Kate Ristau's Blog, page 32

Sad little guy: Drawing Dragons Day 118

I thought I’d try a sad little dragon, and I still haven’t found a pencil with an eraser. So here is what you get, with a little help from illustration school.

Don’t cry for me, little dragon. I’m doing fine.

Keep creating,

Kate

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Shapes that didn’t work: Drawing Dragons Day 117

I didn’t have an eraser, but I wanted to try some new shapes. I found them unnerving.

Keep creating anyway,

Kate

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Almost a Dragon: Drawing Dragons Day 116

So close!

Keep creating,

Kate

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Not a Dragon: Not Drawing Dragons Day 115

Nope.

Keep creating anyway,

Kate

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Lift a claw: Drawing Dragons Day 114

Well, that day happened. So much of everything was thrown into it, but I’m here, on the other side of the day, sending you this dragon I drew. One claw took way too long; the other claw took me off the page.

This is how things go sometimes; blessings mixed with frustration.

Keep creating,

Kate

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Sketching: Drawing Dragons Day 113

I suppose that artists choose their work — that not every piece is mastery, so when the lines start coming together, they focus in and fall in, developing the shapes and shadows that they love.

Since I’m drawing every day, and have no real idea what I am doing. this is not always the case. More often, a piece comes together, or falls apart in the end. I have a vision of where it might go, and somehow it arrives somewhere completely unexpected.

In other words, we’ll see where this one goes.

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Well, that’s just great: Drawing Dragons Day 112

Seriously, she just came together. One of my very favorite dragons. I should say something profound to commemorate this moment.

She reminds me of the feeling of eating a lollipop.

That is all.

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19 years later: Drawing Dragons Day 111

19 years ago, I started dating this blond-haired boy. He had a deep voice and a funny smile. He was quick with a joke. He liked gatorade and Chips Ahoy.

We began our relationship with a contract, set in very specific terms. We accidentally left it on the choir teacher’s desk. I still imagine our choir director picking up that piece of notebook paper and wondering about these kids who were already making promises to each other: she would kill all the spiders. He would let her wear hats.

How could we have known the journey we were on, the way we would change in each other’s eyes, and the way this day would feel 19 years later? Busy. Big. Impossible. Small. Just right.

Loving him isn’t complicated; it’s like coming home. And I’m sure there are a billion better ways to say it, but really, he just makes me happy.

And he drives me a little crazy too. Just enough to keep me on my toes, to make me aware how lucky I am, in the quiet of a Saturday night or the bustle to find shoes and car keys.

He makes sense to me.

And in a world where things are way more dramatic and big and fluffy and ugly and weird and wild and uncomfortable, well, that is more than enough: to have someone you understand, and can see spending 19 more years with.

So here’s a dragon that feels like 19 — smooth and comfortable and all the right lines but still needing a little more work.

The feeling is there. The lines will change with the years, as we continuously relearn who were are together and how we can love each other better and bigger.

I didn’t believe it at 17 — our love was as big as it could get — but I can see it now. There’s so much more in front of us.

So keep creating,

Kate

 

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Aint no thang: Drawing Dragons Day 110

I’m starting with the dragon so you have no preconceived notions here. I want to draw that round head, but it is totes not working out, yo.

I was trying to drag a dragon, but I’m pretty sure I just drew a chicken with horns.

And feathers.

Fly away, little chicken, and keep creating,

Kate

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Friar Dragon: Drawing Dragons Day 109

So, I think what’s happening here is a bit too much of everything. I wanted to figure out the round-headed dragon, and I wanted to do a profile, and apparently, my subconscious wanted to see Friar Tuck as a dragon.

Keep creating,

Kate

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