Markmaking Monday!

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I’m adding something else in my art-life.  I want to get myself drawing again.  I’m going to make it my personal goal to  work on making images on paper. 

I have this great book,  Art From Intuition by Dean Nimmer.  The book is filled with all sorts of exercises and projects to get you moving and creating and into the process.  There are many many other books like it out there with a similar mission.  This is the one I like best of the ones I have.  It is fun to recognize some of the exercises that I actually did as a beginning art student.  Aren't we always going back to the source, reboot, restart?  Anyway I had some fun making marks this weekend:


Mostly he wants you to just start out with the supplies you already have and get busy.  He invites you to use the projects and ideas in the book (not necessarily in order) and start making marks on paper.  From there you keep three portfolios.  One is the stuff you like, the next is the stuff you don’t like. and the third portfolio is for “TBC,”or to be continued.  Not too surprisingly you are supposed to review them often and see how your opinions and attitudes change over time as you continue the practice of creating and adding to your portfolios.
The idea is NOT to make finished drawings (although I can see where it might happen by accident)  It is mostly just playing and getting in touch with your intuition and the fun and amazing things we all can do. One of the projects is fingerpainting!  one of the drawings above is, in fact a work done in paint by my fingers.  It was fun.
At first I was going to share which ones I Liked and “didn’t like”  or “TBC,” but I’ve decided that it is better to just share what I’m doing (playing) and put them in the portfolios.  .
The fate of these exercises/creations could well lead to some of them being finished up as works of art, or being cut up to be combined with other elements or all collaged together. 
I also joined a raw sketching group on the Milliande web site.  This will give me a group to work with, another source of prompts and ideas to work with, and get me back into the daily practice of making sketches and keeping the wheels going.  I encourage you to join in – tell me or don’t tell me, your choice!  I’m going to share something every Monday…Markmaking Mondays – again not completed drawings but the practice of getting to them and challenging my imagination.
Again, there are many books with these kinds of exercises, and plentiful web sites for that matter.  You can check here to look at  Art from Intuition on Amazon,if you see a little more about the book I’m going to be working with.
( PS I'm sure you know this already, but you can see the images a little better if you click on them.)