No. 37: Recent Daily Drawings and One Much Older

Plus some class announcements: Join me and Ohn Mar Win tomorrow for an hour all about morning creativity.

A little girl plays on the other side of the window where I was sitting and having my morning coffee. I used an oil pastel to create the chalk on the sidewalk.

Today I am sharing some recent drawings, one old drawing, and a few other bits and pieces. If you follow along with me on Instagram or Threads some may look familiar. I've been intentionally sprinkling my drawings in different places to avoid over-posting in one spot, but I'm really loving having this space to gather them all together – it's become my favorite place to share. Be sure to scroll down to find some class announcements.

Scenes from Ripley. Have you watched it yet? Lucio, the cat, was my favorite character.

In the past week, I had the opportunity to participate in two live drawing sessions. One was on Zoom with some artist friends, while the other was in person. Personally, I always prefer drawing from life, away from screens. I like that everyone in the room sees the subjects from various angles, and it challenges me to interpret three-dimensional space onto a flat page, which ultimately pushes me to work harder.

There's nothing quite like attending a live figure drawing session or class to loosen up and improve your drawing skills. Regardless of whether you're aiming for accuracy or abstraction in your practice, observing and drawing the human body in real-time is a great way to help you get closer to your creative goals. I recently came across a piece on Artsy that was very helpful. It highlighted two areas I need to focus on: having a better set-up and avoiding getting too fixated on one particular aspect of the body – for me, it's often the faces and hands.

I am pushing myself to play with different medium and by hosting my Draw Your World meetups with special guests, I have been able to explore. At left was from a session I attended with Richard Haines, who was our guest last month, and on the right is from last weeks meetup with Gavin Snider.

I'll be announcing the next Draw Your World meetup for paid subscribers soon! You can always stay updated on upcoming events and classes in the subscriber chat. And if you're already a paid subscriber and happen to miss a meetup, just let me know, and I'll send you the recording links.

I've always enjoyed creating pockets in my sketchbooks. Here's a recent pocket made from a ticket stub, which holds a drawing of a small stuffed Peter Rabbit that I bought in the gift shop at The Morgan Library. If you have the chance, I highly recommend checking out the exhibition, "Beatrix Potter: Drawn To Nature." Original drawings, sketchbooks, first edition books, and even her shoes are on display. Here is the reel I shared so you can see the whole little drawing and pocket in action.

“Peter Rabbit" is a nice segue into the next piece I shared this week. The mouse drawing above isn't new, but it's the oldest one of mine that I have in my possession. I drew this mouse when I was five or six years old in my grandmother's sculpture studio. Right then and there, she pinned it to her wall, where it hung for years – first in her studio and later in her little assisted living apartment outside of Philadelphia, until the day she passed away. I took it home shortly after, and now it's one of the most sentimental pieces in our Brooklyn home. Every now and then, I share it, most recently on Notes.

If you're curious to learn a bit more about my grandmother and her identical twin sister, you can read this post.

And finally, here are a few things I've enjoyed reading on Substack in recent days:

10 Reasons to Keep a Sketchbook!

#62: You are not your phone

I Watched a Guy Eat a Barrel of Cheeseballs

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Class Announcements

Creative Morning Practice: Draw with Ohn Mar Win & Samantha Dion Baker

Please join me and Ohn Mar Win this Wednesday (tomorrow!) at 12pm for a one-hour workshop all about finding joy and inspiration in the morning, out in the fresh air, and off of screens. Register here!

Skillshare members get a discount with this code: SKLIVE2024OMWSDB

You can find all of my other Skillshare classes here.

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Join me for my next free class with Derwent on May 10th, at 2pmEST

Sketch and Paint Citrus Fruits with Derwent

In this 1-hour class we will sketch and paint a few various citrus fruits using Inktense paints and colored pencils. From initial sketch to a fully rendered round fruit with color, shadow and light we will go over all of the stages of the process together. There will be a variety of full fruit and cut pieces so that we can draw and paint the inside segments of the fruit as well as the texture of the rind/skin. If you do not have Inktense paints then watercolor paint will work just fine. Register here.

Here is a link to watch the replay of my previous class with Derwent: Sketch and Paint Your Coffee With Derwent.

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