EDiM 05 - Something hot

I had every intention of trying to get ahead of the challenges by doing them a day in advance but ya, that never happened. After doing three to catch up in one day, I simply got tired and stopped.

Day 5 wasn't a hard challenge but what I'm finding is that most of the drawings are pretty generic in nature so I'm always looking to do something a little more original. With that said, I Googled "things that are hot" to get some inspiration for my sketch.

Other than fire, stove burners, the plethora of hot sauces and the odd skantily clad woman, nothing seemed to jump out at me. But then I remembered a news story the other day that a volcano had erupted off the west coast, 400km to the South-west of Vancouver Island.

Light bulb Moment

Volcano's spew lava. Lava is hot. Very hot. It melts everything in its path. Not having any lava handy at the moment, I hit the Google once again, searching for lava pictures. Mehhh, lava is fascinating but as subject matter for a drawing or artwork it's pretty bland.

Back to the drawing board. Literally. 

I was thinking of drawing a clothes iron but those are too generic. (I told you I'm always looking for something different or unique) For some odd reason I had IRON stuck in m head so I hit the Google for a third and hopefully last time.

As a kid, I got a wood burning kit. If you're not familiar with them, they're an electrical hand-held pencil that burns wood to make designs. The kit I had was pretty basic; 5 pine sheet of paper sized planks with basic design outlines to follow. The burner tip can get up to 900F so ya this thing gets damn hot.

I used this item as the inspiration for day 5 of EDiM. After doing intital sketch in my sketchbook, I was about to start rendering it but a local election took over the t.v airwaves pretty much distracting me for the rest of the night.

A timely blog post by Liz Steel about the challenges of following the challenge had me re-thinking my sketch. She mentioned that feeling obligated to do a sketch rather than just going with it, takes the fun out of the challenge. I agree. Although I'm a relative infant to this sketching thing, I've soon realized that I am more intuitive when it comes to my drawings slash sketches. With that in mind, I scrapped the sketchbook draft and quickly carved out something on my notebook pro. It's not nearly as detailed as I would have liked it to be but I feel it is a much better sketch than my original idea.

What type of artist slash sketcher slash drawer are you? Do you need a subject given to you or do you feel your way through?

EDiM 04 - Bottle(s) of herbs or spices

Challenge 04 was drawing herbs and spices. I have tons of them but thought the old wooden style salt and pepper shakers would be more interesting.

Enjoy...

EDiM 03 - Curtains

This challenge was about drawing curtains. My curtains are boring so I decided to draw a symbol for the Iron Curtain which was the Berlin Wall.
More my style anyway.

Enjoy...

EDiM 02- A Tree: Continued

It's Monday and I just completed the EDiM-02 challenge - Draw a nearby tree. It's hard to find structure when you're trying to be spontaneous. The spur of the moment two and a half day road trip hindered any attempts at getting my daily challenges completed. The combination of gusty winds, gloomy spring temperatures, dodging kamikaze kites and change seeking beggars, I managed to draw nothing, zilch, nada, NIL over the weekend. You can read all about it in my last post here.

Anyway, it's good to be back home where I can draw without interruption. I managed to get both trees done from the reference pics I took. On to challenges 3 (curtains), 4 (bottle(s) of herbs/spices) and 5 (something hot). I'm going to do 5 to stay ahead of it so I don't fall behind as I am now. 

I also made a commitment to the Every Day Matters challenge and have to get those ones completed as well. Yup, I'm behind. Time to get drawing... 

Here's the trees:

EDiM02 - No Trees, Winds, Kites and beggars; Oh my

Went away for the weekend and yes, I brought my drawing stuff with me. When I found out about the EDiM challenge, my intention was to stay ahead of the challenge and draw the next day in advance, but since the weekend trip was last minute, things didn't go as planned.

The next morning (Saturday) was crisp and with reports of snow or rain in the area, sketching outside was going to be hit or miss. One would think finding a nearby tree to draw would be easy but when staying in a hotel in the middle of an urban center, it proved to be more challenging than I thought.

The hotel room, stuffed in the back corner of the building, overlooked an apartment complex parking lot. Not a tree to be found. Since I was going to head further south for the day, my chances of finding any trees at this point would increase dramatically.

After grabbing a coffee, (perfect cold weather nectar), I stumbled upon a multi use park tucked away behind gas stations and student housing complexes I've been in this area numerous times before but never knew this park existed.

Parked the car, gathered my back-pack and headed out to find some sun and a tree. Following a make-shift trail through the shrubs and down a steep hill, I was in the park...sort of. A chain link fence stood between me and tree utopia.

I followed the fence line around which was interrupted by a few equipment buildings and public washrooms (which were locked) and finally found an opening into the park. Stopping at the entrance, I looked around at the prospects and found the perfect location. A warped picnic table under this massive tree at the back of the park. All I had to do was navigate my way around a cricket match, a few kids flying kites and I was home free.

What seemed like the perfect location was anything but. The sky's darkened, the winds swooped in making it nearly impossible to attempt to draw anything on flapping paper. (the binder clip I had must have fallen off somewhere). I took a picture of the tree and quickly packed up my bag and made my way back to the car.

The winds that forced me to flee my location played havoc with the kids kites. One fell from the sky dive bomber style. The tip stuck into the ground like a lawn dart about 15 feet in front of me.

Death by kite sounds tragically fun doesn't it?

Back at the car, there was a tree directly in front of where I parked. I broke out the sketchbook once again only to be disturbed by a knock on the window. Just some random guy looking for any spare change. I used the last of it to pay for the parking. He wasn't impressed; swearing and calling me a few names as he walked into the bushes.

"Yup. That's it for me." I thought as I packed my stuff after taking a picture of this tree. I didn't think this challenge was going to be so hostile.

I drove back to the hotel, about an hours drive north and thought I could settle in when I got back to get this thing done but it never happened. I was kind of rattled by the day. A few cold beers takes the edge off but dampens any drawing ambition I had when I got back.

You tell yourself "Ya, I'll do it Sunday" but Sunday I was heading back home. A two hour drive north, house work stuff and preparing for the work week got in the way of my intended promise.

Continued on Monday when I'll get caught up....