Developing the Habit: Capturing a Moment in Time
The goal of the sketchbook challenge (over the course of these 30 days) is for us to work seriously at developing a habit or a productive obsession (as Eric Maisel would call it). Our initiating belief is that constant stretching of our creative muscles, through the acts of sketching and journalling, will help us to be more attentive to our world, more attune to possibilities, and, therefore, much more open to the inspiration that comes to us. In constant observation and creation, we will have prepared the space for inspiration to arrive and poke us.
I like to talk about the idea that "you make your own luck." Luck is often something that we think just arrives, but in many cases (certainly not all), it is the hard work, the study, the practice, that makes us prepared to grasp hold of luck when it presents itself.
In the creative sense, we are preparing ourselves to invite inspiration to come on in when it presents itself.
Here are some samples of other sketchers, who are making way for inspiration:
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| Michael displays his great sense of humor. |
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| Audrey presents her beautifully abstract self-portrait. |
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| Sandra merges line and color. |
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| Lauren finds two people popping out from her random lines. |
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Kayla builds on her love of a
children's book to create her title page. |
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| Gabriela presents her blind contour self-portrait. |
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| Joe sees a rooster emerging from his random lines. |
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| Ya Hui's name springs forth a garden. |
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| Elaine presents her blind, contour line self-portrait. |
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| Cindy reminds us of the inspiration of Paris. |
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| Krystin shares her blind, contour line self-portrait. |
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| Vika uses vibrant color to capture the page. |
Capturing a Moment in Time
Your challenge for today is to build attentiveness to your surrounding world.
Acknowledgement: This exercise is adapted from the work of Cathy Johnson in Artist's Journal Workshop: Creating your life in words and pictures.
Today, you capture an image of your favorite time of day.
- Think about the time of day you enjoy the most--morning, early evening, mid-day. Or more specifically, think about actions that might relate to your favorite time of day--after your first cup of coffee, just before bed, the quiet of the sunset.
- When that time arrives, position yourself so you can take a few minutes to observe your surroundings very closely.
- You can choose to observe the room you are in at that time.
- You can choose to go outside or look outside at that time, seeing either a natural (trees, etc.) or artificial (buildings, roads, etc.) landscape.
- When you are positioned to observe, spend a few minutes looking around at what you see before you.
- what colors seem more prevalent to you--reds or blues or yellows or something else?
- what values emerge--are things lighter or darker, grey, black or bright?
- what lines and shapes do you see--does the landscape or cityscape seem geometrical, asymmetrical, symmetrical, large-shaped, small-shaped, defined by rough, smooth, crooked and/or straight lines?
- What textures emerge--does the sky look rough or smooth, crunchy or blurry.
- Working VERY QUICKLY, render your sketch. Simplify what you see to a few shapes, lines, colors. Capture the feeling of the moment, not so much a realistic recreation of the moment.
Good luck and keep the images coming. thassele@bryant.edu
I found this challenge to be very interesting. I struggled with simplifying the moment rather than trying to draw exactly what I was seeing. I ended up doing half of it literally and the other half more abstractly. I worked a lot with layering colors.
ReplyDeletemy favorite time of day is sunrise, this challenge was very interesting because it was hard for me to portray that time of day without actually being awake. My drawing was based off of memory and abstract as I tried to make the right colors to portray a nice sunrise.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is late afternoon at the beach when the sun starts to set and people are leaving. I portrayed a sunset by layering colors and played up the texture of the sand and the waves.
ReplyDeleteI found this challenge a little more difficult because my drawing came out to be more literal than abstract. It was hard to draw what I was seeing in a different way.
ReplyDeleteThis activity was a bit more challenging. I was really focused on making my drawing look exactly like what I was looking at. However, I really enjoyed sketching outside.
ReplyDeleteBecause I had to work so fast, my drawing looks like a five year old did it! I looked outside my window and it was a beautiful day! Fall is my favorite season so something that really captured my attention was the color of the leaves. I really tried to emphasize that it my sketch!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day at bryant is the sunset. They are so beautiful and colorful here.I liked working with the colors that emerge from the sky.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is around dinner time. After a long day of work, sitting in my kitchen talking to my family is one of my favorite moments. Around this time we are all talking about our days and laughing preparing dinner. It is nice to relax and catch up. I worked with light colors and light shaded lines to portray the colors in my kitchen. It is a very welcoming place so I tried to make the lines far apart from each other to symbolize openness as well.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this challenge. Getting to focus in on something so soothing to me was so nice on such a beautiful day. I looked outside at my yard and saw how the colors in the trees blended together as the wind came and rustled the leaves. Watching the motion and the blend of colors was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI found this challenge to be relaxing. My room is where I can really relax. So I felt that it was easy to capture this sketch.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is the afternoon when everything's not too bright but the sun's still out and the warmth is still in the air. Today was a perfect day to capture it because we are also in my favorite season which is fall. I liked this challenge and thought it was fun and relaxing to sketch.
ReplyDeleteFocusing on the idea and feeling of an experience rather than the appearance of the experience can make for a more accurate depiction. This activity helped to realize this. Everyone's perceptions are different and the most accurate way to show how you saw an event is by representing it creatively rather than literally.
ReplyDeleteI chose to do this challenge in my room, shortly before I went to bed, probably the best time to sketch. Extremely relaxing and it clears your mind for a little while.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is noon, I stepped outside to look over the trees to find the sun beating down on the leaves. I drew what i saw, all the fall colors and the sunlight spreading across and through all of them.
ReplyDeleteI decided to go outside during the middle of the day and sketch the foliage. I love fall because I believe it is the most beautiful and colorful season of the year. I liked that we had to sketch using just lines, shapes, and colors, therefore it gave the sketch an abstract look.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is early in the morning taking my dog on a walk. My favorite season of the year is the fall. I enjoyed being able to sketch this
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this challenge. My favorite part of the day is going out to practice. We had practice at ten this morning and it was a beautiful day. I was able to utilize a lot of colors especially with it being fall and all.
ReplyDeleteThis was my favorite challenge so far simply because it forced me to enjoy my favorite time of day. I have always loved dusk when the world seems to calm down. However, it is so easy to become too busy to enjoy your favorite time of day. Being able to have an excuse to go outside and witness dusk was awesome! It made me remember why I like dusk so much in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThis activity was challenging than the second and third challenge but the first challenge has been the most difficult. It was fun drawing one of most activities.
ReplyDeleteThis Challenge was fun but it was harder then the before ones. It was not perfect but I gave a good idea on what i was doing during the day. I also showed how simple things can also make me happy.
ReplyDeletethis was a really interesting challenge because I really had to think of what my favorite time of day was. For me my favorite time of day is when the sun is setting and the sky turns pink. I never really fully observed the sky and all the surrounding until this challenge, i noticed things i never noticed or observed before outside
ReplyDeleteThis was a great challenge. My favorite part of the day is early in the morning when I drive to get a coffee and feel the crisp air and see the sun rise.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is in the evening. I like being able to sit down and relax after running around all day. It was difficult to capture that without being so literal or over thinking it. I think that a lot of times I try to draw feelings or emotions using symbols and for this activity I challenged myself not to do that. I did use actual objects within the space, but I definitely tried to capture more than just a couch or a wall.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this sketchbook challenge. I spent the day in Boston and it was a beautiful fall day. It reminded me that fall in the late afternoon is my favorite time of year, which is why I decided to draw what I saw. I felt very creative with this exercise and I really had fun.
ReplyDeleteThis sketch challenge was a good test for me. It was rather difficult to create a scene without actually creating the scene. It was interesting and my sketch came out different that what I envisioned it. All in all, it was an enjoyable sketch.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though what I ended up drawing wasn't my best work. It has a bunch of colored scribbles all over the page since it was so hard to actually capture what I saw. I did my challenge on my deck at home while sitting and watching the sunset with my dog. A great, big tree is in my view and its covered in different color leaves. Also visible were clouds and the sky was a cool combination of orange, pink, and blue. I liked this challenge even though my art didn't come out as well as I thought it would. I used markers, which made it look messy, but I tried my best to capture the feel of the view.
ReplyDeleteThis sketch was tough because it was hard to show my favorite time of day. But after thinking for a while, I noticed it was mid day at the beach when I don't have much to worry about.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the day is at night when I can relax in bed and just hang out. My favorite part of my room is my tie dye tapestry that covers up the plain wall in my room. I love looking at it because it takes me to a happy place, so I drew that!!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the day is the morning. Unfortunately I could not do my sketch this morning because I was driving through the nice outdoors in Maine. I have a picture to go off so I tried my best to do justice to the amazing scenery I saw.
ReplyDeleteI thought this challenge was just that, a challenge. When I thought of my favorite time of day i immediately know it was the sunset. My biggest problem with this sketch was trying to work abstractly although I did my best. I tried to use the colors you might see at sunset more than the literal image.
ReplyDeleteEvery Sunday, you will find me watching football in the common room. Since this assignment was posted on a Sunday, it was a no brainer to draw my favorite time of the day, although Sunday's aren't my favorite day because it means another full week of classes.
ReplyDeleteWhile doing this activity, it was very difficult for me to draw this picture quickly and simplify it as much as possible. I wanted to draw my favorite time of day, when the sun is setting, and take my time while doing it. I loved making it more abstract looking compared to a more realistic design.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is around 3:00pm. I tried to capture the moment with colors. However, I'm not sure if i was able to portray that moment accurately in my sketchbook.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day has to be whenever I get to sit down and to eat! Just sitting and eating could be one of my favorite things to do bc I love to eat ans socialize so I drew a picture of a coffee shop.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is when I first crawl into my bed and get to chill out and unwind! Being a D1 athlete makes my day really long and tiring, and makes getting school work done really hard. So getting into bed is the best feeling in the world!
ReplyDeleteI was very excited to complete this challenge. I ended up working on it for a few hours, and sketching a few different things, one from morning and one from evening. Despite the enjoyment I get out of doing the challenges I am finding it increasingly frustrating to deal with the transfer of color from page to page, and the imprinting caused by pushing too hard on the page with a pen/pencil.
ReplyDeleteI favorite time of the day is when I'm just lazing around in my common room watching a show or catching up on some reading. My sketch shows what I'm talking about quite literally!
ReplyDeleteI woke up this morning excited and ready to create my sketch for the day. Once I read the assignment though, I immediately thought about how calm and relaxing it is in my bed room right before bed and decided to wait to complete it until that time. Doing this, I was too relaxed to worry about paying attention to detail and instead focused on capturing the colors of the relaxing scene.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day just happened to be at night, the time I am winding down from the day. As I sit here in my favorite desk chair I drew my surroundings. I drew peace and tranquility from it. My bedroom is like my oasis here and I found myself drawing it with detail and care that I did not take on the other challenges. I really enjoyed this challenge.
ReplyDelete~Desire' Marshall
My favorite time of the day is the afternoon. It is bright and sunny outside and makes me feel energetic. I drew the view from my townhouse. My sketch depicts a pathway with a tree. I didn't think my view was that exciting until I took a closer look at my surroundings.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is definitely the morning. Not because i like waking up, but because of the visuals and sounds that you here around 7:00 am outside. Everything just seems so perfect at that time and that's why i enjoyed this challenge because i had the chance to express it through creativity
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is night, when the sun goes down and the clouds turn into a purple-orange color. I imagined myself outside on my back porch when drawing my picture so I created the scene in about 15 seconds for my render.
ReplyDeleteIn order to cut down on the amount of landscape to draw, I decided to focus on what I could see out the window. I was sketching in the early afternoon and I had to keep changing position as the sun moved across the sky. I wanted to capture some sense of light coming through leaves, and the texture of different trees.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is the early morning when the sun is first rising. The landscape is very harsh and dark with the sky exemplifying beautiful, bright colors on the horizon. I am awake at this time almost every morning at practice, and I love the scenery at the pond that I row on, which is why I thought it would be perfect to do a quick sketch of this scenery using the dark/bright contrast.
ReplyDeleteI've always favored the time of day where I can grab a small cup of tea and read for a while at my desk. My protest literature class is currently reading Uncle Tom's Cabin so this has been a nightly event for a while now. I try to open my thoughts to what I am reading and relaxing with a mug of hot tea really helps me with that.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is when I can finally get in bed at night. I love crawling into bed after a long day in my dark room. That is what I showed in my sketchbook.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is night time when you lay down in your bed after a long day and begin to close your eyes. I decided to make my drawing dark and with strange shapes because when you are falling asleep you are not thinking straight its all confusing. It looks kind of childish but it shows the relaxing feeling of sleeping.
ReplyDeleteI loved this activity because the sunset is my favorite part of the day so taking time to watch and sketch it was really enjoyable for me.
ReplyDeleteI chose to draw the night, is one of my favorite times of the day. I draw patterns and shape base on what I saw in the study rooms, because I was painting in one of them. I enjoy doing this exercise because we had to use our imagination.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is in the evening after a long, busy day. I love when my friends and I are able to gather in our living room and relax and spend time together, talking to each other about our days and catching our favorite tv shows. I found it hard to draw this quickly and keeping the drawing to a few shapes because I'm very detail-oriented and I tend to try to draw exactly what I see
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked about this activity was I was enjoying my surroundings as I did it. Since this was my favorite time of day, I was much more keen in observing my surroundings and actually wanted to look around and do a better job.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is sunset- especially when I am on my cape cod beach house. Watching the sunset is unreal. The colors of the sky, the silence and the gentle waves crashing ashore. Its very relaxing and also provides an excellent time to self reflect and reflect in general about the day. I decided to make my sketch very loosely finished, and very quickly drew the sun, my porch, and colored it very quickly as well to symbolize the relaxing feeling.
ReplyDeleteI drew a candle because I sleep by candlelight every night at home (as dangerous as that may be!). It makes the night more peaceful, which is why it is my favorite time of the night.
ReplyDeleteI am brightest in the morning. First, out of bed, I have a ritual that starts my day. It is quietest; this time of year, it is before sunset. My shade is drawn and I get to ease into the day. The walls of my study are a deep purple-blue-grey and I spent years finding the right color for the walls. It is a small space. I chose to focus on a corner of the study where a batiked hanging is perched. A lovely picture of a bright red and gold rooster. My journal rests below, ready for me to take it for a ride.
ReplyDeleteI was not a fan of this challenge.I tried to draw my room fast but I do not think that it came out well. It was hard to capture the image I wanted and it did not come out as I thought it would have.
ReplyDeleteI liked this challenge! I learned how to slant my colored pencil in order to create a thicker line, and therefore I was able to create an entire lake with just a few strokes. I created the foliage reflecting on the lake just before the sunset. I had fun with this challenge.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of day is when the sun is shining. For this assignment I found myself drawing a tree and using vibrant colors to make the sun look like it was shining through. I did not enjoy this assignment as much as the previous, but it was still fun.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the day is when the sun is setting, so I drew the sun setting from my window. I was able to practice mixing multiple colors together to get the right shade of orange as the background.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge was tough because I am not very creative but overall a great challenge and ended up doing pretty well.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is when the sun is setting and you can see all the different colors of the sky. It was a very interesting challenge and fun at the same time.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the day is cuddling on the couch with my best friend Dave. After a long day of meetings and endless amounts of homework, we watch Sons of Anarchy. The show is amazing and addicting, but what makes watching it so great is how we watch it together. I love how time slows down and I feel warm and at peace. In my sketch I tried to convey this sense of tranquility and love. My idea was kind of Picasso inspired. I tried to make my favorite part of the day in a rose coloring and the worst part of my day (the images outside my happy bubble) blue to convey depression.
ReplyDeleteI liked this assignment because it not only made me think of my favorite type of day, but it called for extreme simplicity in it's creation and that is something we have talked about/read about in class that I believe to be very important. I chose to portray lacrosse practice which was difficult but enjoyable at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThis was my favorite assignment so far. For whatever reason I was really taken away by the drawing and didn't stop for anything else until I was finished. I feel this is because I was so motivated by my favorite time of the day that it was simple for me to put it on to paper.
ReplyDeleteI captured sitting down on the bench next to the pond, enjoying the sun setting behind the uni-structure. There are few warm days that allow us to sit, relax and enjoy the sun rays that keep you warm in the sweater weather. I love the spot next to the pond. It is the only time when I forget about the assignments, the clubs, the classes, staying fit etc. I can lay there (only when its a warm, sunny day) and let time pass by.
ReplyDeleteI love the rain, So naturally I tried to capture a moment in time with the rain. However, at the time it was not raining ; so for me it was difficult capturing an exact moment when that moment is not actually happening.
ReplyDeleteThis challenge brought out my creativity and I enjoyed getting to draw an image of my free time; in the couch with the tv on the side table and the tv showing something from netflix. I like that I get to share an image of my free time through my artwork.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the day is mid day outside by the pond when it is the most calm. I love just sitting out on the benches, doing homework and thinking. I therefore drew this time of the day and had a lot of fun with it.
ReplyDeleteThis was my favorite challenge so far because watching the sunset is my favorite part of the day. Being able to sit and capture the moment of the sunset was very enjoyable for me.
ReplyDeleteI had a hard time with this one. I didn't know what to do so I stole an idea from the Sandman comics
ReplyDeleteAt first, I was not able to think of my favorite time of day. Of course, I had ideas, but I never could actually visualize what exactly to recreate. Well, having this on my mind, one day I saw it perfectly and it made me happy because I realized, THIS is my favorite part of the day and the feeling that keeps me going.
ReplyDeleteI looked outside the room I was in and I saw a gravel company and I decided to draw the landscape and the sun of the gravel company. It was a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteLittle bit of a late post, going through the challenges I forgot to comment on. I really enjoyed this one. I chose my room at night when I am relaxing after getting back from practice. Specifically I chose the front of my room, with the view from my bed.
ReplyDelete