Written by As we end the week, we’ve reached the 8th day of our art challenge and I hope that everyone participating is having a wonderful time! Today, we’re heading to the beach and though I had an urge to sketch another conch shell, which I love, I opted for my second favorite beach accessory in the form a crab. These are fascinating creatures to me, and their odd little walk is fun to watch. Though we humans often tend to view moving forward as the general direction one should always go, I’m rather thrilled by the idea of moving in another direction entirely. I’ve been playing a bit with my sketches this month and trying new things. Today, I started with a single line contour sketch where I never lifted my pen. This was something I remember doing when I was young and actually won my first and only art award for a contour line sketch of a pair of tennis shoes. I decided to walk backward and give that approach another go. Of course, I love adding a lot of dimension so the lines get a bit lost, but it was a fast and fun approach to sketching stuff! So I might just try it again!
If you’re curious as to what my only art award was, it was a shiny blue ribbon that came with an inclusion in that year’s school art calendar. My mother was very proud. I think she still has the original somewhere in a box. Or I’m just imagining it was so awesome that she surely must have kept it. Chances are, it was nothing much at all. It was, after all, just a pair of sneakers and nothing more. Looking back, I now realize that not much has changed. I’m thoroughly and completed enamored with those little bits of life in close up that simply suggest a story. I like to add bits of background, but nothing that usually ever reveals a time or place. For that, I hope you’ll write the rest of the story that I failed to include here visually. Yeah, today, it’s just a crab hanging out on a sandy beach as the last rays of sun send it wobbling off in another direction. But I can still hear the ocean and enjoy the last time I was on a beach, ready to run into those waves and giggle like a kid again.
This has also been my secret to painting and sketching every single day now for over 1,070 consecutive days. I make just a quick little sketch of something that would likely be considered a study for a real painting and share it! Some days, I have a bit more time, but even when I have no time at all, I take a moment to make something, anything, and will it to appear. I do actually rather like how my quick little crab turned out. Yes, I’m always totally channeling my inner child and that kid who won that art award at all times. What I remember most about that boy was that he really just wanted to create and share what he made in the moment. The thrill of making something was so incredible that he couldn’t wait to share it with everyone. And that, in the end, is how I approach my art today. I don’t have a specific goal in mind other than showing up to paint and write and I get immense pleasure in doing so. I could choose to worry over my work or try to make it more commercial. But, in the end, I just like sketching stuff. And it’s in these moments that I can appreciate the life of a crab and the joy of walking sideways.
About the DoodlewashDa Vinci Paint Co.: Nickel Azo Yellow, Terra Cotta and Cobalt Blue, (my Da Vinci Trio, Click Here to Learn More!). Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with sepia ink in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. Want to purchase a print of this doodlewash? Send me a note with a link to this post, and I’ll add it to my shop! |
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Sidle on!
hehe!! Yes to that, Judith! 😃💕
Wonderful sketch tonight. Have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks so much, Mary! 😃💕 Hope you have a wonderful weekend as well!
Single line contour is one of my favorite ways to start a sketch. Your crab turned out great!
Thanks, Sharon! 😃💕 Yeah, it’s really fast and fun so I’m definitely going to try that more often.
Love it!! And the color of the crab. I don’t think there is a thing you can’t draw. Each day is so fun to see what you come up with and the story behind it. I really look forward to seeing and reading about your creations. Thank you Charlie.
Aww that makes me so happy to hear! So thrilled you enjoy these posts each day!Thanks so much, June!! 😃💕
We should all be like your crab – taking our time to savor the journey and ready to grab on and hold on to anything important while letting the rest slide away like sand. Fantastic painting. I would have never guessed it was a contour drawing!
Beautifully states, Sandra!! I love that! 😃💕 And yeah, I meant to leave more lines, but well… I could excited coloring over them! lol
I appreciate that you share your memories and life with us, I always take away something to think about. I feel that you are blessed with knowing what is important and sure you can pursue art in a more commercial way but I wonder if that joy and heart that you bring in your blog wouldn’t be the same, but then who knows? Haha, for some reason I thought of Fred Rogers, he juggled it quite well. Have an awesome weekend ❤️
Thanks, Margaret! 😃💕 What a sweet thing to say! hehe… Mr. Rogers DID do it all quite well! And he had puppets! But yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get so commercial I lose sight of my storytelling. That’s still the most fun for me! Hope you have an awesome weekend as well!
Well it shows that it is the most fun. Now if only you had puppets lol 😉❤️
Lol… added puppets to my list of things to try next! 😉 👍🏻
Haha!!! 😉
My school had an art show and pancake dinner every year. I loved having my art up on those particle boards in the gymnasium for all to see. The pancake dinner was just a bonus! 😀
Pancake dinner sounds awesome!! hehe… we didn’t get those. That would have been amazing!! 😃💕
When i was kid went sea beach all kid collected 🦀 in small bags. In the night they kept them in my room in the hotel.my elder sister with me sleep ing in mid night they all come out on bed we shouted badly.call boy through them .but now i saw u drowning it beatful.
Thanks so much
Thanks, Snehlata! 😃💕 LOL… oh my, now THAT is an awesome story for sure! Yikes! I would have been shouting and screaming as well! hehe
I love reading your posts as much as I love your watercolour sketches. Have a great weekend! (I have recommended your blog to friends who are just starting out in watercolours).
Thanks, Louise! That makes me so happy! 😃💕And thanks so much for the recommendation! I really appreciate it! Hope you have a great weekend as well!
It’s always fun to read the title of your post before I see the subject of your art. So all I thought about when I saw this title was the movie “Sideways.” Then I looked at your painting of the scuttling crab and thought “of course.” Life fell apart in the movie, as I remember it. But your life seems to come together, at least here on your blog where you let your past inform your present with the same sense of childlike wonder.
hehe… yeah, you just never quite know what you’re going to get when you click! 😉 I thought of that movie as well, but yeah, it all got a bit messy there. But here’s to always enjoying that childlike wonder! 😃💕
Love the crab as it’s my astrological sign for July. ❤️🦀
Thanks, Janet! 😃💕 And that’s awesome! Happy early birthday!
I must confess my baser instincts are aroused by your painting…
I want to steam that delicious looking creature and dip his back fin
meat in milled butter or vinegar and herbs. It seems brutal to so
mutilate such a perfect painting but now I’m really hungry for
steamed crab. Sowwy Chahwee.
Lol… okay… you caught me as well. 😊I did have that fleeting moment where I was craving crab. But not my fault. Why do they have to be so darn delicious! 😉