Drawing 8

Drawing 7

Drawing 5

Again, technical issues with the watered-down paint.  Still, it was fun!

Day 4-Ruched Ribbon clusters

Drawing #3

This one actually took almost 30 minutes.  I had some technical issues with my ruling pen today.

crosscut mesquite wood embedded in pebbles

Line Drawing Day 2

This one was done in about 16 minutes.  I decided to quit because I was just going to mess it up if I tried to put more lines in it.  Again, I worked by visualizing something on my table:  in this case, the face of a Catrina on my oil cloth over the table!  My goal with this drawing was to keep the lines as long as possible, all horizontal.  It got tricky around certain contours.  Also, the pen ran out of thinned paint before I ran out of real estate going all the way across the cloth.  I decided to put a small number in the corner to track them.

she has lower jaw issues.....

Ruling Pen Drawing on Cloth-Day 1

I'm late out of the gate in starting my ruling pen drawing challenge, but I intend to do it, starting today!
Melly Testa started a challenge:  Create a line drawing in 30 minutes, one per day for 30 days, using a ruling pen, (paint, dye, or ink) on a 5.5 inch square piece of cloth.
I wisely decided to wait until I finished teaching my workshop.  I had too many looming deadlines.  I still have deadlines, but some of the pressure is off.  Plus, I had to order a ruling pen.
Now, armed with my shiny new (cheap) ruling pen, squares of cut bleached muslin, and some weirdly thinned acrylic paint (maybe I need to switch to ink, we'll see), I used painter's tape and set to work.

I have not been drawing for the sake of drawing in quite awhile.  This upsets me because I know that drawing opens up so many other things for me.

I have never used a ruling pen before this project.  I had to play with it a bit to figure out how to get marks, especially on cloth.

Using my iphone timer, I set out to draw the first thing I laid eyes on:  a plastic bottle.  Why pick the hardest thing to draw?  I guess I'm a masochist.  I think drawing clear plastic or drawing/painting a clear anything is very difficult.  I wanted to maintain a very small line, one-half inch or less, throughout the drawing.  I allowed myself some very small, almost dot-size lines to create the condensation at the top of the bottle neck.  I don't think this drawing is excellent, but it was a good exercise to open up my brain.

I encourage you to try it and follow along!  Melly is on Day 24 now.  Please stop by her blog and take a look at her progression, which is very inspiring.  Her blog will inspire you in many other ways, too.

watered-down acrylic textile paint, ruling pen, drawing of water bottle (partially crumpled)