Art of the Day #1

Tools: iPad mini, sketchbook pro, stylus
Actual drawing time: Approx. 50 min. 

Introducing my first Art of the Day! I promise to be as honest as possible, not sugar-coat, and tell you how I really feel about this experience: I don't really know what I'm doing. But! I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing until I figure it out.  My "goal" is to do this again and again and again and again as well as document the experience.

For this Art of the Day, I didn't really know what to draw, so instead of paralyzing myself with "the perfect drawing" I just quickly picked something that I figure I would be happy enough to draw.

The subject in this drawing is of a really cute dog I drew in real life about a month ago.  I drew a caricature of this sweet animal but never posted it because I was not happy with the result.  The most amazing thing about this lovely animal is that his fur is marked in the shape of a heart.  Sorry for not drawing it into the picture, but just wanted to let you know the back story.

The feeling I had while doing this piece was of angst and impatience.  I thought that drawing a cute creature would make me feel better (which it did), but the actual experience felt like the feeling of someone running or working out for the first time in a long time… It is exciting and terrifying, yet painful and grueling… I couldn't wait to finish! I could probably keep working on this picture for hours longer, but I just want to finish a drawing to get into the habit of drawing.  Not really looking for perfection for this one. As Leonardo da Vinci once said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned."

Not that I'm making excuses, just documenting my thoughts here… I'm really not used to drawing on the iPad yet.  As with anything new, it is a bit painful.  In this case, mentally and emotionally…   But it's a good hurt.  Though I am not really in the mood to draw today, I am determined to be disciplined and draw anyway. Sorry for all the hemming and hawing… even though I don't feel like it, I have to keep telling myself to draw, draw, draw anyway.

Here's a lil video I recorded… Approx. 50 minutes of work down to 2:08 minutes Enjoy!