Saturday at the Park with the Meter Maids

     So I recently acquired a drawing book devoted to just drawing trees. I have enjoyed it thus far and decided this past Saturday that I would go out to the local park and sketch a few trees based on what I have learned and have been reading in the book. 

     I'm kind of in this Back 2 the Basics mode where I want to explore my craft from an advanced perspective, breaking things down again as I used to do back in Art School.  This time, however, I'm going to go further than where we went in the classroom... An advanced approach to the most basic elements, tools and techniques of drawing and picture making (as my Illustration Professors would have called it.)  Classes were only so long so you only spent time with the material for so long before moving on to the next lesson.  I want to know what's just around the bend we stopped at with each area I'm choosing to go back and explore further. 

Advanced drawing techniques and drawing specific things, that I kind of glossed over out of laziness in my college years, is one of my new focuses... you know, when I'm not working on other stuff. ;0)   I've spent SO much time focused on developing an art style and marketing it, that I really have forgotten the joy of what the art brings to me.  I haven't drawn with a regular HB lead pencil in years upon years.  I used to LOVE drawing in nothing but graphite.  Also I look back at the way I drew then and the way I draw now, and I'm not talking about quality.  I'm talking about aesthetic and the way I used to handle it.  It's almost as if a completely different artist drew those old drawings from Art School... Very Strange to find myself digging through that Time Warp. lol.  This is part of my plan to try and go back and rediscover that in myself.  A sort of Art-Zen Journey that I hear calling softly out to me to follow.  In any case, I will be posting slivers and excerpts from my journey and blogging about things I have learned or re-learned. 

     It's kind of humorous because that is what this blog's original purpose was to be... a SketchBlog for my daily/weekly practice in draftsmanship exercise or a work in progress of a current project.  The Sketch Blog has leaned toward the latter but I feel it's time to post some of the former. 

     Many of my professors advised us students that we should be sketching everyday. And though I would be inclined to agree, I find myself feeling guilty that I do not always do so... Not out of laziness, but really out of Life itself.  I endeavor to fight and find time for this reason. 

     So this past Saturday, I decided to draw trees from the method I read about. I found it tedious, as drawing plant life always was.  So I tried to Keep Calm and Patiently Continue Drawing. ;0)  Which has been the mantra I play in my head... My Illustration Style has made me lazy as it shortcuts some of these practices out of my every day artist's life... This is my attempt to exorcise those long forgotten muscles. 

     I have scanned the sketch page I did. I was only out there for an hour and a half and half of the time was devoted to reading the drawing book and practice making the marks it suggested. I did of course spare showing you all those, because.... well, obviously, it would be unnecessary.  The trees are what you came for right? ;0) 

...and  a story about the Meter Maid. 

     She wasn't specifically a Meter Maid, though she really acted like one.  She was kinda surly and snarly and she seemed as though she had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed every day of her life.  She is a local police officer, I didn't ask her name.  But her attitude about Parking violations were like any other Savannah Meter Maid I had every encountered.  Apparently, I was parked the wrong way around the park, even though I could snap a photo a day for people who park the same direction I did that day, though I never see the Meter Maid ticketing them.  I didn't argue with the woman because it was quite apparent that I wouldn't be able to. She claimed she had been there for 20 minutes and I never acknowledged that the vehicle was mine. I did point out that my intention to come to the park was to enjoy the park and not watch my vehicle.  I did inquire why she didn't grab my attention about the car if she suspected I was the owner and asked me to move it. Especially if you sat and watched me not watching my vehicle parked in the worng direction for 20 (claimed) minutes.  But that was just the logical part of my own brain talking.  She gave me a dirty look and left... I think this officer missed her calling and as a Meter Maid.  At least as an officer she has found an outlet to take out her unhappiness and aggression on others.  I suppose that is the silver lining in traffic duty.  I did notice there was no fine written in the fine area, but she did fill out a date in which I should pay the fine by... Not really certain what that means.  Nor will I get into How people block the busy main streets on Sunday with their cars lined on the street as opposed to parked in the parking lots that are allotted the churches... But I never see any Meter Maid Officers with their little ticket pads there... EVER.  But anyway, that's the price of Art, and imaginary fine and a futile debate with a wannabe Meter Maid.  Se la vie.

until next time,
Keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing and most important of all, keep making art. 
Cheers,
LEWIS