I have a habit of wandering into rooms and buildings on my walks around a city and while in Paris last November I wandered into this huge drawing/zine expo by the Canal St. Martin. It was Drawmo month, and of course I felt the spirit of Drawmo keenly there. I took one of these flyers announcing what looks like the same arrangement again, which is happening this weekend, so if you’re in Paris, you might want to have a look in.
The last of the Halloween-worthy sketches from the archives. Tomorrow’s a new day, and a new chance to draw more!
Go World Series team of your choice!
“Give me white / ground to run…” —The Pixies, “Caribou” from Come On Pilgrim
Some of the most fun I’ve had sketching has been in museums and galleries, so I’m hoping to have more chances to use artwork* as a subject for DrawMo this year. This will mean hauling self and sketchbook to some of the NYC museum and gallery fall shows.
The gallery above shows two sketches from my old ’06-’07 sketchbook, drawn at a show by Zach Seeger of Binghamton, New York. The two sculptures are titled “Caribou” (2003) and “Witness to a Volcanic Eruption” (2001). Both sculptures are painted and carved wood (and seemed Halloween-appropriate).
*And taxidermy: the Museum of Natural History makes for great sketching. Everything holds very still, so it’s a good chance to bust out the mechanical pencil and get lost in detail. Tourists and kids often stop by to say hi and offer encouragement, too.
Yes, it’s that magical time again—DrawMo! starts tomorrow.
I’m somewhat overwhelmed with graduate school—hence the belated warning about impending DrawMonstrousness—so founding DrawMonaut Margaret (who came up with the name!) will be helping run the show this year. Thanks, Margaret!
Anybody thinking of doing a special project this year, like Elizabeth’s Hand Drawn? I’ve got kittens now, so I may just do thirty drawings of those. They’re fun, especially for gesture drawings, as I learned when I got a head start on DrawMo! in September:
Who else is in?
That’s right, it’s the eve of another DrawMo!
Starting tomorrow, I’m going to be trying to make at least one drawing a day, on top of my already crushing school and work workload. Who’s with me?
Last December, some of us talked some big talk about continuing to draw every week or every month, but then it fizzled out. It’s hard to keep it up without the peer pressure, and without being reminded to draw by seeing everyone else’s new drawings every day. But this year we’ve had a mostly new crew, so maybe there’s more sticktuitiveness among us.
What do you think? Anybody made any ongoing drawing resolutions?
How’s it going, guys?
Me, I’m finding it a lot easier to get my drawings done this year than it was last year. Knowing that I’m definitely not going to draw at home means that I’m much more careful to get it out of the way early in the day. Which means less stress, and less frantic rooting around in my apartment late at night, trying to find anything interesting to draw.
Also, doing so many of my drawings in public, of strangers, means that I’m spending less time on it—I have to, as I’ve mentioned, because strangers who don’t know they’re being drawn have this annoying tendency to move around. And this means that I’m doing fewer icky, tight drawings, which are sometimes a problem for me.
I do want to use some different media occasionally—not just stick to my Stabilo mini-pens for the entire month—but I’ll have to limit myself to what’s portable. (And I know that plenty of people do watercolors outside, but they are clearly more organized and less clumsy than I am.) Maybe I’ll do some more two-day drawings, like I did with the pomegranate, where I sketch something sloppily one day and apply some obsessiveness on the following day. That worked out pretty well, I thought. And maybe I’ll try to do more landscapes, since the farmers market was fun; it’s getting mighty cold here, though, so we’ll have to see about that.
And you?
It seems that several people’s images are not appearing on this blog’s sidebar, although they have been added to the DrawMo! Flickr pool. After extensive reading in the Fiickr support forums and FAQ pages, I’ve got a couple of theories about why this is happening.
Case 1
Mandy’s drawing isn’t showing up because she’s new to Flickr and has posted only one image to her account. Apparently your photos won’t be displayed in “public areas” such as a group pool until you’ve posted at least five and have shown that you can filter your own content correctly. (more…)
Hello Drawmonauts and friends!
I’m looking forward to the start of DrawMo tomorrow. (Once again, I’ve decided to do a project for the month in addition to the daily drawings I do in a sketchbook over on my blog, woolgathering…) I’ve decided to see what it’s like to draw my right hand every day for the month, in pen and ink, on a single sheet of paper. Six times five is thirty, so I think I’ll make a kind of grid.
Is anyone else considering a theme for the month? Can’t wait to see what people do…
Those of you who are newly joined, or who are on the fence about whether DrawMo! is for you, might want to check out the meta post category, as that’s where in 2006 we kind of hashed out what we were doing. Materials, tools, inspiration, and exercises are also useful categories to review. But here’s what you really need to press into your brain:
The Rules
1. Draw.
That’s pretty much it.
(more…)
DrawMo! 
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