100 Creative Drawing Ideas

Phew! That was a long holiday season! I got side tracked from drawing due to the craft project I mentioned earlier. The wreaths were a big hit as far as opinions go. No one (except for Erin) offered any sort of financial compensation for them. I do think I need to do some more tweaking to really perfect the,, but if I can make a sort of inventory for next year that may help. I also plan to sell on Etsy.com when the time comes. The wreaths are so time consuming. When I tracked how much time I spent on them, it easily takes 8+ hrs per wreath. All of the little boxes need to be assembled, wrapped and adorned with ribbons and bows, then the most challenging part is the actual placement of the boxes. This is what really takes up the time. Since I only have the evenings to work on them, it's about 2-3 days for one to be completed.

Moving on...

Speaking of Erin, for Christmas among the slew of wonderful gifts my best friend bestowed upon me was a book titled "100 Creative Drawing Ideas" by Anna Held Audette. It's a compilation of 100 unique drawing exercises used by innovative professors and instructors to provide new dimension and perspective on traditional drawing exercises. What's funny is my own and all time favorite art teacher used some of these exercises in one form or another.

Ultimately, it got me thinking. I've been at a loss with which direction or what I should do as my next piece. I need to get back to basics. Complete a few exercises to help me relearn the media and basic techniques.

Another great source of inspiration has come from the Emptyeasel at http://emptyeasel.com/ It's a website that features articles by artists for artists from basic techniques to how to market and sell your work. It provides a weekly newsletter. The most recent article looked at motivation. That basic premise focused on resolutions. Instead of making resolutions, which are absolutes, focus more on goals. Take a week to really think about an idea and work on it conceptually before committing to a piece. This is just the advice I needed. Another article also looked at what happens when you hit a low-point, where none of your work comes out the way yo0u want or you can no longer create. The artistic form of "Writers Block". It recommended going back to what it was that lead you to create something you found to be wonderful and that really provoked your imagination. Again, another fantastic idea.

So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back to the media that I was most successful in (graphite and charcoal) and use my past work as inspiration. For me, that one piece that really got the ball rolling was one I completed in High School. It was surrealist in nature and was chosen by my art teacher for submission into the Dali's Student Surrealist Art Exhibition. This was the first time my work was ever featured, and a real turning point in my artistic adventure. So that's where I'm headed. With my new drawing exercises in hand and a direction to go in. It's time to get started again.