INKED

Cinderella's Golden Carousel, Renamed Prince Charming Regal Carrousel in 2010
Fantasyland, WDW

One minute ink wash from carousel sketch collection. Burnt umber ink with dip pen nib and brush on Bristol board 9 X 12 inches

5 SIMPLE DESIGN STRATEGIES

Students sometimes express having little experience with graphic layout and are feeling overwhelmed. Below are the best basic strategies that always work. These concepts will solve some of the most common mistakes.

1. The GRID is the secret to the classic layout. Align everything. Body copy should be aligned left.

2. Less is more. Include only what's needed to communicate the message.  

3. Use a color palette resource like Canva.com for COLOR palette selection.

4. Choose one FONT for headers and one for body text. Font Pairings | Fontjoy.com

5. Group related content.

MIDNIGHT PEARS

I wished for pears to draw. I find their shape beautiful as well as the multiple colors found throughout. They remind me that simple forms can make the strongest image. So here are my midnight pears, drawn from my memory since the pairs are still at the market. I hope to draw from a still life soon and expect that the next drawing of pears, from observation, will be very different.

LAST DAYS OF SUMMER

Closing up the kitchen for the night these perfect, constant reminders of sunny days caught my eye. I tried to quickly sketch them on the iPad, which grew heavy so I headed to bed. Once there, I continued without the visual inspiration that began the drawing. From there, the tomatoes in the kitchen were just another memory of the days of Summer.

• The tomatoes and pears are drawn in Procreate with iPad Pro and the Apple pencil.
• Brushes used varied mostly between Inking Brush Pen and Sketching Artist Crayon.
• The background is chosen to provide a medium shade, between the darkest shadow and lightest highlight. In the case of the pears, a green olive coloring was chosen to enhance the yellow while maintaining a natural environment.
• Noise was added to the tomato background below to produce a paper texture, but the pear background is left smooth. Smooth background for textured fruit and textured background for smooth.

The Time Spent

Through each attempt at observation and drawing, we grow closer to understanding our visual work and the world as we see it. Protecting precious time to be still or whatever makes us work, will always produce an expanded view of the universe and its intricate workings. Is there anything more exciting than creating something that was not there before? However good, bad, or indifferent, the process connects us all. Sometimes, In the end, we have only the time spent and not the rendition we chased.  At that point, the drawing can feel like a waste of time. Still, it's our responsibility to take time to explore the world around us in order that we may close the space between seeking and realizing our goal.