Drawing A Day (2)

The last couple of weeks I didn’t spend any time on my larger drawings. I was back at cleaning my home (as in throwing things out) so it would be a better home studio. Almost ready.

After that I had two weeks of vacation which I spend with my boyfriend and his 4 year old son.

During this time I only did my Drawing A Day which I’m managing to do so for almost a month now.

For a large part my vacation consisted of doing things a 4 year old enjoys, mostly very active things and the boy asking a lot of attention. Perfectly normal for a 4 year old.

What I noticed was that these small drawings I did every day formed a much needed ‘me-time’. They drowned all the noise of the day and brought me back to myself.

So just in a few weeks these daily drawings changed from a daily task, or ‘should’ as Elle Luna calls them, to a daily necessity or ‘must’.

Drawing A Day from the last 9 days

Update

A day late but here is the result of a week (and a day) of my Drawing a Day project. So far so good.

I try to post all my drawings (and more) on Instagram.

You can find me at: melissa_halley

Drawing A Day (1)

March 2013 I started my Drawing A Day sketchbook. My plan was to make a small drawing every day that would take about 15 to 30 minutes. The idea was to draw every day especially when I couldn’t spend that day entirely drawing or on other art related business.

It’s also a really good way to get your drawing-juices flowing.

After a month I abandoned the sketchbook, started again and so on until the beginning of this year.

For some reason I couldn’t stick to it, every day I had more important things to do, no time and after a while I would just forget.

I got quite upset with myself that I could not even do this little 15 minute thing.

A few months ago I made a daily plan and the Drawing A Day was part of that plan but still I would somehow ‘forget’.

Until today…

New work

The beginning of a new brainchild. About the beauty of the night, colours and sounds, rustling treetops and flying critters.

Magnifying apparatus

And this is how I’m able to do such detailed drawings of tiny insects.
As I understand it it’s actually a magnifying-tool for soldering. It has two pincers to hold stuff that I folded in so they’re not in my way.
This apparatus is a really big help when you’re subjects are very small! :)

Flight of the Bumblebee

When my home wasn’t my home yet and up for rent I immediately fell in love with the big, broad windowsill. I could picture myself sitting there, reading and drawing on top of a huge pile of pillows.

This is where I found the little moth I enjoyed drawing so much. Occasionally I find other bugs there. Still alive they are set free, if not they end up being drawn by me. Buried beneath my huge pile of pillows I recently found a beautiful bumblebee. Just like the moth very dramatic, with two little legs stretched out into the air as if to bid a final farewell.

I have to confess my feelings towards insects are a bit ambiguous. They are useful, beautiful and can even be cute but they creep me out at the same time. While drawing this bumblebee time after time, I was captivated by its beauty, detail, soft hair and wings but sometimes I would feel shivers go down my spine.

In the near future I want to do something with this ambiguity towards insects but I'm still brooding on the how and what. To be continued :)

Flying flowers

A little while ago I found this small moth in my windowsill. It was just sitting there, as if it was still looking out of the window. Mournful about not being able to get outside and looking at the setting sun one more time… At least, that was the story that popped into mind when I found the poor little critter.

Not sure what I was going to do with it I saved it in a little box. I found more and bigger moths and saved them too in somewhat bigger boxes.

As you can see I ended up drawing them. For some reason the step from drawing flowers (blooming or dried up) to these insects was very logical. They have a resembling fragility that I find intriguing and feel compelled to draw.