I don’t know about all of you but the news has me both distracted and discouraged. Combine that with my recent sinus infections and norovirus and well, I’ve been feeling a whole lot of, “Why bother?”

​Despite this I’m making art.

In times of crisis, I stay calm and get through it, then retreat into my art journal and art making processes. It soothes and heals me, to a point.

So I’ve been giving myself goals and challenges.

I’ve been practicing what I’m calling “blob people.” It’s a watercolor technique where you make, well, blobs and then use that blob shape to create people and crowds and individuals. I’ve watched a few videos on the technique and it’s deceptively easy. By which I mean, it’s not easy, at all.

It relies heavily on feeling confident in your brush strokes and marks. The media you use doesn’t matter as much as a confident brush stroke.

I’ve watched videos where people use collage and acrylics. Mostly I’ve focused on watching videos of the technique in watercolors.

It’s so simple, kind of a rectangular blob, dot, and a carroty shaped line at the bottom, add in a bit of grounding shadow and BOOM! Figure!

Except I’m hesitant.

Or was?
I’m less hesitant now than I was. As of this writing I’m about 20 images into my (self) challenge of making 100 figures/images with the blob people as a focal point. (I’m also 85 vehicles into my 100 vehicles challenge. I’m also at 38 out of 205 videos into #gesdrawparty.) There are things I’ve learned a long the way- where to place shadows and highlights, how to shape cast shadows, ways of making crowds that work, and many other things.

I’m attempting to bring y’all with me in this journey. I’m recording a lot of me making the images, which I’ve been unable to do with the vehicle challenge. Over the next month or so you’ll see how my approach to the images and figure changes. I’m also challenging myself to work from imagination or limited photographs and not from life. My practicing gesture drawing via Gesture Drawing Party has helped, though I have to say that most of the time, the way people pose for gesture drawing, is not based on anything you’ll see in real life. That doesn’t stop it from being fun.

Anyway, much like the other challenges I’ve taken part in or set for myself, I hope to do a wrap up video at the end where I discuss what I’ve learned.

The first video in the series is here: