Tag Archives: pen drawing

Whee

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It’s amazing how powerful the story we tell ourselves is.

I’ve always thought myself to be limited in terms of juggling family and art, and in someways I am; the structure of  Australian arts is not family friendlly .. That’s a whole other post I could write, I don’t really want to today, I want to focus on the positive 🙂

Over this last month I have pushed myself to get up very early and begin work. 5/ 5:30AM. I go to my studio and am scratching away with the inks or pushing paint around a board until the sun comes up and the birds are awake. I have completed three of my large drawings in under one month and finished four small paintings. I’ve still had some great times with Kidlet and friends. The house is a little messier than usual but hey – that’s summer holidays and life with a kid who is endlessly creating.

I am really proud of a lot of the work I have created. It’s dark, a little wild, silly, technically challenging. I am really proud of myself.

So hopefully I’ll have some news soon.

Whee

 

5AM period pain and drawing

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That title just about sums up my week so far. A lot of the unexpected keeps on happening and my body clock is all out of whack – daylight savings! Title of this post courtesy of waking up at 5AM in a lot of pain, with the cat jumping on my face and me finding off the drawing above.

I’m working on bigger drawings but needed a little break from them so decided to do a little series like some of Dürer’s hand studies. He is a favourite artist of mine, I thought of two things while researching him recently.

1.) In the past it was perfectly acceptable for an artist to draw, etch, paint, sculpt, woodwork etc while these days I feel the pressure to do ONE or the OTHER.

2.) MASTER artist is definitely a word reserved for male artists.

Yesterday I had a very big day in Melbourne looking at a lot of art. I really want to write about that but my thoughts are still formulating also I am running out of time as today is also a big day and then Friday I will DO NOTHING.

 

Weekend in drawings

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Daughter wants to go to a birthdya party dressed up as a fridge.

 

 

Little puppy that we a minding for the week.

 

Went to see Aunty Marlene Gilson’s paintings at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and came across these two women who talked and looked for so long I thought I’d capture the moment with a quick drawing.

 

I’ve been having some struggles so gardening and quick drawing is bringing me back into focus and calming me down.

 

A tired, beautiful little face.

 

Not every drawing has to come out as you planned, not every drawing has to be ‘finished’. Art is such a unique window into the human experience – I have to remember that.

bird of paradise

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Earlier in the year I ran an observing nature drawing work shop at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Each class I would bring in seeds, flower and leaf samples. In the end, as it was getting colder and my flowers were not flowering I was sourcing from florists.

Teaching drawing is pretty amazing, but it’s also a battle as I just really want to sit down and draw too. I took in two birds of paradise flowers to the final class and decided to also draw it – after the class, of course 😛

This was months ago but I forgot about it and just came across it in my sketch book last week. I think it is pretty good.

Hand, study drawing

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Hand study 
By Lily Mae Martin
18x25cm
Ink on cotton paper
2018

 

I’ve identified an issue in my approach to drawing so I’ve been working on some little drawings to try and train myself out of it.

It’s super important to me to tweak my technical approach – I want to be better, keep getting better.

I feel I have a tendency to over render, which works with some things but not everything. It’s also taking up time that I could be doing much moer useful things in the works. So this little drawing is a success to me. It’s technically a study as it is a plan for a larger work, but I think it’s still an accomplished drawing in its own right. My plan is to send it down to Melbourne with the other small drawings I have made in a couple of weeks.

Just going to have a look at it again. Proud. Now onto the other work 🙂

 

 

Plaits

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Hello, it’s me again. Two in one day. It’s as if I am exploding with the drawing. I can’t stop, I won’t stop. I want to draw so many things but there are many lines and too few hours. Got to prioritize. I did this drawing this evening because it was important. I am so close to finishing a large work but I am also little burnt out from an emotional week. Drawings of my daughter are always a joy and I don’t need to think about anything other than my loves when doing this. That’s the priority.

June drawing times

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Well I’ve gotten past my little hissy fit and now back into the making of things. Being too much in my head and not just going with the hands isn’t good for The Practice.

So planning my days and things that need to get done and drawing for many. many hours is my life again. It’s good to be driven, have purpose and enjoy what the process.
Kidlet has been joining me for some drawing sessions too, there is nothing sweeter. So I did get a bit distracted from my Big Drawing to do a Small Drawing of her drawing. 😛


There’s a bunny in my studio, drawing a cookie-moon

And I’ll finish up with a self portrait – have a good weekend


Self portrait and house plant sketches

New work, Reawaken

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Reawaken
By Lily Mae Martin
56 x 76cm
Ink on paper
2018

I’m pretty pleased with this one, a merging of my two loves – the nude figure and the ( Tasmanian ) landscape.

I had these ideas a few months back, spoke to my model who ( bless her ) came over by my rather last minute request. I had frantically sketched out some poses and I am still learning how to direct people. I had been thinking about Poussin’s drawings and have always enjoyed how the figures seemed to drape.
My lecturer at VCA, Berhnard Sachs – had asked me what art I looked at during one of my tutes when I was an undergrad, I think I replied comic books. He then marched me down to the library and got me looking at the drawings of Poussin and others, he talked to me about chiaroscuro. I now look at everything; performance, the written word, the spoken word, photography, abstract, figurative, printmaking and yes, comics and zines. I think it’s importrant to observe as much as possible, outside of what you make, like to make, wish to make.

So here we are years later. I drape my model in a Poussin-type pose and have her balance on a plastic stool I had purchaed from a bargin shop some years back. I think it worked.

Little drawings ~

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I have been working a lot around and during life happenings, I have quite the collection of small drawings growing that I am very proud of.
Here are a few ~


A Portrait
19 x 14cm
Ink on paper
Lily Mae Martin
2017

I’m in love with this one – the cropping of the image, the fluffiness of the hair and the texture and tones of the skin.

19 x 14cm
Ink on paper
Lily Mae Martin
2017


Fold
19 x 14cm
Ink on paper
Lily Mae Martin
2017

I’ll put together a post of all of the drawings in a couple of months. It has been very interesting cropping the images to make new images from them and working on a smaller, more intimate scale. I am really glad that someone had mentioned the idea of working smaller as I am not sure I would have come to on my own. It’s been really challenging to change things up a bit and it really didn’t work at first! But I kept going and changing things and I am pretty happy with this little series.