In any case, I have decided to "come clean" and share with you all the things I have been doing to keep my creative soul alive. (Besides getting all the crap out of my studio and paint other people's cabinets. Those don't count.)
In February this year, I had a bit of a meltdown. I had been telling myself for the last 4 years that I would go back to art once the house was done. When I started this conversation with myself, I thought all the projects I had in mind would take 6 mos. Haaahhaaahahahaa!!! So naive and optimistic...
4 years later, much further along, but not done yet, I kinda flipped out. I called a friend who has known me for a long time and cried on the phone until she asked, "Well is there something arty you could do now? Maybe something small and not too involved?" and this made me think for a sec. I remembered a thought I been kicking around in my Morning Pages recently. I wanted to copy Miss Mustard Seed's idea of painting 100 meadows. But I wanted to draw, not paint. And I had been trying to think of what I would be interested enough to do 100 studies of.
I remembered when I used to draw as a child, I would always draw horses. And while I had looked at anatomical sketches of horses now and again, there were many details in my horses that could use a lot of work. So I got off the phone, pulled out my sadly abandoned sketchbook, and started drawing. I drew for an hour, from 2-3pm 5 days a week, from February until June. And then life took over again. But I got through 20 studies, most based off photos, so I could work on my realism.
Here's a few of the better ones, I think they are in chronological order:
They are all on Instagram, if you want to read my thoughts about the experience and ideas I gained from each piece. And I think I have most of the inspiration pictures plus the sketches here on Pinterest. (I just looked and it seems that my baby has been adding a few things as well. She shares my account. The squirrel "dancing to Thriller" comes to mind) It was so cool how much I learned. I have every intention of going back and finishing out the remaining 80 horses, but I may switch mediums to do it. And I may draw the same horse several times, because I have two bigger finished pieces I want to do, a large painting and a light-on-dark pastel, both working from other inspiration pieces I have been meaning to get to for years.
Since returning home from my adventures this summer, I haven't gone back to drawing horses, but I have started another project I have wanted to do for many years. One perk of having DK work for Congress is a free parking spot downtown, a block from the National Mall. And one perk of having your oldest child go to college is a bunch of free time and mental space. So I have been going to the National Gallery of Art every Wednesday and doing Master's Studies. I mostly do compositional studies in 3 weights of graphite, but this week I started a color study using colored pencil as well.
And since I am a complete novice at this, I looked up "How to do Master's Studies" on Google and found this really great 2 hr. video tutorial by Noah Bradly. Here is the link. (I watched the video in early September, but didn't think to question my source until I looked him up yesterday. Apparently the guy is this major fantasy artist for Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering. He doesn't come across in the tutorial as a fantasy artist at all. I was actually kinda shocked.) It was the perfect thing to get me started. But it is really long. I actually watched the first hour on compositional studies, then went back weeks later to watch the rest on color studies.
It has completely blown my mind how much I have learned by doing this. It's like I start to draw and then I see things that make me feel like the artist is whispering things into my ear. Tricks he played on his patron. Statements he wanted to make, but couldn't be open about. Secrets he left to see if anyone was really paying attention. It is freaking magical. Every week I walk out full of wonder.
Here are a few of my studies and links to the inspiration pieces.
Week 1: "The Sacrament of the Last Supper" by Salvador Dali and "Entablature" by Roy Lichtenstein
(Sorry, this one is to a Pinterest link, because the other options were so annoying)
If you want my insights, you're gonna have to email me or ping me below or on Facebook with questions about a specific piece, because each week I go down there is just super loaded with info. And there is just too much to share all of it with you in this one post. Maybe I will talk about it in posts to come, but frankly, I feel like each week tells me what that weeks' post is supposed to be about and I just do that. At this point, I am just really happy to be able to post weekly again. I missed it so badly.
Anyway, sorry I didn't tell you before, But now you know. Plus, it gave me something totally different to talk about today than basements and missionaries and church and being nice. So yay for that too.
Do you guys have any happy secrets in your back pocket? You can tell me in the comments below. I'd love to hear how you are keeping your creative soul alive in spite of all the commotion of life.
Talk to you soon,
CM Shaw
Thanks for sharing your secret!
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