Day Two Hundred Fifty Six

It’s been a lazy Saturday so far.

Spent the morning (okay, early afternoon) hours playing dj...working my way through the jazz, folk and blues portion of my vinyl collection. It’s cloudy today and cool enough to have the doors and windows open; I think it’ll be a splendid afternoon/evening.

I wanted to do this post earlier than usual because I felt some drawing inspiration coming along, and because I have a feeling I won’t have much time later on.

Possibly shooting the Buskerfest tonight-I highly recommend stopping by and checking out some of the acts.

Now, it’s business time.

I found an old, loose page from the dictionary that had been torn out and left at the bottom of a seldom-used backpack this morning, and decided to use it to find today’s word. It had quite a few really great ones, but I settled upon one that I could really talk about and that left the possibilities somewhat open in terms of subjects to illustrate.

glim-mer n. A faint suggestion; an indication; a dim unsteady light. v. To give off a faint or dim light.

So, I decided not to think it over to much-just to begin drawing. I had the vague idea of wanting a more darkly styled, filled-in illustration...but specific plans were not coming to me. I think I’ll just post the piece first, and work on explaining it after...

Alright, so, after the first character had been laid on the page, I began to think about various uses for the word glimmer. I liked the first part of the definition: “a faint suggestion; an indication” and decided, because the character seemed to be watching; almost waiting, that I’d have him catching just a glimpse of something (or someone).

The idea of subtle, fleeting things really appeals to me, especially lately.  I’m not sure why...but I’ve been especially focused recently on details and small moments in both art and life. I think that there are so many things that most people never see; we tend to take in a generalized version of the world (there’s so much of the world to take in...I think it makes it easier to skip over most things and only focus on the large events/objects/concerns) in our everyday lives.

I want to get away from that, especially as an artist, I think it’s incredibly important to not only pay attention to the things around you, but to really process them. To take as much of your surroundings in as possible and appreciate them.

After some practice, everything seems to be so much richer.

Xx

r