Back To Basics

🐢🐟🐠 Back to Basics for Proportions ~

Sitting and drawing the other day, I noticing how wrong my proportions are. This got me thinking about getting back to the basics. Not 10 minutes later, my husband walks up on me drawing and says that there are some really good books on drawing, and that I should get one and take a look. Yes! Great idea! So, I pick up a fun drawing book that we have and start back with basic shapes.  

I had originally gotten this book (Draw Really Cool Stuff), long ago for the kids and me. Of course, we had given it a try, but mostly the book just sat on a shelf. 

Personally, I had never really understood about starting with shapes, I didn't get it. It was a step that I missed all these years. Even when drawing a face, I would try to start with an egg, sure, and try to make the lines, but usually did not follow anywhere near any of these in what I saw or would draw. I just didn't get it. Now, after all these years of trying to learn how to draw, trying to figure out how to express what is in my head, I pick up this book and something has change....

Suddenly the idea of seeing the shapes, mapping them out, it just makes more sense!

Kind of like reading a dance book, you can read it, but until your body actually grasps the movements, you will not be able to put it together.

I'm not sure what clicked, but if you want my opinion and my advice, it was all the practice that I've been doing lately.  In practicing everyday, I've learned more and more. I'm learning things like how to hold the pencil more efficiently, how to work more quickly, better shading, etc. All these things get better with practice.

Below are a few drawings that I have done from the book so far.

They are for proportion and using the basic shapes method, which, I think really helped. 

In the past, I had hated having to erase those shapes that you do in the beginning, but as Doug Dubosque, and other instructors point out, you should do these shapes with light pencil marks, to be erased, or simply drawn over, later. This lightness was something that I am only recently beginning to master, and it is very helpful.

Here are a few drawings I did from the book so far;

💚 🐢.

After making this little fish, he seemed so lonely, so I found another fish, and the crown of thorns starfish in the book, and they got added to the picture.

I can't wait to see what else comes from this doodling adventure!  We would love to see your latest doodles, if you would like to share, leave them in the comments below. 

See more doodle adventures here on Doily Designs Art Journal.

In life, the way we see things changes with time.

Be patient with yourself, keep at it, and practice, practice, practice :)

Thank you for stopping by.

Best wishes and happy doodling!

First drawing from book 'Draw Really Cool Stuff', Fat Sand Rat.

Camel and Crab Drawing

🌺❤️🌿🌺

Camila & Crabby

Camels are just so AWESOME! 

I've been adoring camels, collecting camels and trying to draw camels since the 90's. Camels are so adorable and amazing that I am just nuts about them!

These two have been such an inspiration, and hearing their tales of camels and the beach had inspired me to draw more camels. 

As usual, I turned to Pinterest for camel picture inspiration and found this awesome photograph of a camel laying in the sand looking at a dung beetle, photographed by Sam Rowely.         

Since seeing this photograph, this cute camel was stuck in my head and yearning to come to life in a drawing.

It floated around for months in my head, and I practiced on this and that, until finally my drawing started to come together and come to life. 

Crab drawing practice below. Feeling Crabby?

Camel, affectionately named Camila and her friend Crabby, drawing is very far from perfect, but it is what was trapped inside my head all these months, and I am happy to finally be able to share it with my Uncle.  So for now, I will let this sleepy camel lie, and be content with how it is. This cute camel drawing is available for download in Peach Creek Printing's Etsy shop, for those who would like to hang out with this camel a little longer.

Below is my attempt in oil pastels, with the dung beetle.

Sam Rowely is the talented young photographer that captured this adorable camel photo while in the desert. Sam's wonderful picture was published in StoryTrender where you can read about his photograph and adventure.

Dung beetle 🐞 in Texas.

Inspired by nature!

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find joy and inspiration!

Best wishes and happy drawing, and photographing!!

Peach Creek Printing 

Now 

~ Peach Creek Photos & Printing ~

Now selling digital photos on Etsy! Choose from photos, request a photo, or use your own photo,  have photos and logos printed on shirts, mugs and more!

You can also visit Shutterstock to view my portfolio and purchase photographs there.

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find Joy and Inspiration!

Best wishes!!

Old Sketch Book

Recently, my step Mom asked me, "Since when could you draw?"

Hmmm? I'm didn't know that I could 😂 But, I'd always wanted to learn!

Inspired drawing, Picasso's The Guitarist 2001

So I pulled out my old rescued sketch book and thought about how I had been saying that I can not draw for quite a long time. But this does not sound right, because you see, I believe that anyone can learn things. Take gardening for example, I thought that I had a 'black thumb', but it was a matter of figuring out what needs to be done and practice doing it. With this idea I tried, and low and behold, I managed to keep plants alive! It is only when I do not practice what I learned that the plants will die. And with drawing, I always said that I can not draw, but people seem to tell me that I can, and well, I guess just like with gardening, you just need to practice. 

All of my life I've been too intimidated by great artists to try making very much art myself. But sometimes I just can not resist the urge to doodle and draw. I always see things that i think would be so wonderful to paint, but don't because I doubt that i could do anything so beautiful. I would think that you would need to be able to draw to do anything like that. And, yes, it is hard, but anything worth doing and learning usually is. With practice, I learn more with every drawing.

Back in 2000, way before Youtube, I set out to try and figure it out more, and the public library is a great resource for all sorts of things including art and anything art related. At the library is where I started trying to figure out the whole process and what I must be missing. I read about art supplies and how to apply them, about great artists and studied my favorite artist, Reimbrandt. It was then that I decided that this was just a matter of practice. 

Inspired drawing, Reimbrandt's A Women Bathing in a Stream 2001

It seems that the art bug only bites me with the change of the seasons or on certain holidays, and that I'm not always feeling it. At times like these I sometimes feel like I fail and it ruins my desire to try more. But it is only with practice that we can get better at things and for them to feel more natural, so I say, keep picking up that pencil and keep drawing, it is a matter of practice! 

Pictured above is a self portrait from 2001, I was having a lot of trouble with faces and trying to learn by drawing more faces.  I usually draw myself, so as not to offend anyone by messing up a drawing of their face, you know, mess up my own face. 😂

In February 2022, I got bit by that drawing bug again and wanted to try another self portrait, surprisingly it actually looks a lot like me, to the point that Google actually recognized it as me!  With practice, I can feel and see how my drawing has improved.

This got me to thinking about all the people that I know that CAN draw and who, like me, say that they can not and need to just pick up the pencil! If for no other reason but for themself.

My youngest daughter, who also says that she can't draw, but she doodles all of the time, she drew this mushroom below, that I'd rescued from the trash, and it shows her potential. I love to see her doodling and knowing that she is practicing something she loves. Even the eye can be trained, with practice.

Spheres and crystal balls are among some of my favorite things and are a great way to practice drawing. I'd attempted several crystal ball drawings with mediocre results, but with this tutorial on Youtube, practice, and the right paper, the results were very different! 

So pick up those art tools and practice, practice, practice!

Thank you for stopping by.

Hope that you find joy and inspiration!

Best wishes and happy drawing!!

Ha!

If you have read this far, I would love to share;

I am not sure if it is just great algorithms or fate, but tonight, right after writing this today, I happened over to Youtube to watch some drawing videos. I'd watched a Silvie Mahdal tutorial before and she does beautiful art and art tutorials, so I clicked on this video of her drawing an eye and she happens to be talking about the same sort of thing that this post was about, except she puts it so eloquently and with so much heart and style. Just to watch her draw is mesmerizing! I highly recommend this video for any aspiring artist.

February Doodle

♡ Heart Doodle ♡

I've always liked water drop photos and water drop drawings, and when I came across this great Pin video of a heart doodle on Pinterest, I was inspired to pick up a pencil. This is the cute heart that I ended up with.

Water and glass drawings are just so peaceful to me, and Pinterest is a great place to find inspiration for drawing and doodling water drops and more.

This little doodle reminds me of a heart shaped water drop or a glass heart. Just so cool and soothing. And after all, tis' the season for Love! To see how to draw a heart like this, check out this great Pin VIDEO on Pinterest, uploaded by battery-plus.gr!

Thank you for stopping by.

Hope that you find joy and inspiration!

Best wishes and happy doodling!!

<3 

Neurographic Art

НейроГрафика ∾ Neurography

Neurography is an interesting drawing technique invented by Pavel Piskarev to help bring together science and art.  He came up with this idea around 2016, but it is new to me and couldn't have come at a better time on these long winter days.  

I am sure some of you are feeling the stress' of the past couple of years, and most of us could use a way to unwind. If you like to doodle, then maybe Neurographs could be a great outlet for you as well. 

The basic idea here is that you meditate and put pen to paper. In one motion you draw lines. When you are done, you go back and soften all the corners of these lines everywhere there is a sharp point. Once there are no sharp edges, you can fill it in with colors, using whatever color application you are comfortable with. A lot of people use watercolors. 

Of course, there is way more to this than I am explaining here, and if you would like to learn more, you can visit Neurographica.us website for articles on this inventive art technique.

I would also recommend Neurographic Art website, as another place to start and find out more. Go to Neurography Art on that site, to hear Pavel Piskarev himself (in Russian), speak of this interesting style of art and its benefits, (with a rough written translation).

Alison Hazel Art does a nice job explaining and demonstrating this neurograph art idea and the basics on Youtube.

On this page are my first 2 Neurographic drawings. I hear that this type of Neurographic drawings are great for children. It seems that a lot of art teachers are introducing this technique in the classroom. Being a big believer of the importance of art education for youth, I could see the benefits of this strange new art introduced at a young age and being a great outlet for children.

I used sharpie and oil pastels for both of mine, mostly because it was what I had on hand, but also I love the colors that the oil pastels produce.

You can also watch Art with Mrs Hibbs on Youtube about this neat idea, along with countless others sitting down and creating Neurographs.

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find joy and inspiration!

Best wishes and happy doodling!!

Fallen Leaf Oil Pastel

🍂🍁Fallen Leaf on Water with Oil Pastels🍁🍂

A fallen leaf is summer saying goodbye~

"I wonder if leaves feel lonely when they see their neighbors falling." John Muir

 With Autumn here and my continued mood to draw, this leaf tutorial on Youtube was just the thing to get me excited about drawing another oil pastel.

Such a lovely color combination. 

It reminds me a little, of one of my photographs that, to me, is so peaceful.

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn tree." Emily Bronte

Thank you for stopping by.

Best wishes & happy drawing!

Oil Pastels

Fun with oil pastels....

It's not a great job, but it was a nice first try. I learned a few things and got excited to give oil pastels another try.

This was done following a 'draw along', that you can find on Youtube.

The cat thought that I should be petting her instead of taking pictures of drawings.😅

Thank you for stopping by.

Best wishes & happy drawing!

Animal Doodles

 This past weeks doodles......

Every year around my oldest sons birthday, I seem to get an urge to draw. Maybe it is this special time of year when Autumn begins, or that since Harley was born, he has inspired me to draw. Whatever it is, this year, after being inspired by other peoples art, I find myself wanting to share my doodles, if for no other reason then to inspire my own family to pick up those pencils, and whom ever else might feel it as well.

 This past week, I was feeling in the mood to use pencil and colored pencils, and attempt some animal portraits. Usually after the eyes it seems to go down hill. But practice makes perfect. So I am practicing, and these were my results.

September 2021

Cali Cat~

Blackie Cat~

"It'll be alright..." Happy Turtle, Angry Rabbit, doodles.

Rabbit inspired by this adorable paint by numbers Pin.

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find joy & inspiration!

Happy drawing!!

Drawings by Cathleen Wake Gorbatenko, September 2021

Water drop doodles...

 Water drop doodles....

There is something so beautiful and calming about water drops, I find them absolutely mesmerizing.

While doodling, I was inspired to try and capture a water drop on paper myself, so I turned to Pinterest for ideas.  Finding these inspiring drawings, I tried a few.

This first drawing was inspired by this water drops Pin. This drawing was super fun and great practice!

Another great Pin that I tried was this single water drop. I didn't quite get it, but again, fun and great practice.

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find joy & inspiration!

Happy drawing!!

 

Recent drawings

A break from crochet for a minute....🍁🍂🍂

🍁It seems Autumn is an especially inspiring time to draw~🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

With the change of season, the drawing bug hit me, so I got out a ball point pen and some ink pens to give these mediums a try. Normally ink is not something that I'd feel comfortable using, not being able to erase is intimidating. But to my surprise, it was super fun, relaxing and satisfying. Honestly, kind of hard to put down. 

The first picture was found on Youtube, where you can watch XonArt "Draw a simple landscape in pen and ink".

Two inspired ink drawings....

Inspired pen drawings....

Inspired pencil drawings....

Camel inspired by a cute camel picture on Pinterest.

~~~~Doodles~~~~

Inspired and original colored pencil drawings. 

 Sloth is inspired by this adorable sloth painting, Pin.

My ugly pumpkin, I just couldn't stoppp....

black & white~

With age, as with other things in life besides drawing... my straight lines get straighter, circles rounder and things are seen in a whole new way.

Grab yourself a pen or pencil and kick back and draw something! It is so meditative and relaxing! Or go Zentangle! Go do your thing and enjoy your thing, whatever you do.

Thank you for stopping by.

Happy drawing!

Drawings are from the second week in September, during Fall inspired drawing faze, September 2021.