Sewing seems to be taking a backseat to other things lately. I’m not stressing about it. I’m sure I’ll get back to it at some point.
Meanwhile, in what limited spare time I have I’m trying to make myself sketch more. I’ve been a back sketcher – and I shouldn’t be, because I really believe that just letting yourself play at something is the best creative outlet.
Don't be mean to your little lamb. Keep it clean.
But sketching has, in the past few years, been just something of a frustration to me. The drawing are never as “good” as i think they should be. They never look like what I plan them to look like. It feels like, unless I work them up with the light table, scan and colour them, they are “finished” and worth looking at. So I end up just not doing it.
Rip off of Mr. Grumpy's Outing
Something in one of the books or blogs I’ve been reading lately just struck a cord with me recently. It was something about remembering what you loved doing when you were little. Well, what I loved doing was drawing pictures. I drew them in lined paper notebooks because I never had access to blank paper. It never seemed to matter to me (though rest assured there are reams and reams of blank paper in my house now at all times, and my daughter, who has inherited my love of drawing, is always supplied with more blank sketchbooks than she could fill in a lifetime.)
The Frog Prince, the angry baby and the snow man...
Flash forward 3 years past a degree in illustration from Sheridan College (and then some) and it seems like I should be able to draw “better”. But when I sit down to sketch, my drawings aren’t vastly different than what I drew as a 12 year old. And that somehow drives me mental. Until I look at all of children’s books I’ve collected over the years, and some of favourites are the deceptively simple looking ones like John Birmingham and Quentin Blake.
Still, when I think about what I’d like to do when I grow up – I can think of only one thing I want to do: I’d like to illustrate children’s book. Maybe my style is simple looking. But … that’s my style.
Aqua fitness
Suddenly it hit me, that my drawing can, and probably should, be just like my Yermit creation… I should just start, and continue and see what comes out and not worry about the “plan” or even the final product. I should just draw.
Round and round
Things are looking up
The cottage
Oh Jenny – I LOVE your drawing style! So much! The ‘little lamb’ drawing (in the washtub) made me immediately think of ‘The Travels of Bradley Bunny’, which is a Jenny/Paul collaboration classic, and one I will always treasure.
It was interesting to see how your style alters from picture to picture in this post. They are all equally entrancing. ‘Aqua Fitness’ was neat; they look so intent and self-absorbed. The perspective on ‘Round and round’ is fabulous; it makes me want to see the rest of the scene. But my absolute FAVOURITE of these drawings is that FROG. I have a huge love of frogs, and the personality of that one makes me want to be sitting at that table with him, sharing a drink. Even if that means being stared down by Angry Baby.
Thanks Randa!
The bottom 4 are actually older – more worked over drawings and the top three are just sketches I did this week and so are much looser.
I like the frog one too, even though the unfinishedness of it and the line quality bothers me – I’m trying to get past that because I do like their freshness and story quality.
They do look a lot like Bradley Bunny which was done in University! That’s what I meant that my style has not changed, after 3 years of art college and years later. We discussed that in art college actually, how you can learn techniques and develop skills but your “style” can be your “style” for life. That’s what clicked in for me finally – Don’t fight it!
I’ll post some more soon.