koukla carolyn

Green salad, marker (5×7)

I just happened to be at my parent’s house yesterday and I was eating salad for lunch so I decided to wait a bit and draw it before I ate it. Normally I don’t like the idea of drawing a plate of food because it would get cold, but I didn’t mind with a salad.

Generally, I have only been doing small sketches these days, but I am happy with that because I have other things to worry about right now. I am hoping to do some more watercolors next week after my sister’s wedding when things are quieter.

Red arrangement, felt tip pen (9×12)

Jeet bought me flowers a few weeks back. For a little while all I was drawing were bouquets of lilies. There were the classic orange liles and little Peruvian lilies that came in all colors. I had so many things I wanted to draw but I felt that I had to drop everything and draw these because they were there and I wanted to capture them before they died. I got a few very good sketches and many mediocre sketches. Here are the ones I did in marker.

I meant to write this post three days ago, but I got busy and put it off. Anyway, today has been one year and three days since I started kouklacarolyn.com. I am a little proud of myself for sticking with it for so long. I paid for two years of hosting so I will stick with it until then, although I have to say my interest has been waning. Sometimes I think all the time I spend online reading other people’s blogs and updating my own would be better spent actually creating more art. But I have been working on my art more in general since I started it, so I guess I am succeeding.

The drawing above was done in marker with colored pencils over it. I think this method made for especially vibrant colors. I did it on a blank greeting card so it will actually get sent to someone for their birthday or something.

In an effort to prove to Jeet that I really am a good baker, I made him these blueberry scones last Saturday. These were the last two of the batch, and I drew them exactly as they appeared on the plate. Jeet thought it was hilarious that I even drew the saran wrap. By the way, he thought they tasted good too.

I was in Barnes and Noble yesterday for a few hours. I often go there and sit in the cafe and read magazines. I happened across Danny Gregory’s article in the August issue of How magazine, which was very interesting and inspiring. After my catching up on all my favorite magazines, I got a toffee nut latte and started to draw this chair. Chairs in general are some of the hardest things for me to draw. I can never seem to get all the angles and converging planes together in the right arrangement. This drawing also has some discrepancies (which I didn’t notice until after I had already inked it), although it is way better than any earlier chair attempt. When I got home, I added in the blue background which I think makes it really pop. Overall, I think I got a lot out of this drawing.

Take care not to casually discuss matters that are of great importance to you with people who are not important to you. Your affairs will become drained of preciousness. You undercut your own purposes when you do this. This is especially dangerous when you are in the early stages of an undertaking…Most people only know how to respond to an idea by pouncing on its shortfalls rather than identifying its potential merits. Practice self-containment so that your enthusiasm won’t be frittered away. -Epictetus, The Art of Living

My mother bought this teapot for me when I was 10 years old. We took a trip to Princeton, NJ and my mother bought teapots for me and my two sisters. I chose this teapot because I liked the wavy edge around the lid. It reminded me of Mrs. Potts on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I did these in my Tombow brush pens but unfortunately this scan came out really bad and I’m not sure how I can improve the quality. For all the white parts I used the gray tone markers and it looks really cool if you look at it in person, but not in the scan.

I ended up doing quite a lot of sketching on Friday, like these drawings of my dirty laundry, for Everyday Matters Challenge #40: folds. This was actually very relaxing and I think I could do a lot more for this topic if I wanted to. Ordinarily I would tackle this challenge with graphite or charcoal or pastel—something I could make very soft and blended. It was interesting to do this with line though, and good practice because I want to improve my pen and ink technique. I would like to try this again only with patterned fabric.

The upcoming week is very busy for me because I’m going to be working a lot in addition to getting my teapot series done. I’m hoping to finish it this week and maybe use some dip pen and watercolor. I can’t wait.

worship, graphite and marker

I’m goofing off today. I skipped my classes and I don’t have to go to work. In fact, I don’t have to do anything that I don’t want to do today. I haven’t had a day like this in a long time. Granted, there are some things that I should do if I want to be a proactive, good student. There is a book that I should read for school (Frankenstein) and I should do some reading in my economics textbook. But why should I do that when I can spend the day drawing? In all my years in college, I’ve always utilized Spring Break for something constructive—working extra hours, writing papers, getting my taxes done, organizing my bedroom. I have never traveled anywhere or done anything fun. Now that this is my last Spring Break, I regret that decision. I could have afforded to be more of a slacker and I should have been.