Sherri's Meanderings

This is a book I highly recommend to ANYONE who finds they like to draw but feel they're missing something inside... the permission to go forward, the encouragement to do what we feel is so rewarding, and the motivation to tackle a drawing a day.

I've tried keeping journals in the past, and I've illustrated them just because it was fun. But it wasn't something I kept up, and by and large, these journals were more of a place to vent. Not a fun thing to look back on and reminisce. So I would stop. Who wants to read all negativity??

NOW.... I'm just recording my day, the beauty, humor, the interesting, anything that catches my fancy. And I love going back thru the pages, and showing them to friends. Much more fun!!

A big challenge for me, is to draw in pen, which Danny encourages. I find this forces me to do more contour drawing, and I get away from the sketchiness I automatically do with pencil. When I draw with pencil, I sketch in a few lines and erase. Over and over until I get what I want. Ends up looking nice, but takes forever, and and is not spontaneous. I've known for a while that I need to really loosen up in my style, and in keeping a journal, I do just that. I'm not precious about anything, but focus more on getting the idea or soul of the image, not exactly the image.

What a concept, huh?? How long have I heard teachers say that's what we're aiming for?? Geez, I AM trainable, just takes me a while... :)