This drawing has a silly personality, and it makes me smile when I see it. It was fun to draw.
The texture of the coral “lobes” was surprisingly easy to render, and it was easy to cover up the gouges. I was able to work directional shadows into it very well. And the stems, coming out of the top of each plant, were particularly fun to draw because of their kinks and coils.
About those gouges
One or more of our animal crew, who all have doctorates from the “any attention is better than no attention” school of thought, will desperately need to be between me and a drawing at least once. They are so talented that they can knock over a drawing, stand on it until I scream, and then make me feel guilty because I made their claws deploy in a startle response. Dot, our dog, had the pleasure this time.
I camouflaged the gouges by drawing them into the texture, but you can still see them. I left a few maker’s marks showing too, because I’ve noticed that perfection is just as far out of reach as it has ever been. I’ve never been clear about perfection, but It seems like it has come to mean “that thing I can’t accomplish,” or “that person I can’t be.” Trying to do that thing or be that person makes me sad. Giving up those desires makes me happy. Mission accomplished.
Back to the drawing
I added two more plants to fill the page. I love it when a drawing interacts with the space of the paper it lives in. I was hoping for a sense of comfortably growing into the paper space rather than straining to grow out of it. I think it’s right on an edge between those two.
I covered the how, when, and where of the drawing, but there is still a huge “what” sitting here beside us. I don’t know what inspired this drawing, or even what it’s supposed to be. I’ve been studying the structure and variety of coral, so maybe some of them have populated my brain. This drawing has no real reason for being, other than I found it within and loved it enough to show to you, complete with claw gouges and maker’s marks.
Keep drawing everyone!
Carol
