August 25, 2007 Day 128
This morning I am feeling the weight of obligation, wondering how I will ever make it through 365 days of making art without respite. I felt I needed relief from color and repeating pattern today, and chose the black Nexus fine-point pen. I am going to make a drawing that is sketchy and loose, I determined, using the pen with a light touch to create marks on the page without inter-connections.
But the doodle-like images did not cohere, and after struggling to develop the composition through texture, I resorted again to connecting lines and shapes. I was frustrated, and picked up a black calligraphy pen to strengthen the core lines. That helped a little, but did not solve the problem. I picked up a pale gray brush pen and started filling in a few shapes for emphasis.
Adrian was looking over my shoulder at that point, as I expressed my frustration to him. "It's these Tibetan bells I'm listening to," I complained.
"Why don't you listen to something else?"
"I can't. I'm mesmerized."
Pointing to the drawing, he asked, "Can you do something with that upper left corner?"
Yes, I could. The "doodles" in that corner were hanging out by themselves in thin air. I enclosed the area with line, connecting them to the central figure. Adrian wanted more, and I filled in some of the small shapes with pale gray. "It's better," he said.
And then I stopped.
Drawing #130 11" x 14"
(Note: There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting in order to give me time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)
