New Year's Resolution Half-way point!

The end of June marks the half-way point of my project to do a drawing a day for a year.

 

See blog post:

http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/new-years-resolution.html

 

What began as a new year's resolution is now fast becoming an obsession with increasingly more time each day spent on drawing/thinking of what to draw each day (eventually I plan on creating a separate blog which will show each of the drawings). What is interesting so far is that there have been some improvements in my drawing since I started and I have explored drawing with more texture and being less 'heavy handed'. The style or type of drawing remains pretty tight, illustrative and representational as I made it clear when I started that I wanted this to be an observational drawing project that was about drawing with a degree of intensity, focus and detail. The reason for this being that I feel that when drawing this way it gives you the opportunity to think on other things, focus and be open to new ideas; this wasn't ever intended to be an exercise in ways of drawing but as an exercise to think to and break away from my obsession with drawing just tools! Another unexpected discovery during this activity has been in the selection of what I have chosen to draw, so far the list being:

 

snowman, beer glass, newt, chameleon, bumble bee, frog on nut, Dali clock, dragonfly, portrait of weird looking man, ear, stork scissors, zombie, netsuke, seated Buddha from Gandhara, clay skull, coal tit, telegraph pole, netsuke nut, biro pen, dormouse, ladder, predator, dark bush cricket,  row boat, bowling pin, Mona Lisa on toast, paraffin lantern, wood pigeon, cross-section of chest, typewriter, seahorse, sheep, steak, old telephone, sailing boat hotel Dubai, lobster, ball of string, owl, amber spyglass, platypus, trumpet, pig, converse trainer, silver articulated fish, Inca gold lama, flying bird, walrus, grenade, cross-section of pepper, crab, egg in frying pan, light bulb, Don McCullin’s Nikon camera, tree frog, sundae, strawberry, pumpkin, gas mask, petrol can,   lion, guitar, chicken, film camera, hippo, Native American mask, raven, bucket, moose, peas, key, telephone, Maya Mare God statue, raspberry, revolver, prawn, peg, flame, radiator, pinwheel, hat, lettuce, accordion, fan, Sangrada Familia, Joan Miro sculpture 1, Joan Miro sculpture 2, Cat statue, La Pedera 1, La Pedera 2, anchor, pipe, dart, electric fan, tortoise, high heel shoe, poplar leaf beetle, kestrel, ray gun, vacuum cleaner, ear of wheat, shark, wood plane, hypodermic needle, seagull, unicycle, Roy Lichtenstein Desk Calendar, copper kettle, telephone box, red lipstick, snorkelling gear, pneumatic drill, fish, hour glass, knight chess piece, penny farthing, oil can, natterjack toad, roller skate, chainsaw, ice skate, fire hydrant, zeppelin, spray paint, Van Gogh Skeleton, jelly, tin robot, arrow, cuckoo catfish, iron, budgie, pickaxe, flintlock pistol, rubber duck, JCB, spinning top, lighthouse, puffin, scarecrow, lighthouse lamp, gargoyle, wooden bird, fire extinguisher, padlock, gramophone, fox skull, mushroom, flamingo, hydraulic clamp, sarcophagus, saw, hand whisk, acorn, Georges Melies’ moon,  cassette tape, kangaroo, diamond, T-Rex, squirrel, black spotted woodpecker, wren, penguin, umbrella, wooden chair, folded shirt, Somerfest beast, formula one car, pheasant, electric iron, rhino, hairdryer, fox, bowler hat, pelican, blue whale, leak, ostrich, scorpion, watering can, badger

 

I am sure Freud would have a field day analysing that lot, very disturbing. I'm not going to read too much into what I've chosen to draw in terms of symbolism/metaphor but I am interested in what I have chosen to draw says about the kind of visual aesthetics I'm drawn to. For example there's a lot of hard, robust, man-made, industrial objects there (proving perhaps I cannot ever really get away from tools) but there are also a lot of birds which makes me wonder what it is about the shape/form, pattern/texture of them that captures my interest. Similarly, when there are forms of association from one day to the proceeding, for example a pelican followed by a blue whale. I think I made the connection that the neck/pouch of the pelican is sort-of similar to that of a whale which is what led me to drawing it. Perhaps, more psychoanalysis is in there than I thought! Still, its been a fascinating and challenging discipline so far and one I hope to continue through until the end of the year.

Any suggestions of things you'd like me to draw that obviously aren't on the list above then please let me know!