Being Meaningfully Specific Rather Than a Wondering Generality
Sketchbook Project
The 3 Materials Drawing Challenge Hosted by
, and Kathryn Boyt is still ongoing.And we’re still following along with it i.e.
Using only 3 materials
Drawing from life daily (for 50 days)
For 30 minutes or less (I try to stick to 10)
In week 1 I shared how to get started on the project
In week 2 I shared my method for taking notes in my sketchbook to facilitate incremental improvement
And this week I want to talk about being specific.
When I say being specific, I mean being specifically you!
The 3 Materials Drawing Challenge is about drawing from life. This forces you to pay attention to your life and select the moments, locations and objects that seem most interesting to you.
How do you decide?
The answer is to follow what you find interesting. The challenge with that is there is this thing in us that might start to say, oh that’s not going to be interesting to other people, and so instead of making something that’s deep and personal, or just fun, you draw what you think you should draw.
In doing so you become a bit of a wandering generality.
Unemployed illustrator flashback…
3 years ago, before I got an agent or signed my first deal to illustrate a book, weeks after my baby girl (Zelda) was born.
I was frantically sending portfolios to potential agents and publishers in between feeding the baby, washing bottles. I had spent the year ticking all the boxes to build my portfolio.
Scenes Check
Diversity Check
Energetic poses of kids Check.
Cute anatomically correct animals Check.
And on and on….
Most agents replied quite promptly. One was super curt, but at least personal. They said, I’m not feeling a connection to the illustrations. Pass.
It made me very angry - maybe it was the lack of sleep, and anxiety about the future, but that email from an agent really caused something to stir in me emotionally. And as I explored the emotions, I realised she was right.
Sure I ticked the boxes, but there wasn’t enough of me in the illustrations.
This Week’s Drawing Challenge
This week’s challenge is to learn using the 3 materials drawing challenge to but a lot of YOU into the sketches
How?
Pick subject matter that is meaningful to you.
Pick subject matter that is unique and personal to you.
Draw in a way that feels natural to you, or copy something that you love.
What I’m Drawing
My wife recently bought me this Game and Watch thing from Nintendo, and I love it on so many levels! Level one, my wife bought it for me as something to do on my mini breaks from illustration.
I remember playing a version of thing that belonged to a friend in school.
When I was 11, Zelda, was one of the first video games I ever finished. I didn’t own a console, but a friend of mine who had gone overseas for holiday loaned me his super nintendo, maybe I swapped my gameboy for it for the duration.
I finished the game, the day my friend returned from his trip to Ireland.
My parents let me stay up all night to finish it, and I beat the last boss just in time for breakfast.
This particular version of Zelda, in my 43 year old hands came out in 1994, 2 years later. I had a pirated version of the game on that same GameBoy, the problem was the pirated version didn’t have a battery the way the original games did, which meant I could not save the game.
Imagine a 13 year old trying to speed run the game under my desk in school before the batteries ran out, and having to leave the game boy on, because if it went on for any reason I lost all progress.
I never did finish the game, but I did start many times.
This Game and Watch that my wife bought me, does have a battery to save the game and gets its charge from a USB C.
Progress!
Fun Fact: Did you know that the Nintendo company was started 134 years ago as a card game company!
This week, I’m drawing the places I save in the game. I’m not rushing through this time. And I’ll be putting all that history and emotion and specificity into the sketches.
Even my colour palette is already taken care of.
I can tell you what’s specifically you, but I’d love to see what you do. If you’re doing my mutant version of the #3materialsdrawingchallenge please tag me or add the #tenminuteartist to your post so I can find you
Happy Drawing.
Adam M.
PS: Art Gym will be talking about mixing materials and will be on Tuesday 11am Eastern Time, 11pm MY Time.
and I will be leading us to combining materials in interesting ways while we sketch together.Also, with Art Gym having moved to it’s own place, I’m rethinking the value I’m offering with this newsletter, I understand at least intuitively the service I’m providing you, but I’m considering the containers that work best for free and paid subscribers.
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