Most of us feel like we don’t sketch or draw enough, but making a goal to “draw more” is completely unachievable. When do you know you have reached “more?” It puts too much pressure on you without giving you a solid goal to work towards.

I often feel like I need to “draw more.” I’ve never been a big doodler and often my own self-consciousness gets in the way of my sketching.

So, I’ve made a new rule for myself to assist in “drawing more” and to force myself to get past this strange self-consciousness about drawings that I don’t have to show anyone, ever. This is the rule:

If you are feeling bored, you must grab some paper and draw until you’re not bored anymore.

I want to be the kind of person who draws at every free moment. I’m not right now so, at the very least, I can get rid of any excuse to be bored and get more drawing time in.

I’ve made one other drawing rule:

You will NOT purchase fancy, expensive sketchbooks ever again.

With the exception of the Moleskine that I happen to have with me today, this rule is designed to help me get over any hesitance in my sketching. Buying an expensive Moleskine or other fancy sketchbook with thick paper and a nice hard cover only serves to make your sketching seem more precious. Sketching should never be precious!

Your sketchbook should be something that you carry everywhere with you. Something that gets beat up and abused from being carried around everywhere. The pages should be a mess. This is the goal for me, at least.

I’ve always had a passion for drawing but not really a passion for sketching and doodling. It’s time that fire was ignited for my own enjoyment and for the improvement of my illustration.

What does your sketchbook look like?

A few weeks ago I posted this illustration for The New Yorker’s 2012 Eustace Tilley Book-Bag Contest. In mid-January I learned that I was chosen as 1 of the 12 winners! My work won’t be on a Strand bag, but it is currently up on The New Yorker’s site and you can read their blog post about the winners here.

This is a piece I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. My first intent was to create an illustration with a bicycle since I’ve never really drawn one before. I also wanted to create a very dramatic composition with equally dramatic lighting. Getting the right amount of color and contrast is something I have to work very hard at, so it’s nice to see those skills improving.

I may use this as a promotional piece at some point but I’m contemplating options other than just postcards.

This piece is available as a print from Society6.

]]> http://michellekondrich.com/2012/01/great-escape/feed/ 1 http://michellekondrich.com/2012/01/sylvester-magic-pebble-by-michelle-kondrich-age-7/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sylvester-magic-pebble-by-michelle-kondrich-age-7 http://michellekondrich.com/2012/01/sylvester-magic-pebble-by-michelle-kondrich-age-7/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:19:57 +0000 mschrad http://michellekondrich.com/?p=1291

On a recent trip to my parents’ house I discovered this illustrated short story that I wrote in the third grade. I don’t have a lot of old examples of things like this that I created as a child so I was excited to find it. I also found an in-class journal from the same year that is quite amusing.

It’s a very convenient story and I make the mistake of switching tenses halfway through, but I sure wrapped it up neatly at the end! I’m not entirely sure who is who in the illustration other than Poochie, who I am assuming is the poodle.

I’ll post some of the journal pages at some point. I didn’t remember being so sure that I wanted to be an artist, but the journal proves otherwise.

What kind of drawings and/or stories did you create as a child?

These are some food illustrations that I did for AIGA Colorado’s Heart Art fundraiser in Denver. It’s the first time I really focused on particular dishes for an illustration and I am pleased with how they came out. The above piece is a seared pork tenderloin dish. Below is a seafood pastry and chocolate hazelnut pancakes.

Poor Eustace. Due to a slowing economy and high unemployment rate he was forced to leave his position at The New Yorker and take a job as a barista at a local coffee house.

Last night, just under the wire, I submitted this piece to The New Yorker’s 2012 Eustace Tilley Book-Bag Contest. I don’t normally enter many contests, mainly because they tend to charge high entrance fees and/or the retain the rights to the work regardless of whether or not you win. This contest was free to enter and they only keep the rights to use the image to promote the contest. Anything else and they pay you.

Anyway, I saw the announcement for the contest last week and thought it would be fun to try. Not to mention my work could potentially be seen by AD’s and Editors at The New Yorker.

Even if I’m not one of the winners, I’m quite proud of this piece. I only wish I could have found a decent sized example of the title logo so it could look a bit more authentic. I’m confident that the people at The New Yorker can imagine what that would look like, though.

Do you enter contests? Which ones have you found to be worth the entry fee?

The desk is 5′ wide and 2′ deep and half the table has the ability to tilt up to 45 degrees. It came to me unfinished so I stained it and varnished the top at home. I plan to varnish the entire desk, but right now it’s too cold to have all the windows and door open long enough for the whole thing to dry. In the spring we’ll do the rest.

In addition to the drafting side, it als has a very deep drawer that is the same width as the desk.

As you can see, the drawer can hold a lot of stuff, including two 11×17 pads of bristol side-by-side. Now all my works-in-progress and finished line drawings will have somewhere to live until I’m ready to really store them.

I haven’t finished decorating the wall area yet and I still have some organizing to do. Some of those boxes won’t be on the floor and there will be another little set of drawers on the left-side. Overall it will be much neater than my old set-up which was a computer desk and a separate drawing table, neither of which had much in the way of storage. We still need to get some shelves for our closet so I can store lots of stuff in there as well. I’m an adult now – it’s time to get rid of all the clutter! Or at least make it look organized.

The carpenter who built this for me, Roudy Clapper, did such fabulous work. He even built it so that the legs can come off, which was essential to fitting it in the back of our little Honda Insight. He said that he had a great time building it and enjoyed the challenge of doing something he’d never done before. I provided him with a sketch and a description of what I wanted and he took it from there.

He is absolutely interested in building more of these, so if you are interested you can contact me. He is located in rural Nebraska so if you aren’t near there you’ll have to work out shipping with him. He may also be able to sell his plans if you would like to build one yourself. Obviously the height and the size can be totally customized to fit you and your needs.

I’ve only been using it since last night, but so far I feel more awake at the desk than I do if I’m slouching in front of the computer. I definitely need to get a stool and a mat to stand on since I’m not used to standing all day. I’ll update this post with a full review in a few months.

Also, doesn’t it look great?

Fo an example of another, more do-it-yourself desk check out Chris Oatley’s.

Late last year I was asked to create a cover illustration for EBS London, Regent’s College London’s alumni magazine. It was a food and drink special with the tagline ‘The Ingredients of Success.” They loved the spaghetti and meatballs idea and provided the words they wanted to include within the pasta. They were such a pleasure to work with and I was thrilled to be working on my first cover. Below is a larger image of just the illustration.