What to draw when inspiration fails: January Daily Art

I’ve progressed through six weeks falling off the “daily art” wagon and climbing back on again, but I am now seeing that January’s effort at discipline in honing my craft is birthing that creative energy the dark days of December and January sapped. I added this motivational quote in my “Artist’s Daybook”

… the artisan understands that
when life is a work of art
when we value craft
when we embrace the elegance of workmanship
we experience the Divine.
— Edwin McManus The Artisan Soul

For inspiration, I turned to two art books that have been my constant craftsmanship companions throughout my career: The Artistic Anatomy of Trees by Rex Vicat Cole and Anatomy and Drawing by Victor Perard. The former was discovered in a college bookstore while I was studying studio art at Kent State. The latter came to me on recommendation of artist Judith Carducci, who shared during one of her figure painting workshops how she copied drawings from Cole’s book as a young girl. It certainly gave her a rock solid understanding of the bone and muscle structures underneath her portraits that make her colors and pastel work sing.

January was spent in efforts to copy something, anything from these books as the darkness all around me pretty much blanketed my imagination like wet snow over buried seed.

Lynda Rimke Daily Sketch Challenge copies of Victor Perard and Rex Vicat Cole & etc.

Now, in mid-February, I am feeling the energy of longer days, and am in a better place to act on what inspiration may come with more skill than before. But that will be the next blog post!