100 Days of Drawing (Week 2)

Rules of Art

Before we go any further, let's review the three rules of art

1. First rule for making art:

• THERE ARE NO RULES FOR MAKING ART!
  

2. Second rule for making art:

• THERE ARE NO RULES FOR MAKING ART

3. Third rule for making art:

• THERE ARE NO RULES FOR MAKING ART!

Other artists and art teachers may disagree with these rules. If they do and have something valuable to teach you, accept their rules as good practices or strong suggestions.

This week's drawings

This week we continue our endeavor to draw cuteness, to use cubes to make complex structures and to use circles to rough in forms:

• Day 9: Chibi animals
• Day 10: stacking tables
• Day 11: cool koalas
• Day 12: advanced-level cube
• Day 13: fish scale drawing game
• Day 14: Chibi people
• Day 15: the rose

Materials:

• pencil
• eraser
• paper (printer paper, notebook, etc)
• colors (colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, etc)
• alternatives to the above: smart phone or tablet drawing app

Day 9: Chibi animals

Continuing my quest to learn how to draw "cute", here are a couple of chibi bunnies.  

To draw the bunny running I spent time modeling the body while looking at Running rabbit by Richard Buriton.  To make it a chibi I shortened the bunny's body and gave him a large head and big eyes.

I colored both bunnies with a watercolor wash in procreate.  Going over the lower parts of their bodies with the wash again makes it darker and creates an illusion of three dimensions.  Adding the shadow under the running bunny helps to 'elevate' the bunny.  Adding a shadow to the sitting bunny, anchors her to the ground

I used Ансплэш Степана's A little rabbit walking outside as a model.  I only had to give it big eyes to make it a chibi.

Art ala Carte has posted a nice tutorial on How to design an Imaginary Animal Character.

Here is the link to my Procreate video:

    

Day 10: stacking tables

Once you learn how to make a cube, you can join them together to make more complex.  Mark stacks three cubes to make a table and then goes on to show you how to stack these to make fascinating forms in space (See Lesson 6 starting on page 62).  Here is his video:  

    

 You Can Draw in 30 Days: Day 6

The rabbits from yesterday were still jumping around in my head so I used a man in a rabbit suit which Kenneth Eliason shared on Unsplash.

In order to start using all of the picture space, I've added a backgound which is simply a horizontal line (or in my case a slanted line) with a blue sky and a brown plane. I applied the colors so that it is paler (less saturated) at the horizon.  This is another trick for creating an illusion of depth.

Finally, I added shadows for the table and the rabbit.

Here is the link to my Procreate video:

Day 11: cool koalas

You can draw a koala by sketching the form of it using circles. Mark illustrates this in Lesson 8 beginning on page 82. Here is a link to his video:

You Can Draw in 30 Days: Day 8

I used Vish K's hello mate! photo on Unsplash as my model.

The Procreate video of my drawing shows my use of circles in sketching the koala:

Day 12: advanced-level cube

Doing this drawing, I spent time imagining how to get people from the bottom floor to the roof. More time than I anticipated. Sometimes I get caught up in the details, which is fine except that I begin to have this inner conversation telling myself that I'm taking too long to do something. The idea of "taking too long" is violation of the first rule for making art. However, "taking too long" is a flag telling me that I'm not enjoying "making art". So I took a break and when I came back I started playing with the background and the owl.  I was in a better place to enjoy finishing the building.

I never saw an owl standing up so I was surprised by the Southern Florida Burrowing Owl that Rusty Wilson shared on Unsplash.  He was my model.  He ended up being not so cute.  

Here is the link for Mark's video of advanced-level cubes or if you want to read the tutorial in his book you can go to Lesson 7, beginning on page 74.

Here is the Procreate video of my drawing:

Day 13 fish scale drawing game: 

My granddaughter taught me a drawing game.

On a sheet of paper, make a fish scale design. We take turns making a drawing in each of the 'scales'. Then we guess what the drawing is. Here is one of Izzy's.

"It's a monster." I say.

"No Paw Paw."

"Well, it has fangs and wing things. Is it a bat?" I ask.

"No Paw Paw! Those aren't wings. They're legs. 

"Eight legs . . . eight eyes . . . two fangs. 

"It's a spider."

Playing the drawing game with my granddaughter is humbling.

Day 14 Chibi people: 

Sometimes it's just fun to doodle.  

Here is a link to a tutorial on drawing 3 simple chibi poses

by Candy Cane Kennie

Day 15: the rose

Starting with an oval, Mark shows us how to furl a flag to create the top of rose petals and round the bottom to make a rose bud. To read through his tutorial, go to Lesson 9 beginning on page 88.  Or watch his YouTube tutorial: You Can Draw in 30 Days: Day 9.

After following Mark's tutorial for sketching a rose, I used Anna Pavlin's rosebud as a reference to finish my drawing. 

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