Lost

Again, IF's timing seems almost uncanny. I'm feeling rather lost at the moment! With both my year of Oddments & my multiple-year children's book finished, my seemingly-eternal painting commission almost completed, & yet way too much assorted stuff going on in my life... I'm having a hard time staying pointed in one direction.

I'm actually used to getting lost, but mostly it happens on the road. Even though on paper I test well on spatial reasoning, & I can read a map relatively well, put me out in the real world & it is all too easy for me to get completely turned around. I think a big part of it is that I hate driving, so I tend to daydream in the car. Sometimes I blink out of some reverie & feel like I've suddenly landed on another planet, when probably I just missed a turn while thinking about some current obsession... I really should invest in a GPS. It would probably save time, gas & anxiety.

This is quite an old piece-- in fact, it was one of the first experimental pieces I did when I was exploring the paint-on-print style that is now my usual modus operandi. Looking back, that was another time when I felt very lost artistically (hence the subject!) but in fact I was finding myself in a big way. I guess I should take comfort in that!

Acrylic on text from The Automobile Green Book, 1921-- a fascinating document actually, detailing road trips around New England when road trips were a very different experience! ~5.5"x5.5"

Sightless

Sometimes I really think Illustration Friday is reading my mind! Lately I've been experimenting with drawing under various constraints, a series I call Oddbody Exercises. I've already done one post on "blind" drawing, & inspired by IF's prompt "sight" I think I will keep at it. We'll see if I improve over the course of the week. :-)

Again, it's obvious how much easier calligraphy is than actual drawing. The only clear result of writing "blind" is some occasional unintentional crossing/connecting (the "g" & "e"  & the small "s"s), an uneven baseline, & slightly wonky spacing between the "g" & "h". Once again, muscle memory did much of the work.

The little critter, on the other hand, fully reveals my faulty mental map! In my mind those wildly divergent lines on the back & butt were connecting perfectly. Ha! Also the shading lines were intended to fall right along the belly.

I think I'll try using my left hand as a frame next time, to try for a more accurate spacial sense. Stay tuned!

Shut-Eye

For the past few days I have been working non-stop on a series of illuminated certificates... hand-lettered names & countless tiny golden leaves... & even though I used a magnifier for the tiniest bits, by the time the job was done, my eyes were really very tired. So it actually felt good to continue my Oddbody Exercises with "blind" drawing & calligraphy.

I've drawn & lettered with my eyes closed before & it always strikes me how much more "normal" the writing looks than the drawing. Calligraphy seems largely a matter of muscle memory for me, while drawing requires far more eye-brain-hand communication. I find that whenever I lift the pencil, it becomes a near-literal stab in the dark to put the next line where I envision it in my mind's eye. I have a feeling that if I did a lot of this, I'd probably develop a  more accurate mind-map, but I don't have the energy to keep trying right now.

Oh yes-- I had to do the calligraphy with a felt tip pen, because I couldn't tell when the dip pen had run out of ink! This is my 5th try on the lettering, by the way. Third try on the drawing... maybe I'll do more later, once I've had a little of the REAL shut-eye!

p.s. The ever-inventive Ted Blackman sent me this amazing & hilarious (virtual) tool for behind-the-back mirrored mouth-painting!!!! (If you missed the Mouthy post, check out his comment there & this will make more sense. Or rather, its senselessness will be slightly more understandable. Maybe.) Thanks so much, Ted, this made my day!!

Mouthy

I promised Ces I would do it, & here it is! Yes, it's a mouth drawing. I knew this wouldn't be easy, but I wasn't expecting quite so many challenges.

I found out right away why most mouth artists are painters, because when I tried to use a pencil, I could barely make a visible mark, even with a 4B lead. It was almost impossible to put enough pressure on the pencil without losing control of the line entirely.

A Sharpie might do the job, but rather than breathe too many of those nasty ink fumes (& potentially do more harm to my brain than good!) I decided to try using my Pentel Pocket Brushpen, along with some diluted purply-brownish ink applied with a Chinese bamboo brush.

Another unexpected challenge: it was hard to focus clearly on what I was doing when my face was so close to the paper. I suspect most mouth artists use long brushes for this reason-- some, like Ben Nevis, use special rigs to extend the brush. I had to stop & sit back frequently to make sure the marks I was making weren't completely off-target. I think it would probably be better to work a little larger too, to minimize wobble issues.

Silliest unexpected challenge: drool! Several times I came close to an unintended bleed wash. :-P°°°  Afterward I realized that most people do mouth painting with an easel, which would help a lot. Would probably save on neck pain too. If I ever try this again I'll definitely tweak my technique.

Ink on paper, ~5"x4.5"

p.s. I'd planned something completely different to mark the 150th oddment, but once again time did not permit. :-( Still, this is Oddments & Curiosities' sesquicentoddical!

p.p.s. Ces, before you issue any more challenges, I must preemptively state that this is the one & only orifice I will offer to my Oddbody exercises!

Edit: If you haven't seen Ted's contribution (hinted at below) to my virtual Oddbody toolbox, please have a look at the Shut-Eye post!

Bigfoot

Don't worry, folks, you are not watching a Louis-Wain-style breakdown take place before your eyes! I'm just on a momentary sidetrack, playing with odd drawing restrictions. (I'm calling this series Oddbody Exercises.) This one was inspired by Ces's comment on my last post. I doubt I would have thought of foot drawing otherwise, but once she put the idea in my head I just had to try it!

Wow. I thought non-dominant hand drawing was tough! This was my dominant foot, if there is such a thing, & it took three tries to come up with something that was actually recognizable as some sort of drawing. My first efforts resembled bird tracks, or perhaps something generated by a drawing machine. I had to slow waaaay down to have any control whatsoever. Even so, I couldn't draw a smooth curve to save my life! I doubt that a career as a foot artist is in my future.

Pencil (held between the toes of my right foot) on paper, ~4.5"x6.5"

p.s. Although this is roughly (& I do mean roughly!) my idea of what Bigfoot might look like, I suspect I was also subconsciously influenced by Sendak's Wild Things. Speaking of which, if you haven't seen Cory Godbey's Sendak-inspired site Terrible Yellow Eyes, you should do it right this minute!

R.I.P. Mr. S. <3  If there is an afterlife, let the wild rumpus start!

Out of Left Field

I guess that's where this critter & my recent urge for non-dominant drawing came from! I had rather a long & stressful day today, & found it strangely comforting to draw something quick, messy & pointless tonight. :-) It still intrigues me that my left hand has so little control-- everything is wobbly, lines veer off in completely unexpected directions, & it's also much harder to regulate pressure. Come to think of it, that pretty much describes my day!!

Pencil on paper, non-dominant handed, ~2.5"x3.5"

Hitch

When I saw Illustration Friday's prompt this week the first thing that came into my mind was the expression "a hitch in his giddy-up." (Maybe I've been listening to too many episodes of Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars? No, one can never have too much Thrilling Adventure Hour.)

That phrase together with last post's musings on balance & symmetry & the brain got me thinking about non-dominant-hand drawing again. Have you ever tried this? I'm thoroughly right-handed, but now & then I like to give Lefty a turn. And Lefty is mighty wobbly! Originally I was just doing this for fun & planned to proceed to my usual Photoshop rendering, but I changed my mind & decided to post the left-handed sketch instead. Look at all those shaky lines! I found I had to put down at least 3 marks for my usual one to get to the line I was after. There is definitely a hitch in Lefty's giddy-up!

But I know it is possible to improve non-dominant co-ordination. One of my many obsessions is hoop dance, & it has taught me a lot about side-dominance in all sorts of movements. Most people naturally hoop in a certain direction, for instance, & find going the opposite way far more challenging. And once you get into the tricky stuff using multiple hoops, you really have to work to get your non-dominant hand up to speed. In my case I thought Lefty would never catch up, but with enough practice I've become nearly hoopidextrous. Or would that be ambihoopstrous? Anyway, I'm a fervent believer in training both body & brain via play, so maybe I'll try sketching left-handed for a while & see where that gets me. (Not into the loony bin, I hope.)

Actually, some scientists propose that working with the non-dominant hand stimulates & protects the brain from future dementia. See? Acting a little off-kilter could be good for you! (If so, I'm in luck!)

Scanners, however, should be thoroughly, even boringly, balanced. I'm distressed to see how asymmetrical the color is on this scan. Anyone know how to remedy that problem?

Pencil on paper, non-dominant handed, ~2"x4"

Oddment Sings the Blueb's

It's October! Time to curl up & hide!

Okay, not really. I love October-- the crisp weather, the leaves turning, Halloween*-- also, it's always my month to host Book Club, which I thoroughly enjoy. It's actually not until November that I start to feel tinges of those Winter blues, drifting toward the "discouraged, morbid & ill."

Truth to tell, today's experiment was a bit discouraging too. I tried blueberry ink for the first, & probably the last, time. I had some "blueb's" that were beginning to go mushy, so I picked out the bad ones, smashed them up with a bit of white vinegar & salt to preserve color & prevent ickies, & strained them 3 times. Then I tried to concentrate the color in the microwave. Having made jelly in the past, I should have known better!

Due to the sugar & pectin in the fruit, it was very hard to get the ink dark enough to be more than faintly visible without having it gel up. I never did achieve a strength & consistency that satisfied me. Also despite using a super-fine strainer, there were little dark flecks in the ink that were a bit irritating. But oh well, the pallor, spottiness & stickiness sort of fit the gloomy theme. And experiment, successful or not, is part of the idea behind Her Odd Materials. (This is H.O.M. No. 6.)

Pencil, blueberry ink & white gouache on found paper, with some Photoshop tweaking.

The background of this one is a page from Reading Character At Sight, Seven Simple Lessons by Katherine M.H. Blackford, M.D., ©1922. The book is hilarious reading, purporting to psychoanalyze strangers instantly, using such vital clues as the fineness of their hair. It seems to be aimed mainly at salesmen. It was of course a Fleam Find.

*Fellow Halloween enthusiasts might be interested in countdowntohalloween.com, a blog that rounds up blogs with an October focus on Halloween. I'll be participating in this year's countdown!