I love drawing again! I rediscovered it because I have so much time off during this pandemic.

How did I rediscover the heart ~ the feel good to draw? It happened because I'm learning the drums.

Talk about new input! Everything is new for me on the drums. A beginner, and I love everything about it.

Of course, I can easily do beginner stuff in drawing. So I felt like it would be a waste of time to draw basic shapes. When I do my Professional Artwork aka Drawing Caricatures, or Illustrating Stories, I have to focus on representing what's Out There.

But I discovered that beginner stuff is what I like to do when I'm alone! Why would I bother drawing stranger after stranger when I'm not communicating with or entertaining them? It's that beginner Artwork ~ the stuff that you do early in a 'relationship', that's so compelling when you're alone. Beginner Artwork ~ when you're discovering the nuances of pencil-use, not yet sure about what aspects of the pencil you'll need for when you get good enough to represent what's Out There. The beginner stuff is an internal experience of discovery.

I don't really care about what people look like. I like to joke around when I'm with people. And I like to make pictures. That comes out as ' I draw Caricatures when I'm with people, but there's no reason to do them when I'm alone.

When I'm home alone, I enjoy all sorts of things ~ including music and art. My way. When there is no purpose for picking up the pencil, nobody here to entertain, not going to get any money for drawing it, nothing to tell anyone.... That's when I finally got back to the thrill of the pencil. How good it feels to make it work so successfully.

These shapes are not needed. Nobody asked me to make them. They won't teach me anything new. It's passing the time with pencil and paper.

Just like keeping time on the drums. Peace

It's better to do Tribal lines with Facepainting, but I just used a Caricature marker this time ~ because it's here and no mess and no set-up work. This is my time off. Not getting paid to do this. And I already know how to do it. So I just want to do what's easy. I like All types of Art Supplies.

Ready to draw today's Party. This one I just drew from a photo on the web while Waiting. Looking forward to today's Party.

ooooooh. Passing time in the

Waiting Room.

Oh.

at the Dentist's Office

This is what an Artist does ~

What we have here is......testing stuff out to warm up before this weekend's Party. The pandemic has really impacted Parties around here, so I felt glad that I was able to jump right into it when I wanted to be sure I would be ready.

For this upcoming Event, the Client ordered Black/White Caricatures ~ with just a pop of Color if needed. To increase Production. So I drew Just the Lines for this practice Caricature. In the 2nd picture, I added a little Shading with gray marker. I like the immediacy of the first one better. This time, I'm preferring Outline Only to Outline with Shading. Good to know. I'll probably want to keep it simple at the gig.

Then, just for my own study (there's always Something that intrigues me), I added Color. Simple. Basically just using Home Color in the Shadow areas. That's something I do sometimes to save time. It works, it gives the answers.

But lately (probably because of the digital Caricatures I've been doing), I've been interested in filling in the whole area with the Home Color, and then going back in with a darker Color. Takes more time. But I feel like the 4th picture looks better than the 3rd one. More Solid coloring.

But oh ~ what I was really testing was this ream of paper. There was a mark on the backs of all those papers in the ream. 250 papers. Figuring that it's just on the Back of the paper, I Wited it out. I wanted to see if I would still be able to use these papers at an event. Yick. It wasn't disturbing to color over that area, but I can see a horizontal rectangle formed by the relief impression of the Wite-Out area. Not very noticeable. I would feel really surprised if anyone noticed it without me mentioning it. But I know it's there. Feels wrong to have this at a gig. Oh. Dagnabbit. Well...... now I have a lot of very good Practice paper.

The last picture ~ finished up with a litl background Color. Yes ~ even better.

What I learned from tonight's expedition is that the most beauty is in the Simplest or in the Most Evolved. The ones in the middle are 'not really doing it'. Not really doing either thing.