Procreate Bridge and Peonies
Dear Sarah - Day 159 of our daily drawing exchange
June 8, 2025
Dear Sarah -
Today has been a good day. Treated to a hearty breakfast by Fabio, then did a little work at my desk before sneaking out to do a few climbs in Cougar Creek. Left Fabio to keep climbing with a friend and headed home to take care of a bit more work.
Decided to take my time with a ye olde bridge tutorial (iPad) by James Julier and came up with this:
I much prefer learning techniques and how to use the tools while creating something - every time I take my time to tackle one of these projects I learn more about layers and brushes and blend modes and whatever… One day, maybe, I’ll be able to take the tool (powerful!) and use it to draw what I see in front of me…
The days are too short.
Cheers,
Nikki
June 8, 2025
Hi Nikki,
I'm having a quiet day at home today. Went for a walk before it got hot, wrote a bit more of a scene with Rose and Liam, and read something on Substack (Draw Together with Wendy) that made me feel much better about my interest in drawing flowers. Wendy wrote a post about Ruth Asawa, a San Francisco artist who started the Ruth Asawa SF School of the Arts. The retrospective at SFMOMA looks amazing. https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/ruth-asawa-retrospective/
It seems she's best known as a sculptor, but her contour flower drawings are magnificent, as was her garden. She drew in ink, rarely looking at the paper. No fancy pens (she often used pen and ink) or paper. Just intense focus and connection to the subject. Her floral work really spoke to me: not fussy or precious or cute, realistic but not cold--something to aspire to. So today's drawings are: another bunch of squiggles (apparently tomorrow we get to draw something using all our experience with shapes and lines), a page of peonies (contour drawing plus shading) and a page of blind contour peonies. Oh, to get the energy of the blind contour drawings into the drawings where you glance at the page!
The sun is starting to angle onto my deck, so I'm going to sit outside and write before it gets too hot. Hope you got out for a climb today.
XO S