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Friday, October 2, 2020

Well Now What...?

 Well... it's October, now... 

First of all... I did finish up Day Thirty's picture for the September challenge. 

On the first of October, I did finish the inks on this one.

Comparison Pic - with the original I was working from. 

Day Thirty (a couple of days late) - Finished Study

This was a fun project. I did art. I learned a lot.

I feel like I want to keep going - the plan was to continue with... some other kind of "challenge" through October, but THE PLAN for such has always been a rather nebulous "I'll do a thing in October too" sort of deal rather than any kind of concrete plan... Unfortunately we're two days in, now, and I still have no REAL plan and I am, by NO accounts, a quick decision-maker! Also I HATE making a plan for a thing in the middle of the thing. 

This "September Challenge" took some thinking about and mental preparation... and... our renovation has gone completely sideways (Amanda completely CHANGING plans for a thing in the middle of doing the thing!?)... and now my folks are moving (hey - anyone looking for a nice two-bedroom condo in the Broadway area of Saskatoon?)... 

I may take a break... 

I may HAVE to take a break... 

I'm always a little worried that, once I got a ball rolling, taking a break might mean I lose the momentum and drop everything completely....

(Sort of like what I feel like I've done with MINIATURE painting and gaming!?) 

Soooo... What next? What do I do if I DO do a thing? As I mentioned, I HAD planned to keep the momentum going and doing something LIKE Inktober - maybe not SPECIFICALLY Inktober, though (because I don't really care for the prompt list) - partly this was to keep the art happening, partly to join in a community thing (I've had a few friends on Facebook that have done Inktober over the years), and partly because Ink could just be black and white and a would be a bit of a break from all the colouring I've done this last month.... (which is time-consuming)

ONE idea I had was to continue with the "Studying from the Masters" idea and do MACtober... (or Macualtober...) and do a drawing a day from one of my many books by David Macaulay (I have others, these were the quickest and easiest to find for the photo). I have LOVED DAvid MAcaulay's work since I was a wee lad. I can't remember how many times I checked Castle out from various libraries over the years of my youth. I've spent HUNDREDS of hours pouring over all those beautiful, precisely rendered illustrations!

Although... over the last month, I've really had FUN working with colour!? I went out and treated myself ( a couple times over the last week or so - to take advantage of the Art Placement 25% off sale!?) to a BUNCH more watercolour pencils and markers and even some fancy strathmore Media paper to do some "proper" work on!

And then there are these - I've been building and prepping all these boards over the last month as part of some nebulous plan to MAKE PAINTINGS HAPPEN! 

My daughter has jumped in on Faetober - a drawing of some sort of faerie creature every day for the month of October... maybe I should just join her... 


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Ummmmm... 

I guess we shall see... 

14 comments:

  1. You did a great job on those drawings! (the originals were never really to my taste personally, but you captured the style very well)

    Now Macaulay! That would be great practice for architecture and cross-hatching, I would think.

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    1. I'm having second thoughts about that idea... I'm not sure if I'm precise enough to pull off Macaulay... and that hatching... miles and miles and miles of hatching!? I'll sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow!

      Thanks!

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  2. Looking forward to what you come up with. I too thought of doing some sort of "Like Inktober", and somehow I thought on Sept 29 that I would start the October prompts a day or two early and then wouldn't be stressed. BWAHAHAH! That did not happen.

    I am very impressed with your September dedication and output. Those were NOT easy originals to work from. I am rather cowed by David Macauley. Beautiful drawings, but I think you'd have to put in about 30 hours a day.

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    1. I know, that's exactly what I'm worrying about - 30 hours - unless I picked "easier" pictures I might be setting myself up for failure.

      Thanks!

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  3. Another nice study! Looks like a very precise style but surely worth a go if you like him that much!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain!
      I'm starting to think one-a-day might be a bit much for Macaulay... but this morning I'm thinking I might incorporate a few studies into a longer on-going project.

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  4. Nice work on all your previous watercolors! I enjoyed seeing your progress. Macaulay also brings back lots of memories for me. My other favorite was Stephen Biesty - a different style but similar subjects and also crammed with detail.
    I'm looking forward to whatever you decide on.

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    1. Thanks, Ben! I didn't recognize the name off the top of my head, but when I googled Biesty I instantly recognized those books - I brought a lot of them home from the library when my kids were younger! They are fantastic!

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    2. Hi Tim - Instead of one-a-day, what if you went with one-a-week, one-every-five-days, or something like that? Perhaps that would allow you to invest the time to really do a few of them well without stressing or taking too much time away from other responsibilities.

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    3. Hey Gordon!
      That's definitely a possibility! For right now, however, I kind of feel like I need to do something daily - to make ART a part of my regular, daily practice again and give me a bit more of a feeling of accomplishment. So I'm now trying to think of some sort of shorter, easier project series, that I can reasonably do in a day and move on to the next one (so... probably NOT copying Macaulay - for now!!!)

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  5. I quite like the lead picture - I actually preferred it in monochrome, but there. Reminds me of 'Mortal Engines' crossed with the illustrations of Shaun Tan.
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Thanks Ion! You are not the only one - There have been more than a few that have made comments over various places I've posted these that liked the inks-only versions... Ha!

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  6. Beautiful rendition. I agree with Ion, your original, un-coloured version looked even better ('though the coloured one looks beaut!).
    Regards, James

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