A Surprising and Simple Way to Replace Lost Drawings

Two lost drawings of blooming houseplants and my solution for replacing them.

It tickles me every time the african violets are happy enough to make flowers.  They are one of my favorite house plants.  My intention was to go further with these drawings, but I found that I like them as is.

Ink Drawings That I Wish I Still Had

These ink drawings are favorites of mine.  But they didn’t make it out of the Kendall house fire.  They are done with a variety of pens.  You could say that they developed from testing out pens.  A major mistake is that I scanned them in too small; if I could I would re-scan them.  Without the originals, the best I can do is make a “manual print”.  How many times do I need to remind myself that I am an artist?  Just draw another one.  No matter that it will not be exactly like the first one.  It will be better.

There are a list of other drawings that also suffer this predicament:

• Lamb Chili
• The Lady with the Side Eye
• All the colored pencil drawings !!!
• The Drawing of a Drawing

If you have been waiting on me for a print of any one of these, this is the hold up.    

Repeat Yourself

In college I majored in fine art.  My instructors advised me to make at least two of everything.  Generally I make a point to do this.  Somewhere I read that it’s good to draw once from observation and then again from the drawing you made from observation.  I have never tried this.  It seems like this would be a good chance for a first effort in this concept.  If it happens, I will be sure to post the results.  

The idea keeps coming back to me; I am excited to see the results.  My first guess is that the second drawing of the drawing will always be the best one.  Now I want to see if I am right.  While I am finding out, I will be replacing lost drawings.  How about I have been struggling for a theme for the tiny sketchbook I received for The Sketchbook Project, and I think this will be PERFECT.

The Sketchbook Project

A certain famous artist described in a post how he refused to participate in The Sketchbook Project because they would not agree to let him use a different sized sketchbook.  I thought what a guy.  Well I had been planning to do this sketchbook thing for years, always thought it was a great idea, but never followed through.  Reading this, I thought, well I am going to do it.  I signed up and paid to register.

The Tiny Sketchbook 

Then the sketchbook arrived.  It surprised me to see the tiny package that held the long awaited sketchbook.  I open it, and it IS just about the smallest sketchbook you could choose.  I totally understand wanting for more space; more substance.  Not only is it small in inches, it is also small in thickness.  Although the rules say you can re-bind it to use the paper you prefer or to add more pages, I am relieved that it is not bigger.  They should call it The Tiny Sketchbook Project.

The tiny sketchbook is doable.  Now I have discovered the perfect theme; I will do one drawing from observation on one side of the spread, then repeat that drawing using only the first drawing as a reference.  Then I will report back if I am right about the second drawing always coming out better.  

The Sketchbook Project deadline is April 15th.  

What size sketchbook do you prefer?  Or do you use a lot of different sizes?