The Sketchbook Challenge First posts

Ok...so you're probably wondering what the heck I've been doing with the sketchbook challenge...So far, I'm sort of doing better with that than the Sketchbook Project, but that's another story.

The Sketchbook Challenge, which you can see others by clicking the badge on the side of my blog, is to do a sketch every day on a theme determined by the sketchbook "leaders" or whatever they call themselves. The theme for this month is "Highly Prized." Hmm. So, for day one, I chose my immediate family, my daughter and my husband. These are really crappy drawings of the pair.

Day two was my cats.....This one is Lemmie the Magnificent. Better than the family....however, I think part of my problem is this: My desire was to do a full scale drawing. Well, I used to draw, back in high school. I also find that in doing things like this, I always want to do my best and I'm terrified that my best is going to be well...absolute and utter garbage compared with all the talent in the group.

Breathe, Lis, just breathe. First of all, these are supposed to be SKETCHES. A sketch, by definition (according to Dictionary.com) is: –noun

1.

a simply or hastily executed drawing or painting, esp. a preliminary one, giving the essential features without the details.

Well, DUH! Do it fast, don't think it has to be a masterpiece and remember the point of this whole exercise: practice. By doing this, I will hone my skills and get back some of the ability which I have lost through disuse. It also occurs to me that I have never really learned how to cartoon...or make quick glimpses of things....sort of caricatures... Now's the time to work on that.

Then after deciding all that...today, I sketched this. It sort of fits the theme.....what I'd like to be able to do is grow old...and this old lady was sitting in the oral surgeons office directly opposite from me. She had such a wide and open face...and it was so cool....even if I don't think I was able to really convey her age...her skin was fairly smooth, with some wrinkles, but not terribly wrinkly....her eyes were not the same size....and she was just sort of cool. You couldn't see any of her hair, only her cap pulled down over her ears. Hmmm.

So bear with me, as I continue to explore this sketchbook thing. In the meantime, I do wish you 365 Happy Days in the coming year...just as this postcard which dates to about 1906 says.