My Creative Journey 51

And so the story continues, lol. As I'm learning there are the ups and downs not only of mood, but also output. Those couple days of insane drawing, well, last night was a bit quieter. And, that's ok. Most of the evening was spent relaxing with friends and chatting about life, the universe, art, society, the stuff that stoners usually get into when trying to figure out why the world works the way it does. If we could only get everyone high for a couple hours...so much would change, hehe.

I was pretty tired from the last couple days of output, and battling a headache that I couldn't seem to shake. My friends headed out around 1030pm and I got right to work. I thought I was going to do just some quick warmups but, as usual sidetracks took me an entirely different direction.

The night before my focus had been smoking, but, a friend hit me up as I was beginning my LIVE and threw an idea at me...'John Wick.' We'd already been joking about celebrity portraits at the coffee shop earlier and so how could I say 'no?' I'm a sucker for requests...as long as their dope and on topic...or off topic enough to really interest me.

I knew at this point it probably wasn't going to be a magical night...

But that was okay. Like I said, I'm beginning to get how the ups and downs work. I had some amazing days, then some slow days, and amazing will come again. And, the more I work through those slow days, the more likely those are amazing days are to arise. It didn't look like crap, but...

Anyways, I kept on going.

I decided to flip back into the smoking thing...

Checking out different kinds of shots. Pintrest really doesn't have a lot...or at least they're not easily findable...or I'm just using the wrong search terms. Who knows... So I went with what I could find and focused a bit on hands and smoke. Hands are gonna be hard...so many aspects to them, and, like eyes, they are a window into the story of who a person is. There's a reason lots of artists really get hung up on them, just like when they're learning eyes...

I did end up finding some pics I wanted to try and do. It was a combo of gas masks and smoking...which was an interesting challenge. I'm still getting used to this kind of larger format drawing, not to mention all the crazy little things about charcoal, but, I'm returning to my original mindset of, 'the more scared I am to try it, the better it would be for me to give it a whirl.'

Once again...what's the worst that happens? I draw something I don't like? Cool, either erase and try again. Throw out and try again. Or, find some other way to try again...a different angle, a different medium, whatever. The whole point is to get good at this so that what I want to draw/paint/ink/whatever, comes out good. And other artists out there probably feel the same way. I want to be doing this, so doing it a thousand times the same is just as fun as doing a thousand different pieces.

And sometimes it's good enough to do it once and move on, lol.

Not that this is amazing, but when you feel you're super close, you don't want to try to do the same thing again right away...at least in my opinion. You'll psyche yourself out paying too much attention to one thing instead of letting it flow. When it's almost close, or I think I can do better easily, then I do it just one more time. Two times max...but, that's just me.

It struck me that I should do at least one skull.

And, I realized that I could do something I hadn't been able to do really at all this entire time. I was able to erase and correct something. Now, I don't want to get into the habit of that, since it's like machine-gunning a DSLR to hope and get the perfect picture, spray and pray...but it is a useful learning tool. And, I used it a lot on the jaw. For many reasons I've been having issues getting it to feel right on the skull overall. So, I plan to use this super simple basic technique to get it down.

Have I mentioned how fun this journey can be? Learning how to learn...how you learn...and what you can do if you put your mind to it?

I was a bit wrecked by this point.

Pretty damn tired. In fact, I spent equal times staring at Breaking Bad on the TV, considering if I should do another one, and learning back/forward in preparation to give it a go. Somehow, in between all that I did a couple hand sketches in, but they were pretty weak. Didn't care though. Because they were better than I'd done before...still weak, but better.

Today, as I write this, I'm eager to get to the art part of my day. I've had phone meetings, posted more social media, products, and notes than I can remember. I now officially have an Etsy Store...so far there are 10 of my 4x6 dope skull ink on watercolor postcards for sale and more to come daily :) And I keep on listing things on Society6 if you're interested in dope merchandise with my art on it. No pressure but remember, y'all are an artists lifeblood. We love to create, but need to support ourselves as well.

Anyways, thank y'all for stopping by! Hope you have a fantastic morning/afternoon/evening! :)

Wessel

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Previous posts:
My Creative Journey 49 + 50 (shit tons of art...)
My Creative Journey 48
My Creative Journey 47
My Creative Journey 46
My Creative Journey 45
My Creative Journey 44
My Creative Journey 43
My Creative Journey 42
My Creative Journey 41
My Creative Journey 40
My Creative Journey 39
My Creative Journey 38
My Creative Journey 36 + 37 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 16

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See available original drawings and paintings for sale

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Original work for sale on Etsy

Merchandise with my art available on Society 6

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