Every day I will try to post an activity.
But really the best thing you can do is to just get your pencils or whatever you have and draw. You don't need anything fancy. Draw on cardboard with a pencil if you want. Just draw. Try to draw from life but you don't need to. I am making a drawing a day about lockdown. One day was just an abstract on how my 3-year-old must feel about not being to go out.
EVERY DAY: DRAW.
With anything of anything. For 5 minutes at least. Send us pictures of the art you make.
June 6th I can't take it anymore.
Friday June 5th Implode
Make another drawing using your theory using natural light. Does your theory hold up?
Thursday June 4th Execute
Make a master drawing using your theory using artificial light.
Wednesday June 3rd Author
Write down your understanding of color based only on your experience in the last week. Make a illustrate your treatise on color.
Tuesday June 2nd Having it both ways
Draw with your favorite and least favorite colors. You should have a rudimentary color theory of your own by now. Think about what it is.
Monday June 1st Up is down
Draw with your two least favorite colors. You can make some really fun pieces this way.
Sunday May 31st Ch-ch-ch-changes
Did your favorite colors change? What about the ones you did not like? Draw a new picture using two of your favorite colors.
Saturday May 30th Violet
On the seventh piece of paper draw the same object in the same location using only violet.
Friday May 29th Indigo
On the sixth piece of paper draw the same object in the same location using only indigo.
Thursday May 28th Blue
On the fifth piece of paper draw the same object in the same location using only blue.
Wednesday May 27th Green
On the fourth piece of paper draw the same object in the same location using only green.
Tuesday May 26th Yellow
On the third piece of paper draw the same object in the same location using only yellow.
Monday May 25th Orange
On the second piece of paper draw the same object in the same location using only orange.
Sunday May 24th Red
Pick an object that you will not mind drawing over the next week. Not too simple, not too complex. Find 7 pieces of paper the same size. Label each one with the ROYGBIV colors. Draw the object only using red.
Saturday May 23rd Color week
The color wheel, color harmony, complementary colors, secondary colors, primary colors are 300 year old theories; not science. They cannot be proven or disproven. Think of surgery of 300 years ago, perhaps we should move on. Or you should develop your own color theory.
This week you will think about the science of color, not theory. What is correct is that white light (all colors together) split into Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Black is the absence of color. Throw this tube of paint away.
This week you will make drawings using only these colors to really get in to them.
Today: Get out your colors and create the ROYGBIV rainbow. Look at colors. Which ones do you feel drawn to? Which colors are enemies? Mark them.
Friday May 22nd Bling Contour Drawing
Find the fanciest thing you own. Draw the outlines without looking at the object. Color inside the lines gold when done.
Thursday May 21st Cartography of self
Draw a map of everywhere you go in a day. Make sure to date this map. Label everything. Hide it in a closet in an envelope that is labeled "Do Not Open until May 21st, 2070 AD"
Wednesday May 20th Your brain gets in the way of drawing
Monet was called a giant eyeball. Meaning that he could look without his brain infecting his painting. The brain stops you from drawing well. Try to turn it off.
One way to start this necessary process is through contour drawing. Take a utilitarian object: A shoe. A toothbrush. A kitchen knife. A potato peeler. Something you use.
Get a large piece of paper. Put your drawing tool in the middle of the paper. Draw the object without looking at the paper. If you look at the paper, you have to stop drawing. Once you look away, you can draw again.
Do this again. It can look cool if you draw the same object over and over at different angles on the same paper. Or different objects on top of each other.
Stop thinking so much.
Tuesday May 19th Who do you think you are, anyway?
Draw your least attractive feature. Only. I am drawing my right foot and ankle.
Ask people to guess who this part belongs to. Act hurt when they did not guess it was you. Be pleased.
Monday May 18th Those internets
Go here. Pick an object at random. Draw it with a timer. You have 4 minutes and 15 seconds. GO!
Sunday May 17th What is right with you?
Draw your most attractive feature. Only. I am drawing my nose.
Ask people to guess who this part belongs to. Do not tell them.
Saturday May 16th These internets
Go here. Pick an object. Look at it for 90 timed seconds. Now draw it without looking at it.
Friday May 15th Basic
When was the last time you painted with your fingers? Paint with your fingers.
Thursday May 14th Crumple
Instead of folding your paper neatly as you did yesterday, crumple it. Stomp on it. Be Harsh.
Now take a new sheet of paper and draw this smashed ball.
Wednesday May 13th Fold
Take your paper. Fold it as many times as you can.
Neatly. It does not have to be in squares.
Now unfold it.
If you have needle and thread, stitch the lines with a red thread one way. Use black to stitch the other directions. Do this until all creases are stitched. If you do not have a needle and thread, use any other tool for tracing the lines.
Tuesday May 12th Ready for it
Take a pencil or pen. Not the one you will draw with. look as closely as you can at it without it getting blurry. Draw this zoomed in section as big as you can.
Monday May 11th Chiaroscuro
Draw the outline of an object at home. Choose: fill in the outline completely with a solid color or fill in everything outside the outline with a solid color.
Sunday May 10th Concentric
Get a large paper and gather as many round things as you can find in your house. Draw as many overlapping circles as you can. Color only the areas that they over lap.
Saturday May 9th List
Make a list of at least ten things that you appreciate about your situation now. Draw a thumbnail picture of each thing.
Friday May 8th Record
On the top of a page, write "Quarantine" and the name of the city or town you live in next to that. Make sure this is a long page. Start with the Roman numeral I, continue up to your present day (mine is LVIII now). For example I,II,III,IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and so on.Leave room for more. Stick this in a book. Keep working on it until this is done and then forget it. Optional: names and dates of people in Q with you.
Thursday May 7th Cover
Draw the thing you fear the most. Or write the name of the thing you fear the most in careful lettering. Take a black crayon or pen or marker. Methodically line it out until it is covered and you are unable to see it.
Wednesday May 6th Look
Do you have a window to look out of? Draw what you see. If you do not, what would you ideally look out on. Draw that.
Tuesday May 5th Touch
Can you draw the softest thing you can think of? The wettest? The hardest?
Monday May 4th Hear
Different places have different sounds. Can you draw what the nosiest place you lived in sounded like?
In Seattle airplanes would scream overheard so often, you almost stopped hearing it When I draw this, I will make blue lines radiating off of a long line of planes seen in between trees.
Sunday May 3rd Smell
Draw your favorite thing that gives off smell. A baby, apple pie, clean laundry. Now, on a separate piece of paper, draw the smell. What colors and shapes does it have?
Saturday May 2nd Remember
Think of your earliest memory. Mine is of a red plastic gorilla that was on a birthday cake almost half a century ago. It was not opaque, when I held it up to the light, it would glow a little.
Draw your first memory.
I am glad that I do not have that gorilla anymore. I do not think it would be as good as my memory of it.
Friday May 1st Mouths of babes
This is from my three year old. Zola wants you to draw a poisonous frog. "They should draw [the] poisonous frog the way they think it looks like". I think she means that you should not use a reference photo. I would have a really hard time with this as the back legs are tough to draw. So, I think it is OK if you look at a picture of one before drawing. Don't tell Zola.
Thursday April 30th You are beautiful
Get a mirror, look at yourself. Draw yourself upside down. Turn finished drawing right side up. Pretty good right? If you do not have the prejudices of how you look, if you eliminate them by drawing yourself upside down, you do much better. Anyway, you are much better looking than you think you are.
Wednesday April 29th Angle
Let us try the same thing as yesterday. Only this time, use a ruler to draw all lines. Make this sharp and angle-ly. Make it a geometric hive.
Tuesday April 28th Line
Starting in the middle of your piece of paper, draw one line— without crossing any other line— throughout the whole paper. Try to cover as much space as you can before you get trapped.
Monday April 27th least/ MOST pt. 3
Pick out your mark making tools. I will wait while you do this. Got them? Draw or paint the most aggressive, strongest mark on your paper at the bottom that you possibly can without tearing it. Now paint or draw the faintest mark possible at the top that is visible. How are you going to connect them?
Sunday April 26th least/ MOST pt. 2
Take a piece of paper, canvas, cardboard scrap, or whatever you use to work on. Think of the biggest thing you can. This can be an emotionally big thing or a physically big thing. Now think of the most insignificant thing you can. How are you going to fit both of them on your canvas?
Saturday April 25th least/ MOST Pt. 1
What is your favourite color? Mine is Cadmium Red. This is used very nicely in I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold. What is your least favourite? Mine is 1970's green. Try to get your two colors and make a painting or drawing from them. Abstract is OK.
Friday April 24th Miss
Is there anyone that you are mad at? Can you draw the words "I forgive you?" And try to mean it? You might feel better. It can't hurt to try.
Thursday April 23rd Machine Made
Imagine a machine that has 7 parts that interlink. This machine does not have to have a clear purpose. But needs to have at least 7 parts (buttons, gears, levers, tubes etc...). Draw it.
Wednesday April 22nd What is that?
What annoys you the most now? Draw it. This might help you empathise and in turn reduce annoyance. This is hard for everybody. Give yourself a break and try to forgive others.
Tuesday April 21st The breaks
What is your favourite song? Take out your drawing and painting implements and put it on. Listen to it without making a mark or doing anything else. Play it again. What color is this song? What shapes does it have? Draw this song as one large shape and color or a progression of different shapes and colors. Synesthesia increases perception of color.
Monday April 20th Historical record
Draw a straight line across the top of a page. This represents your normal mood. Label this line "control". Now draw a line that represents your mood today. Dipping low means bad mood. Lots of static means a frenetic mood etc...Do this for everyday that quarantine lasts. When this ends, donate this drawing to a historical archive.
Sunday April 19th Try this
Giotto could draw perfect circles and it blew people's minds in the 13th century. Draw a perfect circle. I dare you. Master other shapes and impress your friends.
Saturday April 18th Cool Animals
What is the coolest animal? The correct answer is the three toed sloth. Draw it. Acceptable answers also include manta shrimp, but they don't seem like much fun to draw. A picture of this sloth is at the bottom of the page.
Friday April 17th Back to basics
Find something that you would not normally draw with, but can make a mark (for example, dirt or a beet, or shoe polish, or toothpaste, or olive olive [ you can use a toothpick to draw with this substance]). Now find paper. Draw the object you are drawing with. Don't judge yourself.
Thursday April 16th: Outside
Get a blank sheet of paper. Start in the middle and draw a small square about a centimetre on each side. Now draw another box outside of that one and leave a small gap open. Keep doing this until you have many many many boxes surrounding each other, each with a gap. If the edges start to get round, that good.
When you get to the edge of the paper, write the name of the activity that you miss the most in quarantine. With a different colored crayon or marker slowly work from the inside to your activity.
Wednesday April 15th: Inside
Get a blank sheet of paper. Start at the outside and draw a square about a centimetre away from the edge of the paper. Leave a small gap. Now draw another box inside of that one and leave another small gap. Keep doing this until you have many many many boxes inside of each other, each with a gap. If the edges start to get round, that good.
When you get to the middle, tiny box, put your initials inside of it. Give this to someone with a pencil. Tell them it is a maze. They start from the outside and find you. Or take a picture and post and have them trace the maze with their finger.
Tuesday April 14th: Coloring
Draw outlines of three things you love. For example your cat, your sofa and your teapot. Make the lines thick, black and uniform in width.
Give your outlines to someone you love to color in. Tell them to be very careful.
Monday April 13th Something different
Take a blank piece of paper. Take anything you use to color with: pens, crayons, water color etc. Now put one color on one side of the paper. But another color on the opposite side. Try to mix them slowly in to each other.
So if you took green and red for example: 10 percent across the page from the green side, you would have 90 percent green and 10 percent red.
Where they meet should be 50 percent of each color, it should blend in to the other color. This is harder than it seems. Good luck. We are counting on you.
If you do not have colors, do this with different patterns. Start with a row of dots on one side and 'X's on the other and try to blend them this way. This is harder than it seems. Good luck. We are counting on you.
Sunday April 12th Boring is now exciting
Draw something that you used to think was boring before quarantine (school? work? shopping?) Make it crowded. Place your cutout of yourself that you made for your boat journey in it. Look how much you would enjoy that activity now.
Saturday April 11th Outside
Draw your favourite outside activity (exercise, a sports event, shopping etc...) . Make it crowded. Place your cutout of yourself that you made for your boat journey in it.
Friday April 10th Go out to eat
Draw your favourite restaurant/ place to eat in public. Make it crowded. Place your cutout of yourself that you made for your boat journey in it. Bon appetite!
Thursday April 9th Friends and Family
Draw a crowd of people that you know and love doing anything together. Place your cutout of yourself that you made for your boat journey with them. This is a metaphor for quarantine being over.
Wednesday April 8th Arrival
You have been at sea for months with nothing but the possessions on your boat from yesterday. Draw where you will go and what you will do. Place your cut out self in your new activities.
Monday April 7th Boat Journey
1) Draw a boat. Make it big enough for your cutout from last lesson. 2) Load up the boat with everything you might need for a month long journey. 3) Draw the sea around the boat. Do not draw land anywhere. 4) Put yourself on your boat at sea.
Sunday: To start
Make a detailed full body drawing of yourself as big as your hand. Take your time. When you are done, cut it out. You may mount it on cardboard to make it sturdier.
Saturday: Paint with tea or coffee.
Step 1: Have someone make dark tea (black is best) or coffee.
Step 2: Get any kind of paper, a paintbrush, and watercolor( optional).
Step 3: Decide what you want to paint.
Step 4: Paint with tea or coffee.
Step 5: Admire your artwork. Dedicate it to the people who are taking care of you or/ and the essential workers who make it possible for us to be healthy.
Step 6: Try again with your painting or exercise your body. Do not go on a phone or a computer.
Friday: Scumbling. Draw the same object (this is the last time, I promise. Probably.) And shade with a scumbling technique. Use a black pen!
Thursday: Crosshatching. Draw the same object (with a black pen if possible) but use crosshatching.
Wednesday: Stipple: Your task is to draw your favorite thing, or place. This could be your glasses, a ring, your bedroom, or even an image from vacation. Do this using stippling with a felt tip pen, preferably black.
TUESDAY: Virtual Vacation Click here to go anywhere in the world.
MONDAY: Still life drawing
1- Pick two objects. Try two contrasting objects s A light bulb and a flower for example. Or a cup and an orange for example.
2-Place them in the middle of a workspace so when you draw them you do not see the edge of the table.
3- If you can, set up a lamp on your table. Turn off all other lights in the room so you only have one light on your objects. Rearrange your objects and see what shadows are created for more dramatic effect.
4 - Make a light sketch of the edges of your objects. Outline them. Then draw the details.
5- Only after you have finished with these, shade. Remember, the darkest part of your drawing is where your objects touch other objects.
