Hand me that ladle...
Day 63 - Dear Sarah Daily Drawing Exchange
Hi Nikki,
March 4, 2025
I didn't have time (or patience) to futz around with my boat drawing today, so I decided to draw a very old, very large, very tarnished silver soup ladle--using charcoal. So different from drawing in pencil, which invites precision. I think I chose the right medium for the object, which is all soft curves. So satisfying to use my chamois to make the edges clean (er). I had a lot of trouble with the bowl shape, and it isn't quite right, but I like the effect, and may even try doing a charcoal version of the boat scene. Certainly would be useful for all those trees.
I liked your second hand portrait a lot. Maybe you should do your feet next. Self-portrait in body parts. Hard to draw your own elbow, though...
I'm off to get a haircut, run some errands and have tea with friends. Working tonight--Zoom call with my client in Dubai. Her morning, my evening. We are both usually in our jammies!
XO S
Dear Sarah -
Feet, you say? Don’t know what glasses I’d wear LOL! I’d have to choose to either see my feet clearly, or my page - not both at the same time. Sigh. The perils of my advancing years.
I love the ladle - nice capturing of highlights and shadows… So cool how the charcoal completely changes the feel of the drawing. I have yet to experiment with that - seems like it would be messy, but a bit of mess has never stopped me before, so…
Re. my series of hands… (feet, elbows, other body parts). All body zones should be doable thanks to the incredibly handy tools at my disposal - the phone, of course, but I can probably dig up a mirror somewhere, too. Correctly placed, even an elbow should be visible in the looking glass. I know my dad used a mirror when he was working on various of his best self-portraits. The staring eyes are a bit creepy, but of course, when you are staring at yourself in a mirror and then drawing, the eyes are going to be front and centre… It wouldn’t be possible (using a mirror) to draw a self-portrait with one’s eyes closed (though someone has probably tried).
I’m thinking I must be about due for another roundup post - where do the days (and weeks) go?? Yesterday was Day 62 of 2025 and it feels as though we have just started our project. As I am currently 62, it gave me pause to think that my years are speeding by ever-more-quickly and that if I live to be 92 and were counting out my live in drawing days, I would only have a month left to live.
Don’t know why my thoughts are turning more and more often to the amount of sand left in my hourglass, but yeah - the whole mortality-is-real thing is making me want to draw more, stress less.