day #365 - the end of an era

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I thought I was on top of it; I had finished early and was looking for a movie to watch already 3 hours ago. And I don't know how time went by. A phonecall, some networking studying, some online shopping and here we are, already past the time for an early movie. Regardless, today is a special day. The blog is over! I finished 365 days of daily painting and recording it, whatever that means. A big part of the process I will have to keep doing mainly for myself. Perhaps taking daily photos of my work and saving it on some folder. This has provem useful many times when I trying to date a piece I've been working on. Also making a small diary of today's achievements. It's still useful. But this will be done for my eyes only. I also don't know if I will be continuing my obsessively daily painting. How would life be if I had days off? Now for example that I'm moving out and I have to daily chores that until now were completely taken care of, perhaps I'll allow my
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day #1 - ink drawing

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How does this make me feel? It describes this blog wonderfully. I wasn't to eager to draw, paint or practice today; not after a long stressful day. I chose to do something with ink; start with a few random strokes, nice dynamic brushwork and intense black and sometimes this combination ignites something. There is beauty in glossy black, and I love brushes.
I was hopeful (and fearful) this time too. The first strokes were the bold ones. Then I started discovering this female form and the fur.
Nothing went terribly wrong; no catastrophic accident, no elevating happy discovery either. No flow, and no drag. It turned out equal parts confused and mildly interesting composition.
I mostly don't feel aversion towards it. At times (if I let my eyes wander) I start loathing the composition and lack of three-dimensionality, but if I focus on anything in particular, it all settles down. As long as I am vigilant, I can live with the confusion on the paper.
I  keep all sorts of materials inside boxes. Yesterday I started a new, (or rather very old sketchbook) that I had. I had it before I discovered premium notebooks such as the moleskine or leuchtturn1912 and the specialty sketchbooks for watercolors, for alcohol markers and so forth. I remember wanting to give it away at some point - the paper would bleed, it was thin and yellowish and no match to a moleskine, let alone a leuchtturm. But now, I was relieved to find that this cheap notebook, is takes all the pressure away from making nice art. Painting carefree on my iPad is even cheaper, but then again, filling (and feeling) a sketchbook, has so much more satisfaction than merely filling hard-drives with pretty pictures.
I've wanted to be a practical person all my life, but I've found working on the iPad to be productive and occasionally flow-inducing, yet, it feeds on artistic desire/momentum, but doesn't replenish it. But more on the topic another time. There will be; it's something I keep forgetting.

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