Creativity by Jake

My heart has many chambers - many more than a doctor could find. And three of those chambers are reserved: for my nieces, Emma and Ashley, and for my nephew, Jake - Jacob Kent.

Today is Jacob's post.

Jacob, though he is only nine-years-old has tried his hand at watercolors. He drew an ornamental plate of his grandmother's that you can see to the right. He did, I believe, a wonderful job. But I am only the uncle - what do I know?

I sat next to him sketching and painting the same thing. It was my version of the plate - not a perfect representation of what I saw, because, as we know, art is not photography. And thank goodness for that.

So Jake drew, and his was not perfect either. He found that his leaves and vegetables crowded a bit towards the top. Sound familiar? This left him with a choice.

He could:
(a) Give up;
(b) Add more leaves and vegetables (which is what I would have done); or
(c) he could be more creative than that.

And as I looked on in amazement, Jake did what is so natural for kids his age - so nonchalantly natural - he chose "c", and was creative.

"I think I'll add a cat," he said, and he did. Not only did he add the cat, but he allowed the tail to fly beyond the outline of the plate, which in itself was enough for me to raise my mental grade for Jake to an A plus (not that I was grading him), and to lower mine to a C.

Then Jake thought for a moment.

"What color should I paint the cat?" he asked me.

Well, being the artist that I am - acutely observant, and fully aware of the sights of nature - I naturally thought of browns and blacks. But instead I asked him, "What color do you want to make it?"

Jake thought for a moment. "Blue," he said. "I'll paint it blue."

I have a lot to learn from Jake about creativity.

Before I came to his town this weekend, Jake did some works in watercolor pencil, a medium I know many of you use. He did a Thanksgiving Turkey:



And especially in preparation for this blog post, he sketched the world:



So this is Jake's Post. Please feel free to leave your comments for Jacob. I am sure he will appreciate it.

Sketching to Go

In that other Moleskine, the Moleskine that doesn't take watercolor - the poor stepchild of my Moleskines - I am free. I can scribble, I can experiment. I do calisthenics with the pen, "zen and ink". Sometimes I just push the pen around without the mind getting in the way, like meditation or sleep, and create zentangles without angles, I guess.

So in this Moleskine I produce mostly, to put it mildly, garbage. And that's okay. Someday I may slather opaque paint on the pages over most of it in a delightfully creative way. But not any time soon.

Every now and then, though, something happens to bring it all together despite my best efforts to the contrary. One day, when I was aching to draw and had no time, while stopped at a traffic light, I drew the head and hand of a motorcyclist. Then the light changed. Now what? I decided to just do quick sketches of things I see (yes, at other stops and then anywhere else I happened to be). Unrelated things. Then on a whim I decided to box each of them, and suddenly the whole page came together as though it were a narrative for a story. Counter intuitive for sure - you would have thought that boxing the drawings would separate them!

Captain Elaine once accused me of Driving While Sketching (DWS), a ticketable offense no doubt. No Captain, not true - I was stopped at the light, honest. (And, well, look at Barbara Week's recent post!)

I like Wil's motto, "If you're sitting, you're drawing", and when I'm in the car I ain't standing, right?

Screws in Space

Everyday Matters Challenge No. 226 -
Draw a Screw.
boring.

Screws falling. Better.

Screws plummeting into Earth's atmosphere from outer space. That's it!

Screwy, I know. But Fun.

This drawing is based in part on a great photograph, "Floating Screws", taken by Alceu Bap and found here.



ink, watercolor pencil, and yellow highlighter on small Moleskine page

I am Edison, yeah, that's it, Edison

Here are a few past drawings from my sketchbook, from Flickr photographs.




One in pencil:



















And one in pen:













Thomas Edison tried thousands and thousands of filaments before he found the right one for his light bulb. I am heartened by that, because lately I have had mostly failed experiments.

But I haven't yet blown up the lab and that is good.

Here is one, below, I guess. My most valued critic says that it is hard to tell what the colors in the background represent (it is a very close mountain peak, so there is no sky or mountain shape to clue the viewer). This is true. She says it is a boring subject, and that it looks like two twigs on a field of blue. Yes and yes. And that it's been done before. Certainly. But I kind of like it, and I promised to share the journey, so here it is. And did I mention that I kind of like it?






There have been some beautiful monotypes posted on the Belinda Del Pesco Fine Art Blog lately. I have no access to a press or anything of the kind, but I decided to try to achieve the same sort of effect with watercolor pencils and this was the result. It's not a monotype, so I'll call it a zerotype. Why not? It is based upon a beautiful photograph taken by my son, Ian, in North Carolina a few years ago.



6-5/8" x 10-3/8", watercolor pencil on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper

Calisthenics in the Park

I try to at least sketch from life a little bit every day. Although some sketches are good and some sketches are horrid, it's okay either way. For me, it's calisthenics. I figure that each time I sketch I am getting just a bit better at observing, or depicting what I observe. I also hope that I am developing "muscle memory", and that my hand just might move the right way next time.

As you have seen if you have followed my blog, a lot of my sketches are done at eating establishments, but sometimes I sketch parked in my car beside a small neighborhood park.

The pencil drawing above and the conte' pencil drawing below were drawn in my Moleskine on different days. [The first meets Everyday Matters Challenge #214 "Draw something representing a favorite hobby" because I love to read.]

I think it is interesting how differently they came out even though the subject matter is similar.







Other quick sketches in my Moleskine at the park include this small sketch in pen (while not quite horrid, this one leaves a bit to be desired):














And this sketch using a watercolor pencil (she left before I could add more detail, but I like it).






All in all, sketching is just another day at the park, don't you think?

Failure is Fleeting

Last week, the Illustration Friday topic was "Fleeting". I picked up my watercolor pencils and in spare moments I worked on a picture with two figures - one, a female, walking and looking forward at a 3/4 view and the other, the male, looking back at the first. The idea was that of a young couple and the tenuous beginning of a new relationship.

I searched websites for photos to use as guides and so as to create an original work, not derived from any one photo, I chose parts of many photos. This was easier said than done. There were the size relationships of the various parts of the drawing - each figure to the other - and parts of each figure (from separate photos), one to another. Hands, for instance - I must have drawn a hundred hands to get the right size and angles. I used lead for the more challenging parts, and made liberal use of my kneaded eraser before applying color.

Then, the two figures done, I started brushing on the water. The girl's face, which had been very carefuly drawn, started to melt like something out of a Stephen King movie. Lips were falling, etc. I managed to give her a facelift with corrections and moved on. In the end, the picture didn't look so hot. I then began applying more color, scribbling all over the drawing in a misguided effort to fix things - to make it more "arty". When it was done, drawings I had done in 10 minutes looked better than this one.

After a few days I cut the drawing into pieces, excising the parts that were passable. I like it better now, and feel I've had my revenge. I'm thinking I'll try a collage, and if it comes out any good, you will see it. I will not be defeated!

Failure is fleeting. And from this one I learned many things. I was able to practice figures, hands, hands, and hands, and composition; I think I learned that using composites of different photos for figures doesn't work so well, although I may not be ready to give up on on that one; and I learned a little about the watercolor pencils. So this was not a waste. Everything is an experiment at this stage. I do think I need some formal training in some medium, but at this point do not have the time. Everything I am doing here is in snatches of time.

Anyway, this next week's Illustration Friday topic is "Impossibility". From my perspective, I already did that topic.

These watercolor pencils are funny things. So I have included two quick drawings that I like much better than this last week's experiment. The first, of the girl reading, was done by wetting the pencils themselves. The second was done by applying water on a brush to a dry watercolor pencil drawing.

It's a new week. Thanks for joining me on the ups and downs of my journey.

Hi Janey

In my first post, I thanked Janey of Janey's Journey for her inspiration and the kind words that motivated me to start this blog. Now she has not only linked to this blog's humble beginning, but dedicate a post to me and my blog. I had a feeling I would meet wonderful people in blogland - I believe I have begun with the nicest one of all. Thank you Janey!

Some time ago, I was inspired by Janey at her blog to draw a house from the neighborhood that inspired the folk song "Little Boxes". The blog with Janey's drawing of one of the houses is here. The photographs of the neighborhood are here. My effort is below. This was interesting for me because I painted loosely first in watercolor, and then applied soft pastel over it which created a gentle effect.


Janey likes that I draw people in public, so here is a small gift for her (and for you). I noticed that my new blog looked rather dull in black and white and revived a bit with some color. (As every canvas should!) Janey's blog is always full of color and is full of life. So today at lunch I drew my unknowing subject with watercolor pencils, just to see if I could draw that way in the field. Watercolor pencils can be used a few ways. I used the pencils just as I would any color pencil. The idea was to use a brush later this evening to carefully transform the pencil strokes into paint. Of course instead I managed to get the drawing wet with the condensation from the outside of my Diet Coke (the elixir of life). So I began wetting and stroking the drawing - with my finger. A bit imprecise, I'll admit. So any future work with a brush ought to be better, don't you think? So here is my first effort, for her and for you.



Whether you were invited to my blog by Janey, or came to see my first IF entry, or visited because you already know me, welcome! Some of you have left comments - this has been very exciting for me. Thank you. I appreciate your input more than I can say.

And thank you, Janey, once again.