Little UFO: Day 166

Photo of drawing

Today’s drawing turned out to be a pretty good exercise. And, to be completely honest, it didn’t really take a whole lot of work. I used my 0.2 Micron pen, my new Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, and my little Stonehenge pad of vellum paper. All of those items combined turned a regular doodle I would normally do on any given day, into something that looks kind of special. There are some things about this drawing that I’m not too fond of (I wish I made a rainbow beam rather than the little cloud puffs, as one example) but the pencils were fun to work with and sharpened really well. Especially when compared with the supplies I’ve been working with since I started my year long project. What a massive difference!

I think next up, perhaps even this afternoon, I’ll use my other pad of 9 x 12 bristol paper to try and make that Dagobah (It’s a swamp planet from Star Wars for those not in the know) idea I had the other night. I’m quite confident that I can pull it off, and I’m excited to get started on it.

Zoomed photo of drawing

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Doodles: Day 165

Micron pen doodle

Well, on one hand this was a very unproductive day, while on the other I learned a bit about myself and my creative process. My package of new art supplies arrived today, and after unpacking everything and getting setup to draw, nothing happened. I stared at a blank page of this new high quality paper and… nothing happened. I had all these new fancy colored pencils to work with, my HB pencil was all sharpened and ready to go, and I had an awesome pen selection with these new Micron pens. I just didn’t know what to do with them. Nothing felt worthy enough to try.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had trouble getting started on something. I do remember pretty early on in my creative habit project that I had something similar happen to me. A blank page can be extremely intimidating, and I was feeling this ten fold today because I was using all new supplies. I don’t think I felt like I could do anything worthy of this nice expensive paper, or use up any of the ink in these new pens, etc. I didn’t realize any of this at the time though, and instead I was just stressing myself out by trying to come up with a way to approach this strange situation.

A short time later I got a message that I had company coming over, and so I decided to put things away and slowly work on it little by little as the evening went on. I didn’t touch my new colored pencils or paper, and instead I went back to my old sketchbook. I decided to ease my way into using the new stuff by starting off by trying out one of my new pens. This way I don’t really feel as bad about wasting the new stuff on some little doodles. I had no time, nor the concentration, to pull off anything epic tonight. So I kept things pretty simple by just trying out these pens. The detail I’m able to do now is pretty insane. I made a teeny tiny smiley face with one of the Micron pens. You actually had to squint to see it properly.

Sometimes I find I put too much pressure on myself to keep drawing consistently epic projects. I write about this once every other week it seems. I need to keep reminding myself to take it easy, and although over the last several days I’ve been forced to take it pretty easy due to the lack of art supplies, this time the situation is a bit different. I know I don’t ‘really’ need to explain myself to anyone, especially to any of the creative people out there. They get it. Sometimes you have it in you to do something awesome, and sometimes you don’t. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I felt uncomfortable with all this new stuff today. I’ll get used to it in time, or have some amazing idea that I’ll want to put to paper. Eventually, I’m sure. For now though, I want to enjoy the new tools and just test some of them out. Today was about messing around with the pens.

I’m not sure how I’ll feel when tomorrow comes (this post is already really late as it’s 11pm!) but I am excited to really get working on something cool down the road. My buddy, Brad, the company I had over today, actually helped me get some neat ideas together for a project I might start working on soon (Dagobah!). So we’ll see how that goes!

So, my first day with my new toys didn’t go so great. The day itself was great, but as far as building upon my creative habit, not a lot really happened. Today’s drawing is a pretty good indication of that. But that’s okay! I learned that I need to carefully feel my way around when it comes to trying something new. Sometimes it’s productive to just jump in head first, but carefully dipping your toe in is occasionally the answer too.

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NHL Incoming: Day 56

Haven

I’m still testing out these colored pencils today. Not a fan of using the black pencil instead of the pens I’ve been using lately. I still outlined some things in pen though. Filling in with the black colored pencil though, not going to be doing that again. Ugh.

Might finish this picture up tomorrow, even though I don’t like the black. But at the same time I want to move on to something else. I really like the random shapes at the bottom though!

Not a lot going on lately. It’s been a boring week. Hockey tonight though! Then the NHL season officially starts in approximately a week. Super excited! As I always am when hockey season comes around.

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Bleeding Through: Day 55

Testing

Hello. Didn’t finish today’s work as I wasn’t all that fond of the way my new pens were operating. The ink was spreading out from where I started to color and was bleeding right through the paper. More of a marker than a felt tipped pen. Just thought I’d give it at try. Was only a few bucks anyways. Next time, I’ll stick with either pens, or try out the black pencil in the new colored pencil set I got today. I’m quite excited about these pencils. Even though I only used a few colors today, they went on really smoothly. Excited about trying them again tomorrow.

I also bought a proper pencil sharpener as the one I’ve been using was falling apart and was insistent on breaking all my pencils. It works great. The ruler I also bought came in handy today. I’ll probably use it again tomorrow.

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