It turned out the art challenge that I gave myself for January 2023 wasn’t very realistic. Look at what I wanted to make:

• animal drawings that are somewhat realistic and colored with markers

I’m not very skilled at drawing animals, realistic or otherwise, nor at coloring with markers.

It turns out that the tutorials about drawing animals aren’t very helpful. The basics of drawing aren’t included in those tutorials, nor are the basics of drawing mammals (which is often meant with “animals”). Luckily, I have some art instructional books that do, but those require study and years of practice.

Am I giving up? No. But I do have to lower my expectations, a lot a lot.

So far I’ve drawn:

• sitting cat
• mouse
• rabbit
• horse

Still 30 to go. I should speed up a bit, since the month has only 25 days left.

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I’m struggling to get the 34 animal drawings done in 31 days. It’s already day 5, I’ve studied 3 animals and drawn none so far. I guess it’s the perfectionist in me trying—and succeeding—to interfere with finishing. The sketches are entertaining, though, based on photos.
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The animal after the cat was, of course, the mouse. After doing the tutorial on drawing mice, I tried to draw from photo reference, using the construction method from the tutorial. It’s becoming clear all mammals have a similar body plan: head, front, mid, hind sections, tail.
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I know what this looks like. When I construct the cat, it doesn’t look like the cat in the photo, and when I draw from the photo, it doesn’t look like a cat, but like a photo of a cat. I will move on to the next animal before I get too frustrated. I’m already a day behind. 🎨

The question was if I’m up to the art challenge of drawing animals. Only one way to find out, draw…

So this is the current state of my drawing skills, it seems. It isn’t bad, although it’s easy to see its plentiful flaws. I thought it wasn’t a good enough sketch to create a full colored drawing with markers.

Time to re-evaluate my initial art challenge, learn how to draw animals in the month of January 2023. That seems a setup for failure 😞 So, a more realistic challenge is to use a couple of months to achieve this goal. I want to be at least able to complete a few colored drawings this month. For now I have two of my own cats to draw, one of which is no longer alive (so I can’t draw him from direct observation). It’s only one of the 34 drawings to make, but I’m sticking to it. The important thing is to remember to have fun, not to be a slave to the challenge. Who knows, I might get 34 drawings done this month.

It’s already clear why so many fail at this stage. Not meeting prior expectations is tough. However, it is what it is, and things can only get better from now on. Trust the process. Practice will make better.

In November 2022 I did the micro∙blog November blogging challenge, to blog every day of the month. I completed the challenge and received my special achievement pin. Aside from writing a microblog of no more than 280 characters, I also added a drawing from my notebook.

The latter was so much fun, that I decided to continue the challenge—extend it—on my own. I called it my Microblogextended challenge. For all 31 days of December, I drew and wrote, even on Christmas and Boxing day, despite of day trips with my sister. I found the time to do it.

Here is the list:

• December 1: jest
• December 2: occupy
• December 3: is
• December 4: proportion
• December 5: seat
• December 6: autonomy
• December 7: hip
• December 8: squash
• December 9: fence
• December 10: average
• December 11: chimpanzee
• December 12: regular
• December 13: rocket
• December 14: attic
• December 15: split
• December 16: sticky
• December 17: lump
• December 18: brain
• December 19: dribble
• December 20: peasant
• December 21: hike
• December 22: nationalist
• December 23: fault
• December 24: forest
• December 25: plant
• December 26: chance
• December 27: defendant
• December 28: parade
• December 29: examination
• December 30: sand
• December 31: base

In the last week I decided I need another challenge to keep me going. This time it will be a pure art challenge, drawing animals from an art instructional book that is out of print. I got that book as a Christmas present.

I’m really proud of myself I finished this challenge, though humbled by the inconsistency in quality and art style. That needs to change.

Base

As a self-taught artist I don’t have a solid foundation in art-making. I’m aware of the art fundamentals, but never studied them thoroughly. Even so, I didn’t want to go out on a whimper, so I gave it all I got.
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For my January 2023 challenge, I’ll be drawing 34 illustrations of animals with alcohol-based markers. I have Ohuhu pastel color markers, special marker paper and mixed media paper. However, sketching and designing on that paper with pencil leaves a mess, since the pencil marks can’t be fully erased and muddy the marker colors due smearing of graphite by the tip of the marker. It makes much more sense to design on a separate sheet, and then transfer the final version using carbon paper and a ballpoint pen. I could take it even further, and design on an iPad, print it out, and transfer using carbon paper and a ballpoint pen.

Designing and sketching digitally is cheaper and faster than with pencil on paper. I can simply draw the different stages of the sketch in a separate layer while lowering the opacity of the previous layer. In analog you would partially erase the previous stage and draw on top of it. I should try both, and see what works best for me.

I thought about coloring in Procreate on the iPad as well, which would add (unwanted) complications, time and cost. Digital colors differ from analog colors, and the effect of paper is hard to reproduce, I know from past experience. So I will be coloring with alcohol-based markers. I have little personal experience with those, but I’ve seen enough YouTube videos to know how to use them, in principle. I’m sure I’ll be watching loads more videos while coloring. The whole plan, after all, is to learn how to draw by doing and watching how others do it, steal their ideas, in a good way.

Digitizing the analog art is best done with a quality camera on a tripod, except that I don’t own such a camera. I do have a scanner (all-in-one with scanner and monochrome laser printer), though scanned colors tend to look washed out a bit with the bright light. Furthermore, the size is limited to A4, which isn’t a problem for this challenge, since A4 is big enough for drawing individual animals.

Eventually I want to use a light-box for transferring sketches and a budget digital camera for digitizing, so I can work on a larger canvas. Those things cost money, and I’m on a budget. I use what I have and if I start getting more skilled, I could sell some of the art to buy the equipment. Who knows…

After digitizing I need to put it somewhere, so others can see it. For now I’ll be using my Flickr account. I paid for it, so I should definitely use it.

To remove any kinks as soon as possible, it makes sense to first complete a piece before continuing to the next piece. This isn’t factory work; it’s artwork.

I’m also not expecting professional results which could be sold. The only thing I expect is that I’m able to draw animals somewhat convincingly, in the sense that others can recognize what animal it is supposed to be. It doesn’t have to be photorealistic; I’d rather have it be sketchy and loose, more impressionistic, left to the imagination of the viewer.

Only two more days. I’m excited!

Sand

While sand is abundant on the Earth’s surface, it takes a special kind of coarse sand to use for building things, like concrete, silicon wafers, sand castles. It’s finer than pebbles, coarser than silt, so you can grab hold of it, yet not feel individual particles 🏖️
🎨🍂✍️

Examination

The magnifying glass is the staple for the lone sleuth who solves cases the police can’t by lack of intelligence and work ethic. This is, of course, a fantasy version of detective work 🕵️‍♂️
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Parade

When it said “parade”, my imagination went to “marching band”, and the few times in my life (especially when I was in my preteens) I noticed them. They are a lively bunch, attracting immediate attention from the whole neighborhood. In sports events they are a staple.
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One person’s trash is supposedly another person’s Xmas treasure. They were bought on a whim, yet never used. I hope I’ll put them to good use.
🐱🎨📚

Defendant

In my experience, when personal attachments are involved, being impartial is almost impossible. We cannot but be irrational about who (or what) we love. I suppose a certain Christmas present will make me continue doing a challenge about drawing cats.
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Chance

Happy 📦ing Day—day of buying schmancy goods at bargain prices.

Now what’s the probability that I didn’t cheat at this ballpoint pen drawing? I had to mirror (eww!) the baby’s right hand, because I seem to have difficulties remembering what’s left and right 😅
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🌿

The alien PLANT was PLANTed as a disguised PLANT with PLANTs to conquer the world with 🎁 presents and 🥰 love.

H^appy C_hristmas ‼️

Forest

Many authors believe in the statement, show don’t tell. However, saturating the readers minds with an abundance of details will put them off, confuse them to no end. There is such a thing as too much. I’m guilty to this as well. Trimming the fat the good way is hard.
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Fault

Creatives deal with the hard reality that comfort while making, as if by an artisan AI bot, probably is reproducing, not creating. The end product looks so great because of established, proven to work—hence are not creative—workflows. That ”F” teaches us to do better.
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Nationalist

I guess I’m not very patriotic myself. We don’t do a mandatory pledge of allegiance where I live, mostly because of freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Although populism is certainly a thing here, extreme nationalism is frowned upon.
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Hike

I suppose I never made a long hike. The problem is that I can’t leave my cats alone for longer than a day. Day trips I have done, several times. The longest day hike I can remember was about 60 km in 14 hours, in summer, no water. That was a mistake, as is the drawing.
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The random blogging prompt for December 21 is:

hike

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