Chicago

Theme No. 7 | Trip to Chicago.

Travel drawings from a short trip to Chicago. A bit rougher than usual. A snapshot of my trip starting at the airport, to the people on the plane, then the train. Continued by a view from my hotel room and a drawing of my lunch.

People on the Train. Blue Line. Loved the large number of students, who despite their bulky winter clothes  had great personality in their style.

The famous deep dish pizza I had for lunch and the leftovers for dinner. I'm not sure about this.

Shoes

Two drawings from last week. Trying some colored pencils, and some watercolor pencils in the second drawing done in my brand new Moleskin.

Theme No. 6 | Shoes.

 

Drawing houses

Drawing everyday hasn't been as easy as I thought, and last week I had to miss a few due to a minor hand injury - artists protect your hands and your eyes! I end up playing catchup and making up missed days, so it's more of a  "draw 365 things" challange. Last week's theme is one I will have to revisit later since there are so many European cities I can't wait to draw after I do some perspective studies and hopefully improve my straight lines.

Theme No. 5 | Houses.

January 2014 Drawings

A long overdue post on the first 4 weeks of my attempt to sketch every day.
These are a few of the more successful drawings from the first month. In an effort to draw everything, and to cover a wide variety of subjects some of the themes may seem odd.


Week No.1 | Things in your Fridge. 
My fridge was a little empty that week.

 Week No.2 | Tools. 
A. From my Kitchen. B. From my toolbox.

 Week No.3 | Furniture. (somehow ended up focusing mainly on chairs)

Week No.4 | Musical instruments
The first two are mostly blind contour drawings that capture more dynamism. Although they are fun, they make me feel like I have the drawing skills of a 5 year old, and served as warm-ups to more detailed drawings that followed. I seem to have fallen in love with my new fountain pen, so that explains the blue drawings, and the relatively thick line - not quite as accurate as I'd like.

Draw everyday for a year/ #draw365

On a random Saturday in December 2013 I made this New Year's resolution: Draw more! Draw everyday for a year! Draw for 5 min a day, or for 5 hours a day, just draw. So, 2014 is my year of drawing, of filling empty sketchbooks and using long forgotten art supplies.

Every week there's a different theme: sometimes it's silly, sometimes hard, and sometimes super fun. I thought of that initial love for art, when you draw everything around you; from a leaf in the park to a tube of paint on your desk. That initial wonder for seeing the world around you in a different way and putting it on paper.

It's not like riding a bike. With drawing it feels more like: if you don't use it you lose it. Almost a month in now, getting back to loose and accurate drawing is frustrating and being rusty is a pain making me wish I never stopped drawing in the first place. My drawing professor once told me - you have to be willing to make 100 bad drawings to make 1 good one. I guess this year I will make 365 drawings, and if I can make 4 good ones, the quantity will be right.  I managed to talk one a friend into this plan, so now I cannot give up and quit halfway through. I am held accountable and I'm putting it out there so that I do not give up. Doing something you love for 30 min a day should be a joy, not a New Year's resolution.

Margaret's Senior Portrait Shoot

There is something about high-school seniors that fills you with hope. Their lives are ahead of  them, as they are about to break free from their parents and of course the cliques and misery that is high-school. They are filled with so much energy and youth, so much potential; so many things to capture while shooting...Or perhaps it's my nostalgia for college, and wishing I was in their shoes.

Margaret rocked these!
These are some of my favorites.

Weddings. How planning one takes over your life...

Planning a wedding as a designer, especially as one obsessed with details, is simply a curse. I never dreamed of the perfect wedding, but I got so wrapped up in the madness that the rest of my life took a break. Before I knew it I was doing hand calligraphy on all my invites, and not just for a few guests like I had originally planned. My dining room table was a black hole for supplies for months, and eventually my living room turned into a jungle that was impossible to walk through.

I was not myself, and as proof pink -a color I am not fan of- ended up being one of our main colors. A color I constantly wanted to match to a Pantone since I kept getting Pepto Bismol pink, rather than blush. Designing a monogram and sketching a few pages of our initials made me seem like a schoolgirl in love covering my notebooks in my crush's name. I was not a bridezilla in the sense that I made other people's lives a nightmare, it was my own life and it was all on me.

A free generic wedding website won't do for a designer, and since they are awfully ugly I played around with a Wordpress theme, one that I'm still updating post wedding [ found here ]. Basically anything that can be designed - so pretty much everything - you can't help but try to work on. Despite scrapping most of the DIY projects, those, and Pinterest,  took over my life. I was surprised I got sucked into all of it, but it was nice that in the end guests noticed. I got compliments on all details and even on my hand addressed calligraphy as soon as the invites went out.

I questioned the necessity of it all constantly, and if the lack of sleep was really worth it. This pressure was created because in my mind, people expect designers to have beautiful weddings, that stand out in some way. I've seen weddings of my old design colleagues and was blown away by the details, but now I'm wondering how much sleep they got during their planning period. There were so many signs to make and so many things to spray paint gold...

Now that's it's over, I can get back to life without wedding planning, and just organize the aftermath. I am never tying another bow in my life! (I must've tied over 500). The day was perfect, and the visuals were not bad, but of course I can tell the signs I made at 3 am. Below are some images of the invites.