positive, blooming crocus.
Original outline drawn with a 4H pencil, then drawn over with an HB pencil. Keeping it simple.
Day sixty-seven of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
I squeezed my sketch into the last half hour of the day yesterday. So I chose a photo of an object I'd taken to draw in February and did a very minimalist sketch of it.
Despite how the photo appears, the doorknob is symmetrical in terms of angles on its face. It has slight angling to both sides of the top and bottom of the surface. But I drew it how it came up in the photo, so there's only one line along the top and bottom third, and the ridge down the centre is not so centred.
We found this in the front garden when we were cutting back the grass, laying the weed guard and planting new plants last summer.
I've no idea if it originally belonged in one of the flats in my building (before or after it was converted to flats from a terrace house). Or whether it was tossed in the yard by a neighbour or someone else.
Speaking of opening doors, the next phase of London's lockdown lifting will happen on Monday. Pubs, non-essential shops, and more will reopen.
At the moment, I'm not sure how I feel about that.
I was looking forward to Simon and I celebrating our birthdays together sometime this coming week. But that's on hold for a bit longer still, so I'm somewhat reluctant to step into the fray.
My birthday is on the following Saturday: the first Saturday pubs will be open since 20 December last year.
And while I'd thought about potentially meeting some friends to celebrate, I don't think I have the stomach for the stress of it all at the moment. It's likely to be far too busy for my liking that day. And I'm feeling more and more like I can just wait until Simon and I can go together, and I've hopefully had my first dose of the vaccine.
I know the social distancing requirements will mean nowhere will be as rammed as in "normal" times. But the effort of dealing with it all feels a bit mentally exhausting to contemplate right now.
If you're in an area that's in lockdown now and opening up (or potentially opening up) soon, how are you feeling?
Day sixty-six of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Clearly, I won't be manufacturing counterfeit coin any time soon ;)
On the plus side, 'pence' isn't terribly rendered.
The overall outline of the coin looks like one that's seen better days. We all know those coins we've received that look as though a steamroller rolled over them. (Though, clearly, that wasn't the case with the almost immaculate coin pictured as my source image).
The 'two' wording is unbelievably off. Sorry.
But once again, I learned more from my photography/sketching: 'Ich dien' and the associated three feathers that denote the Prince of Wales. I've only had a cursory glance at the information, but I will read more when I have time.
As we've discussed many times before, my initial sketch was completed with a 4H pencil. Today I went over the darker lines with a 3B pencil and then everything else with an HB pencil.
Day sixty-five of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
I thought I'd left myself short of space for the camera width, so I shortened the top elements accordingly.
As it turns out, I think my sketchy Instamatic is actually too wide, proportionally.
The text on the front of the camera certainly is. I made the executive decision to leave off the word 'camera' due to space.
I think I struggle with fonts when they are white on black and slimline because I'm drawing the outline. If I'm not careful and it's too close, the lines merge together. So shading then makes it disappear. It's something I need to work on.
The perspective of the front of the camera feels okay. But the lens ended up drawn deeper than it should be. (Again, because of not wanting lines to merge together). And the lines of the side of the camera are off.
The shading is totally haphazard and rubbish.
This puppy was a gift from Simon my birthday last year from a charity shop or similar. It came complete with an unused roll of 126 film, which we've almost used up.
It would have been used up more quickly except for us having been in lockdown a lot of the time since he gifted it to me. We should finish off the roll in the next month or so. And then hopefully get it processed and printed soon after. Much-delayed gratification; not at all 'Instamatic.
Here's hoping it's not faulty and that the film comes out okay!
Today's initial sketch was done with a 4H pencil. Some lines were drawn over heavier with the 4H pencil. Darker lines and shading were done with a 2B and a 4B pencil.
Day sixty-four of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
I took this photo of a blown lightbulb back in February but only felt confident giving it a shot (and knowing I had the time) last night.
I, foolishly, thought I'd made a mess of the bottom-left section of the base. So I corrected it. But, thinking back to what it initially looked like, I should have left it as it was.
I felt I drew the original base too wide. So I thinned it slightly. Though it was probably acceptable at either width.
The bulb is leaning a little to the right, but not offensively so. It doesn't feel like it would fall over.
The filament and supply wires possibly look even more like the \0/ emoji than the photograph did. Though I think my sketch makes the overall look more robotic than the original, oddly. Silly anthropomorphism!
This was quite a satisfying draw.
The original sketch was drawn with a 4H pencil. I traced over the base and shaded it with a 6B pencil. I used a 3B pencil to draw over and/or add shading to other darker elements, including the shadow on the table. The shadowed parts of the glass I went over with an HB pencil. And then, the lighter outlines and the filament were drawn over more heavily with my 4H pencil.
Day sixty-three of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
I managed to sneak yesterday's sketch into my day between photo editing, life admin and a virtual hen party for my friend, Jane.
I didn't manage to get it posted before I opened the bubbles, though.
I know I could have executed this better if not for time constraints. I think I'll try to get a more accurate rendering another day.
The thread is too close together and unevenly separated. The width of the screw is too variable, being thinner higher up at the shank than it is further down within the thread. The head reminds me of a golf tee more than a screw head.
But, for a ten-minute sketch on the run, it's not too bad.
Day sixty-two of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Okay, so I'll say this upfront: I'm sure this is my worst sketch of the project.
I mean, even worse than tuxedo cat, which was pretty bad but amusing. This is just bad.
I can't exactly say what happened.
Maybe it's because I spent a chunk of the day editing and sharing photos from my stained glass series with my Patreon patrons, and I was totally in that zone.
Maybe it was that my heart wasn't really in it today.
I mean, there are some days where my sketch feels like just another thing I have to do on an already busy day. So it's not always something I'm excited by.
I wasn't dreading the thought of doing it today, but it was kind of feeling a little like an inconvenience.
Or maybe it's just that I had my journal angled differently to usual in relation to the photograph on my monitor. Maybe sketching in landscape format caused everything to be a little off.
Whatever the cause, let's just forget this ever happened.
Focus on the source photo, which is much better.
Day sixty-one of The 100 Day Project for 2021.
Yesterday, in the final hour of the day, I decided to attempt one of the more abstract, close-up photographs I took of one of the lilies a neighbour gave me late last year.
At some stage, I'll tackle one of the photographs of them closed. And then one of them open. But they feel like they will be more complicated, and I don't want to try to do it in a rush.
In retrospect, I probably should have shaded the dark green stems rather than just outlining them with a heavier pencil. Especially given I had done some shading for the shadows on the petals. But I won't beat myself up about it too much now.
I quite like that - without the source photo - this sketch is a little confounding. And, perhaps, a little confronting. I mean, it's at least vaguely anatomical-looking. But just what piece of anatomy it might be, not even I can decide.
I'd love to hear your interpretation of what it looks like. The more outrageous, the better, really.
The initial sketch, including shading on the petals, was drawn with a 4H pencil. The outline of the petals was traced over with the same, just heavier. The stems, toward the bottom, were drawn over with a 4B. The stamen were drawn over with a B pencil. (Alert: new pencil in circulation!)
I hope you have a lovely bank holiday weekend planned. I'm planning more paid work. More photo editing and hopefully getting my next Love Letter to London online. A virtual hen party for a friend. And long-distance birthday wishes for someone close to me.