The Everything Project

Thankfully, this drawing assignment only had three sections - otherwise, I would have to go buy things to draw, which strikes me as slightly ridiculous.

More from J. - an essential oil diffuser on the left, a candle holder on the right, and in the middle - miniature bagpipes.

This exercise works better with things people are actually used to seeing.

As mentioned in the previous posting - I seem to have a shortage of irregularly shaped objects. I never really thought of myself as... symmetrical... before. But objects don't lie - I had to borrow stuff from J. to create the next two series of illustrations.

This one starts off with a stuffed bagpipe player (a gift to J. from my Aunt), and a silver deer (another gift, from his friend R.) And the strange triangle shape in the middle?

A baseball glove.

What, you couldn't tell?

Oh, and the deer's head hasn't exploded - he's wearing a large evergreen wreath.

Perhaps I need to find some things that are a bit LESS irregular.

I'll see what else J. has. Apparently all I have are books, and that's a completely different drawing exercise.

So, continuing on with the exercises from the Brian Curtis book - this one was to draw a lineup of objects "with distinct and irregular shapes, such as toys, plants, lamps".

It's been a while since I played around with silhouettes, and this was kind of fun - I went back over the drawing (originally done in newsprint ) in Photoshop to turn it into something that was truly black and white.

From left to right - a carved giraffe from Uganda, a red velvet Buddha bank (which I've drawn before), "Spike" the mascot of the Guelph Storm hockey team (the only mascot in the OHL with dreads!), an oil lamp that I've also drawn before, and another table lamp.

The reason I'm redrawing stuff? Apparently, I have very few "irregularly shaped" objects.

And I have two more set-ups to go... eeek.

I'm continuing with the exercises from Brian Curtis's book "Drawing from Observation" - this one is part of the exercise in drawing cubes in perspective.

And what kinds of cubes do I have? Books, of course!

The book set in the middle is a dictionary/thesaurus combo that was left behind by a departing co-worker (I guess they didn't need... ummm... words... at their new job). The other boxed set is my well worn hard cover copy of "The Lord of the Rings". And in the bottom left, (picked up at The Strand Book Store in NYC for 48 cents) "Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases" by (compiled by?) Grenville Kleiser, published in 1917.

Yes, it's 15,000 different phases that one may or may not find useful, broken into several categories:

Useful Phrases - "declamatory treatment", "legendary associations", "vacillating obedience"

Significant Phrases - "transfuse and irradiate" (how often is that likely to come up? Particularly in 1917?)

Felicitous Phrases: "urgent, tumultuous, and incomprehensible" (like many of these phrases)

Impressive Phrases:"fop, coxcomb, puppy, and jackanapes" (or, if you're txting, FCPJ.)

Business Phrases: "we have not had the pleasure of placing your name on our ledgers" (I still haven't figured out if that's a good thing or not...).

Literary Expressions: "a broad, complacent, admiring imbecility breathed from his nose and lips" (file under "insults unlikely to be understood by the insultee)

Conversational Phrases "Do not the circumstances justify it?" (it's difficult to imagine any circumstances justifying the phrases in this book)

Public-Speaking Phrases: "it is needless before this audience to repeat" (which undoubtably preceded an 40 minute repetition).

and the ever-popular :

Miscellaneous Phrases: "marvelous copiousness of illustration" (which you could certainly accuse this list of being).

I'll bet William Strunk HATED this book.

But I can still draw coffee cups. These are a few of our wildly eclectic collection.



Yes, I'm going with "eclectic", not "mismatched".


Done on 18 x 24 newsprint with an 8b pencil - part of an ongoing series of exercises from the book "Drawing From Observation" by Brian Curtis.

You be seeing more of these both here and on my web site: www.susanadsett.com