Friday Finds: I Like to Do Drawings

Two Christmases ago, my wife bought me a wonderful little book. It is page after page of possibility. It is called 642 Things to Draw, and really, its self-explanatory. After two years, I've drawn far too few of these things. I could have finished the book with a simple daily drawing by now. Guilting aside, the book has reminded me that (a) I like drawing and (b) I'm alright at it. My first drawing from the book's prompts, a rolling pin, is here.

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It wasn't long after I got that book that I got an iPad mini. And it wasn't long after that I downloaded the app Paper by 53. It's a very simple, incredibly intuitive program for drawing. Not a lot of options, just a few tools that work great and get out of the way.

I began using Paper to illustrate blog posts because it would take me about as long as finding or designing an image would. Here is the first drawing I did with Paper for this blog.

Arty sketch

When it came time to write letters for the Dear Edmonton blog, it just made sense to me to illustrate those letters and bring a little something unique, and something shareable on social media, to each letter. So far, I've done 12 of these drawings. I hope you enjoy the gallery below.

[gallery ids="727,728,729,730,731,732,733,734,735,736,737,738"]

My next project is an ambitious one, inspired by a far more ambitious project, All the Buildings in New York, where an illustrator has set out to draw every single building in New York. It's a fascinating, beautiful obsession.

My project, starting next week, is called Avenue Buildings. I'm drawing the buildings of Alberta Avenue on a tumblr blog. I'm going to start at 97 street and move my way down 118th Avenue towards Rexall Place. Or maybe I'll jump around. I won't draw every day, but I'll try for a couple of times a week. I'll do this until it stops being fun, because this project is all about fun for me.

So, do you do drawings? I'd love to see them. Share a link below.


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