Unique Drawing Challenge May 2016

Drawing and reading are my two all time favourite hobbies, as anyone who has met me will know, but I have a terrible habit of neglecting art for long periods of time. Since the run up to the Leaving Cert, I have been rudely ignoring any drawing impulses, and I've decided to turn that around! By doing a drawing challenge for the month of May, that goes a little something like this:

1. Self-portrait
2. Favourite animal
3. Favourite food
4. Favourite character from a book or song (no help from movie adaptations)
5. A couple
6. An elderly person
7. A baby
8. Flowers
9. Something sentimental
10. Something sad
11. Design a tattoo
12. Something consisting of only 2 colours
13. Sexy/handsome man
14. Sexy/beautiful woman
15. An embrace
16. Something loud
17. Favourite author or artist
18. Obsession
19.Something you can't resist
20. An animal that freaks you out
21. A blast from the past
22. Something ridiculously colourful
23. Something Japanese
24. Love is love
25. Dancing
26. Draw from a photo you took
27. Something completely un-you
28. [Day off]
29. Musical instrument
30. Family portrait
31. Make a comic of your day


So far, we're on day 12 of my personalised drawing challenge, which means le boif and I have numbers 1 through 11 completed. Fancy a peek?

Self-portrait

Favourite animal: Octopus

The first few were pretty straight-forward, and not too strenuous, although I am a major newb/baby when it comes to Adobe Illustrator, so from day 1 I've been trying to learn the tricks of the trade. I've been testing out different styles, trying new techniques and basically trying to get the computer to do what I want it to. It takes time but honestly it's really fun.

Favourite food: Strawberries!

 The character from a book or a song was suuuuuch a difficult decision. As a major reader the obvious choice was a character from a book, but I just couldn't call any strong imagery to mind, so I had a think about the songs I knew that featured a main character. I've been a Johnny Cash fan since I was a baba; my dad used to play his songs around the house, and they would always make me cry. The song Big Iron came to mind, a song Cash only covered, and the Arizona Ranger, the extreme underdog of the tale, really stuck out in my mind, and it's such a fantastic story of a song that you just must listen to it. I cannot do it justice.

Character from song (Big Iron by Johnny Cash)

A couple: le boif and moi!

An elderly person

A baby

Flowers (sakura)

When it came to the flowers I always knew I'd draw cherry blossoms but I hadn't really decided on a medium. I didn't want to use *just* Illustrator for my drawings so I thought I'd give watercolour pencils a go - which makes up the branches, and then I found a stain in my sketchbook left by a Promarker (they have a habit of seeping through the page), that looked like a perfect petal. So I played about with all of this on the computer and came out with a very mixed media type of image. 

Something sentimental: my old ballet dress

When it came to something sentimental I was really at a loss. I don't have any 'ones that got away', I don't have any dead relatives or friends that I was close to, nothing really to go all mushy over. Rooting through my room, I eventually found my old ballet dress and ballet slippers, in perfect condition, from when I was just 4 years old. I used to love ballet back then and always got extra excited to go to class every week. Unforch the ballet school moved away just a year later, and I was left ballet-less, and have been ever since. Now I feel far too old to learn, and seeing my little outfit did make me tear up a little.

Something sad: a lost mitten

The bench and lost mitten drawing is probably my favourite so far, because I honestly don't think there's anything more sad than seeing a lost mitten, in the snow, no less. I love mittens. I just want all the mittens to find their owners.

A tattoo

So that brings us just about up to date on the challenge, and to the present moment, where I'm sitting trying to figure out what on earth to draw for today's challenge, something using 2 colours only. I'm also maaaayyyyybeeeee working towards an Etsy shop... And it maaayyyybeeee is live at www.etsy.com/ie/shop/korknykreations ........
If you want to keep up with my drawing challenge, my Instagram is @korkny and le boif's Instagram account is @surfbluestudios 

I'm open to requests, and I'm quite friendly so feel free to message on Instagram or comment on here!