Our Sweet Cate

I’m especially taken with this drawing.  It’s not often that I look at my own work and think: oh, who did that? I like coming back to my sketchbook to look at all the lines, both crosshatched and twirly.  I really love that combination in the line work.  I also love the areas that are left UNdrawn: the left side of her neck, her right arm, and the left side of the gift bag.  As you can tell, I’m really enjoying my trusty ball-point pen.  These days it’s the cheapy Bic in medium point that gets a work out here in the book of Sanity (a sketchbook I began just before Christmas to maintain some sense of sanity throughout the holidays and which I’m feeling the need for even more now that the holidays are over:/

I made these drawings from photos of our oldest daughter’s 16th birthday back in October.  Gosh, it seems so long ago now.  But only yesterday that she was a wee tiny baby smiling and laughing in my arms.  In this drawing, I cropped off a good bit of the photograph which included the card she was holding and reading.  Once again, I like what is left UNdrawn and all the twirly lines mixed in with the crosshatching.

Why is it that lines can fascinate someone so much?  I often wonder why I drift back into this way of drawing.  Recently I pulled out all my sketchbooks and began to see a pattern: when winter comes on, there are many more cross-hatch drawings.  I wonder if my delight in all the lines I see outside (barren trees) and the beautiful value patterns devoid of their usual riotous color, affects my drawings.  I must be drawn (hee hee:) to them in my sketchbook as well.

0 thoughts on “Our Sweet Cate

  1. rebeccastahr says:

    Love these drawings and the mood/ energy in them. The style is great. I tend to do the same as you with my line work and it is usually the ones that flow naturally and loopy like that which I am the most pleased with.

  2. ffyrebird says:

    I can see why you come back to this style- it is very lovely and expressive. It is very hard to leave something undrawn, but that is what gives magic and breathing room to these!!

  3. jenpedwards says:

    Oh me…it’s a wonderful thing when something you are really enjoying seems to be enjoyed by others as well! Thanks for all your kind comments!

  4. Timaree (freebird) says:

    I love all your lines. These make these drawings uniquely yours. I’ve looked at some artist’s ink sketching on EveryDayMatters and each one has their own uniqueness. It’s amazing what a simple pen can put out in an artist’s hand. I love your squiggles mixed with the crosshatching. You have a looseness to your work but you still get so much of the likeness of things you draw. It’s so amazing to me.

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