The theme for daily drawing this week was definitely forgiving flexibility. I have learned to be more flexible with my time, materials, compositions and be ok with that. This week I experienced an unfortunate bout of food poisoning that incapacitated me for a good 36 hours. There was one day I didn’t draw. That’s ok. The next day, I drew twice. The morning where the subject was glass, I got up early to draw before going to work only to realize that I have incredibly boring glassware when it comes to casting shadows. Rather than wait until an evening trip to the dollar store for a more interesting shadow-casting glass, I found the most interesting glass I own which is a See Jane Run Half Marathon finisher champagne flute, circa 2012 and was quite pleased with the bridge rendition. If I hadn’t been flexible with this solution, I would never have created this. Now I know to be on the lookout for glassware that casts interesting shadows to try this again. The list goes one this week with the flexible decisions, from no doll dress to a short search for a pinecone.
This is what I appreciate about this creative practice is that over time it promotes playfulness and flexibility. My favorite composition this week was using the thimbles. My final creation looked nothing like the model provided. I did the model provided which became a draft (shown below). During this process, the upright thimble looked way more interesting upside down and the stamping pattern made by the top was more intriguing than the circles. Put them together, and no longer were they thimbles but rather re-imagined flowerpots.
It supposedly takes 21 days to create a new habit. I believe this. Even though there are only 10 days remaining for this shadow drawing challenge, I see no stopping ahead. I may not be shadow drawing every day in June but I look forward to continuing a daily creative practice. Besides the forgiving flexibility, the increased observational skills, and calmness it brings me great joy and energy to learn and create something new each day.
You can check out all my daily drawings on Instagram.