Day Thirty-One

And here we are at Day Thirty-One… 

I did drawings ALMOST half the days… almost… 

(Actually I DID manage to do some drawing EVERY DAY… I just didn’t do things I felt like sharing every day - a lot were preliminary/practice drawings for the ones that I DID post) 

My friend Shawn in Portland organizes this 3-Speed Challenge every October. I mean, it's a whole THING - registration fees, you get an official log book and patches and stickers and stuff... Loots like a lot of fun. I do make a point to ride the Brompton at least once every October (the only bike have with just three speeds), but I just don't ride it enough to participate in the challenge.

Day Thirty

I'd originally planned something else for today, but then noticed the Art Placement Challenge prompt was "Automatic" and the Inktober prompt was "Slither" and I immediately thought of a snake on an e-bike... so... 

Snake on an E-Bike

Dispensed with worrying about backgrounds today - and probably tomorrow... just to get SOMETHING done! 

Day Twenty-Nine

 

Day Twenty-Seven

I've missed a few days...

Like, MORE than a few days...

Trying really hard to stay motivated and not let the ALL OR NOTHING well-I-missed-one-day-so-I-won't-have-completed-the-challenge-so-no-point-in-continuing thinking...

The above illustration is actualy just one in a series of a number of practice pieces for a friend.

These are some of the others. 

Not sold on that background. I kind of want to do a more "urban" background... buildings and people... but that feels like it might be a bit busy...

...AND a lot of work!? 

Day Twenty-Four

 

The prompt for the Art Placement Drawing challenge was "Messy" and the prompt for Inktober was  "Extinct", so....  

Day Thirteen

 Wait... Thirteen!? But... it's the 22nd!? 

Yeah, I'm backing up a bit and veering away from the critters on bikes theme this morning… the prompt for Day 13 on the Art Placement Drawing Challenge was Fish Club and, having watched a lot of Bojack Horseman lately, THIS is IMMEDIATELY what came to mind and I knew I had to do it… well, I didn’t QUITE get to doing it in time for the 13th… but here it is, a week late… like everything in Saskatchewan these days… 

Day Eighteen

 

Bikepackers at Sunset. 

Really, they should have stopped long before sunset and set up camp... Maybe they're on a epic Enduro race and trying to get just a few more kilometres in before a couple hours of sleep...?

The prompt, for the 18th, (on the Art Placement drawing challenge list) was Contre-Jour. 

Day Fifteen

Wolfie McWolfson setting up for a wicked tailwhip.

Day Fourteen

I'm back! 

“My bikes okay… Oh, nah, it’s just a scratch…”

Years ago I worked in a bike store. After a weekend race a young woman brought in her bike to be looked at as she’d had quite the crash. The bike was totally fine. She had road rash all down one side of her body. I jokingly wondered aloud if she’d purposely fallen in such a way as to take the worst of it to protect her bike and, without missing a beat she said: “Skin gowns back, paint jobs don’t… “

I wasn’t trying to draw her or her bike here. (She was a human, for one thing, not a cat!) I just remembered the incident WHILE drawing this! 

Not Dead Yet!

The downside of these Daily Drawing challenges is that as soon as I miss ONE day, my brain says" "WE HAVE FAILED!" and the motivation to continue just dries up. It is, of course, ridiculous.... But it's how my brain works... I'm TRYING to remember that it doesn't have to be ALL OR NOTHING - the "challenge" can be to see how many days you DO draw and post something. Maybe try to beat the number you did last year - achieve a personal best. 

Despite not posting any pics for the last few days, I have not been idle. It's not like I haven't drawn ANYTHING on any of these days I "missed"... I just didn't get to drawing anything that I felt like posting. Everyday that I HAVE posted something, I made notes about ideas, I took reference photos, I did MULTIPLE drawings - mostly just rough sketches to see if it MIGHT look on paper like it does in my mind... before doing a "GOOD COPY" that I was okay with posting! 

The days I didn't post anything, I did all teh other stuff... I just didn't get to doing a Final Copy or settle entirely on one idea or another... 

Here are some of those Preliminary Drawings and doodles and such... 

Day One - I just worked directly from an old photo 

Day Two - first sketch. 

Day Two - MORE sketching... 

Day Three - I started off with some sketches of myself as a turtle... without looking too hard at any particular turtles... 

Day Three - second page, sketching out the idea I would eventually draw for the final drawing. 

So many sketches for Day Four... Starting with just a rough sketch of the Arc de Triomphe 

More Day Four - sorting out the lay out of the pic and notes on Cheetahs colours and spot patterns. 

A Final rough drawing for Day Four

Day Five - Again, just working directly from an old photo I took of one of my bikes. 

Inspiration for Day Six had come from the fact that I'd actually been out riding earlier in the day on my Purple Karate Monkey. More pics can be seen on my Bike Blog!  

First preliminary sketch of Day Six - plus a drawing of an actually Western Painted Turtle I did the next day, because... well... I thought I could try and draw myself as a specific type of turtle... instead of generic green which doesn't actually, necessarily look like ANY real, living turtle... 

Another quick preliminary drawing for Day Six. 

Missed days... 

Day Seven's prompt was "Chiaroscuro" so I played around with some ideas involving cycling at night with heavy lighting - like from a car approaching from in front or behind or a streetlight overhead. 

While doing some of the preliminary google searches to get an idea of what Chiaroscuro even was, I came across La Fornarina by Raphael... and thought it would be fun to replicate it... but with Princess Carolyn from the Bojack Horseman TV series... 

Day Eight's prompt was "Line" which could have been a simple line drawing, but I was thinking start line or finish line or lines on pavement denoting bike lanes and ended up settling on picking a line down a steep descent - possibly through a rock garden... but never got to doing a good copy. 

Also, another Painted Western Turtle... 

Finally, Day Nine's prompt was "Gesture" and I was thinking of a person in an automobile making a rude gesture at a critter on a bike. Maybe it would have been a bird giving someone "The Bird"....

I didn't get to it as I went for a longer ride and then went out and did errands with Amanda. At one stop I through I'd just do gesture drawings of people going in and out of the store.. 

Initially, I thought she'd just be running in for five minutes... buuuuut in the end she was in there a LOT longer. (Like, over an HOUR!?). There were a lot more people that came and went... but I'd draw one... and then i'd wait for someone else... and then when I figured there woudln't be someone else I'd clean up the drawing and add some colour, but in the middle of that, like five. more people woudl suddenly show up and I'd just finish up the colouring and do the next one... but then no one would show up for five or ten minutes... ugh... 

Day Six

 a bit late... 

Feeling a little like I’m clashing with the fall colour palette… maybe let’s call it “contrasting”… that seems a bit more… charitable? 

Did some long-needed repairs to the PURPLE KARATE MONKEY yesterday and went out for a ride. Saw Sandhill Cranes gathering to head south. 

Pics of the adventure can be seen over on my Bike Blog:

Tim's Bike Blog: MORE Fall Trail Rides

Day Five

 

My old pink Bianchi road bike.

Day Four

 

Cheetah (in the sprinter's jersey, of course) rides past the Arc de Triomphe on the last stage of the Tour. 

Day Three

 

Portrait of The Artist as a Turtle Making His Morning Smoothie with the "Kitchen Ninja" Blender. 

It's "Mocha" flavoured

I am not sure if the manufacturer of this blender really understands what a NINJA is… I think of ninjas as being stealthy silent assassins. On that regard, it seems the opposite of what a ninja is. Amanda has to wear ear defenders when using it. The kids cover their ears and hide in their rooms. 

Day Two

 

This little piggy went for a gravel ride. 

I think I’m going with a kind of critters and bikes theme this year…? 

The APDrawit21 prompt was FIGURE… I was thinking of figure drawing and full-figured and… I don’t know… maybe a bit of a stretch… 

Experimenting with Holbein acrylic Inks some more. So far I’m kind of loving them. 

Day One

 

Though I am posting this one the second, I did draw this late last night - it was still October 1st (somewhere) when I finished it! Waited until this morning to post - when the light was better for taking a picture! 

This is my old Cannondale Super-V (800?) in the back alley behind the Bike Doctor.

From a photo c2004 - when I sold it. I barely rode the thing. Only full-suspension bike I ever owned. In fact, it was the last suspension bike I ever owned. 

I came across YET ANOTHER prompt list - this one from my local Art Supply store where I buy pretty much all of my art supplies... well... maybe 95% of my art supplies. It's a lovely little store that's been around forever and conveniently (for me!) located right downtown. 

So I was thinking of the prompt from this list - Back Alley - when I remembered the picture I'd taken of the Super-V and always wanted to make a drawing/painting of it. 

Inktober 2021...?

 Am I doing this!? 

Maybe...? Check back later today, I guess....

Not sure WHICH prompt list I'm going to use...

there's the original OFFICIAL prompt list...? 

There's a Necromunda-themed one posted by someone I follow on Instagram... 

There's one that Keiran shared with me and Finnegan that I think THEY might be doing...?

Or... maybe I'll just draw and post... something... ANYTHING!? every day in October? We shall see....

There's also ORKtober...?