koukla carolyn

Don’t demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them to. Accept events as they actually happen. That way peace is possible. -Epictetus

Swan Sketch, graphite in 9×12 sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

I once took a calligraphy class and the instuctor said, “You’ll never see your mistakes unless you work BIG.” Of course she was talking about working in calligraphy and she was explaining why she was having us work in the biggest possible nibs. (She also said she thought I was a monk in a past life!) But I have noticed that the same principle also applies to my art. Today I made this fairly large drawing of a metal swan and it was so difficult. I spent ages just erasing and going over it again and again. I had no idea that it was going to be so frustrating and I didn’t even spend as much time on the details as I could have. Years ago, I drew another version of the same object (see below) but it didn’t seem nearly as hard. I think because it was such a small drawing it was easier to fudge on the details.

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Psalm 16:5-8

Glass #1, graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

I drew a glass in pencil a few months ago and thought of trying it again, mainly because I wanted a challenge. This drawing certainly was challenging, especially with the stripes at the base. I could have spent more time on it than what I did (2 hours) but I thought instead of running the risk of overworking things, I should just put it down.

Orange Leaves, pencil in sketchbook, Carolyn Pappas 2008

I have been very busy for the past few days moving and getting settled in my new home. I have to say that even though this will be a huge adjustment for me, the place itself is really nice and I will be comfortable here. One thing I will love is the abundance of plant life, both indoors and outdoors. I took 20 minutes to sketch these orange leaves from a tree in the backyard. The tree does not have any fruit, either because it is an immature tree or because this is New England and oranges aren’t exactly a native species.

I hope to do a LOT more drawing and painting now that my situation is more settled and I have gotten a lot of things out of my way. Since I have been so preoccupied with other things going on I forgot to mention that I got a nice compliment from Vidhya, who keeps a very nice art blog. She awarded me with this blog award:

Even though I don’t think I’ll continue the chain, I do think it’s a great honor and thanks Vidhya!

I was looking at a photo of the inside of someone’s house and I saw this saying on a poster on the wall. I did a little reading and found that it was on a British propaganda poster made just before WWII. Right now it is the perfect piece of propaganda for me. I seem to be very depressed lately and when that happens my usual tendency is to just mope around and do nothing. But this time, I have been trying to keep working on my art and trying to be as productive as I can. This weekend I’ve done more artwork than I usually do:

Magnolia, staedler pigment liners in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

Guest House View, Dhanbad; dip pen and watercolor wash on 5×7 Strathmore watercolor greeting card, 2008

Onion Sketch (EDM 179), graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

Self Portrait with Smile, graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

At work, I just wrote my mid year review, where I updated my progress on all my development goals. I thought this would be a good opportunity to review my art goals as well, because the year is half over. My first goal was to practice daily sketching. Although I can say that I’ve been doing more sketching than ever before, it has hardly been daily. I have been tracking my activities and I’m lucky if I do artwork on half the days in the month. June was especially bad because of all the upheaval from my vacation. So I’ll try to do better in the last half of the year.

My second goal was to continue working in watercolor. I have been awful at this and I think I did more watercolor in 2007 than this year. I just bought a bunch of M. Graham watercolors as well and I really want to try them out. I think I am nervous because they were so expensive but I need to get over it.

Lastly, I wanted to take some sort of art class or workshop. I have been looking for something near where I live, but I have not been able to find anything. I am limited to weekends unless I find something really local, but I might have to go into Massachusetts if I can’t find anything. In any case, I will have to wait until the fall until anything is available.

All in all, I’ve been pretty awful at keeping my art resolutions but I have done some really nice things this year regardless. Even though I have these nice development goals for myself, I have a ton of things I want to get done for Christmas so I had better get busy if I want to get them done in time.

Drawing of Drinking Glass, graphite in kraft paper sketchbook, 2008

I have been trying to improve the quality of my work lately, as well as increase the quantity. Every so often I get the urge to draw something difficult—like this glass—just to test myself. I have never been very good with ellipses or water or glass. I do think that I am improving though and maybe someday I will have complete confidence in my skills.

Dried Rose Petals, Prismacolor colored pencil on kraft paper, 2008

In these two sketches, I drew the same rose in different stages of decay. The graphite drawing is of the rose when it was completely dried out, but still intact. I drew it in about an hour one day after work. After I tried to move it slightly, the entire rose fell apart in my hand and I ended up drawing the petals scattered on my drafting table. I tried to focus on giving the drawing a 3D effect and I am happy with it. I also think the tinted paper adds quite a bit and I have never used colored pencil on this paper before.

Brown Paper Bag Drawing, graphite in 9×12 kraft paper sketch book, 2008

Brown Paper Bag Drawing 2, graphite in 9×12 kraft paper sketch book, 2008

These are my contributions for EDM 92: draw a brown paper bag. I had gotten this kraft paper sketch book months ago but I had never christened it until recently. I thought this would be a good use for it, because it is similar to the material of the bag itself. I did these in graphite and I spent quite a lot of time on them, although I could have spent quite a lot more if I wanted to be even more accurate.

The first drawing I did by first blocking out all the large areas of the folds and then lightly outlining all the areas of shadow. Then I filled them in kind of like a coloring book. In the second drawing, I sketched out the large folded areas first and then did all the nuanced shadows by observation, without first outlining them. I like my method for number 2 better because it was more fun in general and I don’t normally like a lot of planning. In both drawings I worked from left to right to avoid smudging the pencil. I do have a habit of skipping all over the drawing but I was very disciplined in these cases.

I have been doing quite a lot of drawing lately, compared to my usual standards. I am not sure how much I will do during this week though because I am getting my wisdom teeth extracted today and I’m not sure how I will be feeling.

I love apple season.

My sister got these roses from her fiance and I took advantage of their presence by sketching them. I did this in a 3B and 6B pencil but soon became disinterested and gave up. One of these days I am going to do a really nice graphite drawing and spend a lot of time on it. But for now, sketching is all I can manage.

Yesterday Jeet and I went to the Big E, or The Eastern States Exposition, a giant state fair-like event in Massachusetts. This was the last weekend and there were tons of people, but we had an awesome time walking around and seeing everything.