Watery colours

Invitation for this week was to do something different. So I did :)

Cyclamen

It's winter transitioning into spring.
In the pine forests, I see the cyclamen flower, with its heart-shaped leaves.
So beautiful
This was my inspiration for this week's challenge

200 bubbles

Amazing how easy it is for us to give special meaning to numbers.
Have you ever wondered how come we have 10 fingers, but 12 hours on the clock? (well, common agreement is that the Egyptians counted with finger joints instead with fingers, using the thumb as their marker...).
Anyway, this week's challenge is about 200, so 200 it is.

(when on the road) Keep It Simple, Stranger

(In response to this week's challenge)

Amidst the hurricane of mundane life, I took a several days break with the family and we all traveled to Berlin.
Been there several times on business, but this time was a first as a tourist.

We got a mini suite at Kempinski Bristol, an old-time hotel which feels almost like a time capsule to days bygone.

In our room. A wooden table, simple in shape and form, the hotel notepad - made of simple paper, and a simple black-ink pen which I like.

And me. Simply sitting and just letting the pen make its journey on the paper.

Oh, how I dream of a tent in the dessert.

Compass rose

Time is of essence these days, and together with it lives a desire to draw.
This calls for choices to be made, and compromises to be agreed upon.

Here is my response to this week's challenge, the Compass Rose

Potato casa

Dolls, as requested by this week's challenge, is not my usual cup of tea. So I decided to extend the term "doll" as much as I could, and after going through simpson figures (Lisa is definitely a "doll") and Toy story (Buzz lightyear = doll ???) I ended up with Mr. Potato head :)

I traced an image I found on the net, and added my touches.
During the process, I also scribbled on various other papers that are on my desk, so for this week's challenge I present to you "The potato casa"

New-ance

Busy busy times. Last couple of weeks have been hectic to say the least. Work and life, balance and imbalance. To my complete surprise I found myself leading a survival battle for a most unique school. Hope to have good news soon.

So I skipped last 2 challenges, and was about to skip this one as well, until something surprising happened.
I gave myself a birthday present - a set of 5 Copic markers with the basic colors. Arrived couple of days ago. Love them. They look right, and feel right, and produce the most amazing colors.

I read through this week's challenge description, and was hooked to the "let's make it new", which is a theme I love. And indeed the drawings here are "new". New paper (with grid printed on it), a new pen (the most regular of ball pens one can find) and new colors (the Copic mentioned above). The results are, well, new :)

In the first drawing I also got some help from my daughter (and her own collection of Copics). She added the blues and purples

Inky Doodle

This time I'm experimenting.

The pattern for this week's challenge is generic enough to allow all kinds of variations. So I started doodling with it, and suddenly spotted a "calligraphy marker" on my table.
Yes, I was surprised exactly as you are. Turns out my daughter got it as a present from one of her teachers who saw how much she likes to draw. And my daughter left it on my table.

Did you know that some of the most amazing inventions started by accident? Like the towel, or the 3M sticky notes ...

For some time now I wanted to experiment with varying line widths. So this was the perfect opportunity and the result is the first drawing (which I like a lot)

I was inside the flow, so I continued with a more "traditional" variation of this week's pattern, and a second drawing was created

And then my daughter came into the room, and saw the drawings and asked me if I can teach her to "draw like this. With ink". So I said yes, and we sat together and I showed her several patterns, which in turn ended up in the third drawing

Me happy.

Crystallization

I'm starting to see a pattern (pun intended?) in my responses to the weekly challenge.
It starts with learning. Usually, I'm not familiar with the patterns and tangles, so I read about it. I learn the basic technique, and draw it
I then go to exploration. The main quality here is opening, or widening. The word that best describes it is playfulness. I explore different angles, different possibilities. In this phase I can fill one page or a dozen pages. I can get stuck, I can get frustrated. I give up, and then retry. By now, I know that this is an invitation for the creativity to come out.
The final phase is choice.  Now that there are many options, one (or some) attract my attention. Is it always the last one I draw? I can't tell. Maybe. The quality here is of narrowing, of choosing.

This week's challenge was of course no different :)
A new pattern which required learning. Pages all over my desk with variations. Some look great, some not. Some completely unrelated to the challenge, but when inspiration comes I try to always give it a space to act.
I had some ideas, and did some attempts. The final drawing started with a variation (straight lines Betweed), and then the flow took over and things appeared by themselves. By now, I had a full bag of variations at my disposal, so it was easy to add to the drawing.

I like the end result, and am very frustrated with the scanning quality. It looks so much better in reality. Will try to do a better scan tomorrow.

And here are some drawings that were created along the way

In loving memory

This week challenge touches me deeply. My wife and I lost a member of my wife's family to breast cancer. It happened several years ago, and the loss is still present, even very present, in our lives.

It touches me so deep, that I couldn't draw anything specific for this challenge. Drawing is still not an open expression channel for me.
But I did have something I drew several days ago, and suddenly it seemed most appropriate. I just had to add the colors to it. A second drawing is also added, which was created around the same time.

I also attach a tune I composed right after the loss. I was simply playing my guitar and it came out by itself. It is called "Road Unknown"

Yuma flavours

A new pattern, a new journey.
Welcome Yuma by Akua, a very nice pattern for the weekly challenge.

A nice, flowing pattern, which is elusive almost by nature. No strict "rules" of where to put the lines, and a flow that is created by the artist, and not as a direct "following of the pattern".

How do I know? because several attempts showed me the inherent (and sometimes hidden) tension between a pattern and an artist.
Anybody can follow strict rules and create a pattern. And some patterns will look just fine.
But for the "wow", for the flow, for the intricacies and complexities - for this you need an artist hand and an artist eye. Some of it can be gained by practice, and it seems that some is just gifted to us in different measures.

The weekly challenge for me is a fascinating place to experience this spectrum - between pattern and art. With so many degrees of freedom in the middle.

Here is my two creations for this week. The first is using YUMA in the traditional way, while the second is inspired bu YUMA to and something different is created.

 

One Love

My response for this week's challenge.
I created a new pattern for it, so this is actually a UMT + LGBT :)

String-ent Tile

Here is my response to this week's challenge.  Strings in drawing do not blend well with me. I much prefer a free-spirit doodling, and feels the string confines me. So I decided to take this challenge head on, and explore this out-of-my-confort-zone string thingy.

Went better than expected I must say, I still don't like the idea of a string, and immediately after I had to draw another two sketches with no borders. But I did discover it is possible for me.

So without further ado, here it is

The Hidden Village Leaf

My drawing journey is exactly that - a journey.

It started many years ago with frustrating attempts to draw, most which ended up in the garbage bin, "ended" might be too gentle a word. A more accurate description should include the endless frustration, and silent despair that accompanied the act. I wanted so badly to draw, and each attempt proved that I can't. And added a supporting vote to the little voice that added "and you never will".

Recent months show differently (with evidence that is captured in this blog). It's finally becoming a learning process, where I can see progress and can appreciate what is coming from under my pen and pencil. Not an easy journey it is, and it still has ups and downs...

So this week's challenge was to use a falling leaf (or leaves). Autumn here doesn't usually dress in warm colors, so I used a leaf I found on the net.
Started drawing, several lines - didn't go well at all. I gave it a second look, discarded it completely in my mind as a waste, and shoved it (frustrate-fully and despair-fully) under a pile of paper I had in the room.

And then I just sat in my chair.
I was amazed with the feeling that I experienced. It felt exactly like "the old times". Same frustration, same despair, even the same old voice that said "aha, I told you you can't draw. You are wasting your time".
But there was one difference. This time I was aware. I also knew I can draw, and an impressive collection of drawings held a solid proof of that.
So I listened. And acknowledged the old feeling. And just waited.

After couple minutes I pulled the paper from under pile. Fixed the lines that went astray, and continued my drawing journey.

Here it is, proudly presented to you, and to myself

A Winged Heart

A duo.
Two things that complement each other while maintaining their identity.
Interact, intertwine, celebrate their union.
Sometimes they conflict. Tension can create interest. Show hidden facets.
I'm talking about duo-tangle, of course ...

This week challenge is about a duo-tangle, so duo-tangle it is.
Two patterns. One which I like a lot, one which I like a little. Very little.

Here is what came from under the pen

An unexpected dance

Change is the essence of our world. It's a synonym to "nature". No matter how hard we try to look the other way, it will always find us.

At least it found me today.

I saw the new challenge, and was about to embark on my usual journey (no time in the mid-week days, then many attempts with a new pattern, get stuck, overcome it, etc.). But a piece of paper and a pencil suggested otherwise, and I started toying with the new pattern. Several attempts, all nice, playful, but no real progress.

Usual step in the process is to stop, leave it, and come back with new inspiration.
This is when the change struck. I took a new piece of paper and started drawing the pattern as simply as possible. No bells, no whistles. Just straight lines. Finished the first pattern. Looks nice. aha, how about a silhouette?  Sure thing. But not the usual one please. So there came a different set of lines, around the first pattern. So how about another one? and another pattern emerged, with different feel to it.
Then another look. Somehow it reminded me of a dancing couple. so I added an eye and a smile to each, and of course a chain of hearts. It now looked so much like a dance that I felt obliged to write "dance" at the bottom.

immediately it went to the scanner, and appeared on my screen. If you read my last post you may remember that I have some issues with the quality of my scanner, so I usually go ahead and try to fix some of it using a photo editing utility (brightness, sharpness, etc.). So I did the usual stuff, but overlooked one step in the process. I then pressed the mouse button and was simply amazed by the result. I accidentally inverted the colors of the background, creating something completely unexpected.

So today, I present to you an unexpected dance.
what a nice change :)

Stairways to everywhere

This week's challenge features the "X-did" pattern by Annette Carlo.
So first and foremost - respect !

This was first week of school, and Jr. is starting his fresh year in high school, so not a dull moment. Drawing took second priority, and rightly so. But alas, life goes on, and the drawing must go on

It was not an easy task to master X-did. It proved to be a wild mustang, running freely to unexpected directions, throwing me off its back time after time. At the end (and what I mean here is around 20 sketches of all kinds) I decided to keep it simple. I drew the main shape, and voila - we have take off.

A side note about scanning which can hopefully help someone out there. I have a reasonable scanner which is faithfully scanning for me all types of bills and papers. However (!), scanning drawings is not its forte. So after trying different settings and stuff, I switched to my SLR, and the results are much much better. NEed to find the right spot with the right light of course

Stripes

Here is my stripes for this week's challenge. Inspiration took it's time to come, and I had many ideas and possible directions. The nice thing is that in the end, I simply started drawing a ribbon (which is like a stripe I believe), and then another and another and the drawing emerged by itself.
I love it when it happens this way.

 And another drawing, with a short background: my daughter got a gift. A new drawing booklet with recycled paper for its pages. It feels great and looks great. So she comes to me and say "dadi, can you please draw something in the front page?". It was amazing to see the amount of hesitation (fear?) I experienced, but at the end I did it. So here is the flower I drew for my daughter :)

Water

This week's challenge is simply titled "water".
My immediate reaction was "but I've already done water last week...". Oh, well. Need to recreate water for this week as well.

So I decided to go with the "drop" shape and work inside it and around it. Here is what I've got

Droplets

It's the last half of summer now, and life is attempting to go back to normal.
The canons seized their fire, talks are now taking place.
I hope for peace, but I don't know if it is realistic. People tend to think there is either "war" or "peace". Modern days show us there are many grey tones in between.

Took some time to find the "zone" for this week's challenge, and I almost gave up. And then it was a matter of a simple decision "just do it".

So, here is my response to this week's challenge.
A new pattern, a new journey.

Interestingly enough, I recorded a tune a couple years ago with the same name. Here it is for your listening pleasure
DROPLETS