Out of My Comfort Zone

One piece of artistic advice that I encounter is to not get stuck in your comfort zone -- if you keep drawing the same subjects or use the same materials or the same style all of the time, your work may start looking stale and predictable.

Recently I took an online class where I did learn a couple of new techniques that freshened up my work a little.  I'd like to do that again soon.

Then there's subject matter -- you know I prefer natural environments and avoid people and manmade stuff -- but hey, look -- I branched out on Saturday!

The Northend Sketchers ventured south to Tacoma to the LeMay Car Museum (that's Tina and Nicole strolling past the cars above).  Tina has a membership and I had two free passes for me and Nicole, so the only thing we paid for was lunch.  Yay!

My first effort was this car that attracted me with its brilliant yellow and the fact that there was a bench nearby.

After walking around looking at the many huge floors of cars, plus drawing the one above, I got hungry.  We all met up at the cafe on the mezzanine level, and while waiting for our food, I sketched the trucks on the level below.

After lunch I found another handy bench from which I could view this fabulous motorcycle with sidecar:

For my last drawing, I found a display of old delivery trucks -- and ran out of room on the page on the right-hand side.  Oh, well.  So it goes!

Drawing vehicles was definitely outside my comfort zone.  All those straight lines and smooth curves and perfectly round tires (that wound up a bit wonky in m sketches at times) -- so different from the organic outdoors where, if I fudge a line on a tree branch or leaf, no one really notices. I had to be more careful and be more precise.  A fun outing all round!