“You can’t always paint what you see—sometimes you must paint what the picture needs.”
I've decided I need a project.
Specifically a sketching project.
While I've (mostly) kept up my sketch-a-day habit since November, I still struggle sometimes with not feeling inspired, not seeing the everyday with new eyes, looking around and still not seeing anything sketch-worthy.
I could approach my sketching like John Singer Sargent, who would not go in search of some exalted thing to sketch, but would just take a seat wherever and start drawing what was in front of him.
I'm open to that.
But I also like the idea of having a project.
Like Roz Wound Up who has been using the Sktchy app's muses to do a series of funky portraits. Lots of bearded men there.
Or Liz Steel who has a thing for teacups and often sketches her daily latte.
Or Danny Gregory, whose book, Art Before Breakfast, gives as an exercise sketching the same view out the window every day for a week. And who also offers the Every Day Matters Challenge--a list of 365 objects to sketch over the course of a year.
Or, one of my personal favorites, Suhita Shirodkar's Vintage Signs of San Diego series. Funkadelic!
When I first started my daily sketching habit, I did a series of morning skies as seen from my kitchen window. It was teaching me a lot about how watercolor behaves...an elusive skill to master. And it was a great way to start the day, noticing what's beautiful, playing with color, appreciating the magic of watercolor meeting and mingling on the page.
I'm uncommitted to that idea. So I'm still in search of a project. Still waiting for my project to find me.