Stay Young At Heart

Pablo Picasso once said, “It takes a long time to become young.”

This may seem lighthearted, but it's actually a deep thought about staying playful and creative while nurturing your inner child and creative spirit. Today’s sketch was inspired by this quote, “In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!” ~ Dr. Seuss See more about this drawing here in yesterday’s post.

Day 8 ~ SE-8-25

My Little Pony

As anyone who follows me online knows, I am a quote-aholic. I often spend a good deal of time searching for just the right one to accompany my artwork. Occasionally, a quote inspires me to create something, like the following one attributed to Dr Suess.
“In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!”

 Lol, I bet you can guess where this one is going! This quote reminded me of ‘My Little Pony’.  Although I never had much exposure to MLP before, and just learned that they’ve been around since the early 1980s! I found this YouTube tutorial and it was so much FUN! Why don't you give it a try? *My Little Pony ~ Friendship is magic ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=302KXlpagA0 I also followed the next video that came up. *Pusheen Cat ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG5BEoejrJw Drawing Is FUN!! 

Day 7 ~ SE-7-25

✍️

Sketching With Jon Gnagy

“I watched his show every week and 

I bought all his books.”

 ~ Andy Warhol

I decided to draw along with my very first art teacher, Jon Gnagy, today. I did a good bit of drawing with him as a kid and a week of drawing along with his videos in DrawingEveryday, back in 2011. At that time, his charming daughter (who now maintains his website) contacted me when she saw my blog posts and we exchanged a few emails. I felt a little nostalgic today and thought I'd give it another go. You can learn more about Jon and see my 2011 sketch of this same winter scene and video here ...

"I don't think anyone could draw as fast as Gnagy, but then he seems to have spent a great deal of time preparing so that he could get his picture into 15 minutes or 1/2 hour." 
~ Ron Csuha

In the demos, Jon is using a hard square charcoal stick. (Looks like a conte crayon.) I still have his "Pastel Painting Set" and it has a black and a grey stick in it. You could also use a charcoal pencil or a soft (3B - 5B) pencil (like I did) for the drawings. Notice the way he is holding it like a wand - using his whole arm! (Holding it between his thumb and forefinger.) Although I don't know if he ever really mentioned it, I watched and imitated his approach. He is the first one to teach me how to hold my pencil that way and I have been drawing like that ever since! See more ....

Draw A Cat Portrait

I did this shape and feature diagram sketch this morning. It's similar to the one I did for the horse head. Please let me know if this is of any value to any of you, if you have questions or if you need it broken down more, step by step.

Susan Bronsak sent in her first cat sketch already! Wow, I just love her enthusiasm! She wrote; "I had trouble with this one……particularly the face.  Normally I avoid frontal views and prefer the backsides because I don’t have to worry about features.  But then that’s what challenges are all about….right?  Stepping outside one’s comfort zone?  Here’s what I did using your photo.  I look forward to seeing what you do and how you approach it."

I think you did a super job, Susan. Princess does appear to be tipping forward a little in the reference photo and your sketch but other than that, it's a great first attempt. I think I will straighten her out a bit when I do my drawing. I would suggest doing a sketch of just her face, using my notes here as a guide.

Draw A Simple Sunflower

Today's drawing is a really simple sketch of a sunflower. Why not give it a try? The structure is a couple of ovals for the flower and a line for the stem. I've indicated the outside shape of the flower, but notice I don't draw every petal. The leaves are free form shapes and in the top versions I've tried to remember the Momma, Poppa, Baby Formula.