Hi classmates, hi Marie Noelle,

I've enjoyed two of Marie Noelle's previous classes a lot, so I am extremely excited to see where this one will take me. To be honest, I've been feeling a little stuck with my drawings lately. I've been participating in the 100 day project on instagram and drawing almost nothing but fish for the past 80 days or so (you can check them out here, if you are interested) and it's left me kind of drained and doubting my creative skills and motivation. I'm basically in dire need of something new, fresh and low pressure. So I've decided to jump right in with this challenge.

Day 1: Journey

I grabbed a big sheet of paper, my oil pastels and a pencil, turned on some music and just let it flow without any plan or direction in my mind. I just wanted to see where the journey would take me! Sometimes this approach takes me to a more figurative kind of place, but this time the drawing stayed pretty abstract. I was a little inspired by Cy Twombly's Lepanto cycle which I went to see at a museum yesterday, I guess, at least in terms of the colours and the overall roughness...

 

Day 2: Cloudwatching

I love this exercise so much! I guess I do this quite a lot, I often put down some random watercolour blobs and let the shapes inspire me. For this one I used an ink wash and I actually ended up with a drawing I like! It makes me smile, which is always a good sign :)

 

Day 3: Slow

Wow, this was so hard! I wouldn't describe myself as being a particularly fast painter, but I'm super impatient and I really had to concentrate with this one or I would catch myself speeding up without even noticing. Doing this exercise kind of made me question the way I hold my pen/brush, I kept asking myself: This feels so weird, do I always draw like this? Why is it so hard to draw a straight line without wobbling all over the place? What the hell am I doing?

Anyway, this feeling of detachment also applies to the final outcome, which I am not that happy with. I doesn't really look like something I would do, and not in a good way either. I also think I overworked it, maybe I'll give this another go tomorrow with a time constraint and less layering. It also might be fun doing this immediately before the speedy day 4 one, it would probably feel awesome just letting go with wild scribbles after this very restrained approach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4: Shake it up

I had so much fun with this! I put on some music and just let loose with some cheap alcohol markers I have lying around but rarely use. It took no longer than 10 minutes.

A day later I decided to do this again, just because I felt like it. This time I used acrylics, then drew on this base with oil pastels and then again put in some more details in acrylic paint. I enjoyed the process a lot! Also, I think for this exercise music is key, as it can really guide your movements. I listened to Thy Art is Murder while working on this piece and I really like the way it turned out.

 

Day 5 and 6 : Metamorphosis

First attempt: Ink washes and some ultramarine gouache. I drew on really cheap paper, so of course there are ugly wrinkles! Ugh!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I redid Day 5 and 6 again couple of days later, just because I felt I hadn't done the prompt justice. I stuck with the same colour palette though:

 

 

Day 7: Crowd of Creatures

 

Day 8: Colors and more colors

It's not very colorful. I guess it's a fail?