Be Ever Grateful

Grateful.
I looked around at my life today - at all of the things that compose my life:  my health, my home, my friends, my dog, my garden...the list goes on.  And I compared my life to something I saw on a TV show last night.  The show was about a neighborhood in Lebanon.  At first, I couldn't put my finger on what was disturbing me.  In fact. it wasn't until long after the show went off that I realized what it was.  There was not, among the tumult of dilapidated grey-brown buildings, a single blade of grass.  Nothing green.  No trees, no leaves, no flowers. This is what war has done. It made me sad. I made a vow today to never complain about the weeds in my backyard, ever again.   I am grateful for the green.

Garden.
I'm so grateful for my garden.  I have a little bamboo bench that I sit on when I water.  Everything's full and leafy. There are bugs everywhere but I enjoy watching them.  I saw a spider with an egg sac creeping through the weeds.  I left her alone and hoped she got to wherever she was going.  Grasshoppers, crickets, beetles - I guess they've come to feed on my greens.  I don't mind one bit.  It's great to see so much life in one little spot!


Graphite.
I try to draw every day.  Something. Or paint.  It's the act of my fingers and hands manipulating an instrument and a medium that relaxes me.  

I don't know if I'll ever finish this portrait. The finished and unfinished parts of it all together on the same piece of paper is driving me crazy.

Drawing Children

Children are among my favorite subjects to draw.  I have found that the secret to drawing a child is to not do much drawing at all.  Except for the eyes, hair and other darker areas,  this portrait consists mostly of shading.  Values are built up in layers using tortillons and facial tissues.  

 I apply the graphite (pencil) almost like painting, brushing it 

 on and rubbing it into the paper with the tissues.  I've
drawn in the eyebrow with a sharp pencil, using loose, light strokes, following the direction of the hair.  There are three distinct areas beginning to take shape:  the curve of the inner arm, the dark area between the arm and the face, and the shine of light next to the dark area.  

I've added his left eyebrow and the faint outline of his bottom lip.  Using tissues, I've shaded in the bottom of his left cheek and more of his arm. 

You can see the faint background, and how it's made the arm sort of pop out and become more 3-dimensional.  The addition of his ear is pulling the whole face together and the portrait changes from disembodied features to a recognizable face.







I saw where other pencil artists recommended the Kimberly
brand 9xxb drawing pencil for the blackest value in a 
graphite pencil.  It really is the darkest pencil I've ever
drawn with.  I've used it in this portrait to drawn the hair
and the space between his fingers.

Adding more hair helps to define the other arm above his head.  I found it very difficult to "control" the dark Kimberly pencil.  It isn't smooth like graphite and doesn't blend well. It takes a lot of practice and I can't say I'm comfortable using it yet.






So I'm still working on this one here and there.  I'm enjoying drawing it so much that I'm purposely taking my time.

A New Life For Me

Drawing From Life

An Artist's Journey

pencil drawing copyright 2014, Linda Dee Martin

Decision.

Little did I realize that, one month after quitting my day job, I'd be sitting here on a Sunday afternoon, writing about art.  And its importance in my life. One day last June, at my new deskjob (the seventh such job in as many years), I made a mistake so dire that I couldn't even move or think.  I was paralyzed, right there at my desk, while supervisors scrambled to correct my error, wringing their hands and muttering under their breath. I looked around at some of my co-workers, who either stared back at me in disbelief, or bowed their heads in embarrassment for me.  I knew right then and there that I would never be back. That I would never work a deskjob again, if I could avoid it. I simply could no longer treat the thing I loved more than anything else in the world - art - as a hobby.

Draw or die.

That's how it feels.  I no longer have a choice.   Up to now I was the best administrative assistant (or secretary or clerk or whatever) any company could want.  I designed spectacular spreadsheets, stellar statistical reports, and knew my bosses' schedules better than they did.  But on that day in June, it was as if the hand of God himself took me by the shoulder, or maybe shook me by the shoulders, and woke me up.  "Do it NOW."  I turned in all my stuff, my badge and keys, and I left. 

Dive right in.

Perhaps I should have given myself some time to recover.  I don't know.  I've been working since the age of twelve.  I mentioned this to a friend once.  "Where? In a sweatshop?" she asked. Since 1973, I've had a job.  All I know is work.  So when I  quit my deskjob, I came home, picked up the phone, called a mega-art store, and signed up to become an art instructor. I still need money, and teaching art might be fun.  And I've taken on a portrait.  And I'm designing a parade float.  Momentum is key.

Daily Routine.

I'm learning that in order to make money as an artist, I can no longer just rely on drawing.  I have to stay up-to-date with everything that's happening in the art world.  And that means technology.  So I'm learning how to tweet, blog, pin, Skype, and all of these other things I must do to stay relevant. Funny, scheduling appointments, creating spreadsheets and making cold-calls came naturally- when I was doing it for someone else.  Now I feel like a baby learning how to walk.  I'm clumsy.  And I force myself to get out of bed at 4am, just like I did when I was going to someone else's office.  Except that now I stumble downstairs in the dark, so I don't wake up my partner, and I go into my basement studio and I draw.

If you're an artist, I encourage you to spend whatever time you can on your craft. Five minutes a day, or an hour a day.  Just do it.  It's your life.  

       ABOUT ME                                                                                      

\I am a portraitist, published 

children's author & illustrator, 

dog lover and sci-fi freak.  You

can see my drawings at:

www.lindadeemartin.com