pushing the line
Last month I declared 2023 the year of EDIT. And I actually took it seriously this January! I completely cut out everything and added in only the things I wanted to do. It was so freeing mentally and artistically.
Because I cut out “having to sew” and “having to post daily content” and “having to pitch to companies” and “having to create perfect artwork to sell,” I had a surprising amount of time to draw for fun. Imagine that?! Drawing for fun. Just for me. For years I’ve wanted to develop my art style to be more loose and messy, pretty much the antithesis of the work I do now. I idolize artists who can be so free. (below L to R: Rebecca Green, Luke Edward Hall, Danielle Kroll, Carson Ellis, Clare Caulfield see the rest of the Pinterest Board on Line HERE)
My current style is clean - no mixture of colors, no textures, no uneven or unconnected lines. I’m a perfectionist and even things like written a’s and o’s where the loop isn’t completely closed drive me insane. This month I gave myself permission to make messy ugly art. And I did. And no I won’t show you. Okay, okay, maybe these super creepy rabbits I did in dip pen and pink ink from pausing you tube rabbit videos. So so terrifying.
I decided to start my journey into expression and messiness with LINE. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about value, contrast, texture or color selection (though I did end up add color to the one I’m showing you). I wanted to make messy, energetic, expressive lines. My inspiration was Sir Quentin Blake of Roald Dahl fame.
How the heck does he convey so much with just line????! It looks random, but it’s purposeful. The characters have emotion and personalities. I wanted to try it. Here was my process:
I knew I needed a candid photo with personality to help me more easily convey emotion. I landed on this cute Christmas morning moment between my daughter and my niece. We got her a princess dress and accessories my daughter helped get her put it all on. (My mom and dad would kill me if I posted them in the background of this photo so I had to choppily block them out, lol.)
I started with a pencil sketch using my artist pencils. Not bad, so I transferred the sketch to another paper and tried a dip pen and ink version.
The dip pen and black ink version.
Pretty impressive for someone who has a physical aversion to lines that don’t connect. This version is still somewhat static, surprisingly more static and emotionless than the pencil sketch.
Next I transferred the pen drawing to my iPad and redrew it in Procreate. It’s okay, it has more energy. Then I thought, what if I pushed the lines further? What if I exaggerated the hair? What if I exaggerated the princess dress? The focal point is the glove, so what if I exaggerated the glove? What would Sir Quentin do? So I drew it again, and again, and again and again (I won’t bore you with those versions) and I ended up with this.
Wow. So much different than the original. So expressive. So lively. The composition was off, so I pushed the bow exaggeration even further and added some ground.
I love it! It’s probably the most expressive piece I’ve ever drawn. I’m proud of myself for drawing it again and again and again (something I never do). Lest you think all of my January expressive line endeavors were this successful, let me remind you of the rabbits. May these rabbits haunt your nightmares…. Happy February!
