When I saw the assignment for last week's Daily Draw, my heart sank.  "Childhood Memories."  I don't have that many good childhood memories.  As an adult, years of therapy (individual, marriage, group) gradually helped me to "un-numb," grieve, and, as much as possible, move on.  These days, I find it is best to not dwell on the events of my childhood, except to answer a question or to help someone else know that they are not alone.  I did not relish this assignment.   But, I committed to do a drawing a day, based on the subject given. So, I plunged in.  I did  these drawings on the iPad, using the Sketch Club app, and doing some cropping and color editing with the Camera+ app.  I tried to find the positive memories.  

So first. I always read, voraciously.  The first drawing? I still have my old copy of Winnie-the-Pooh.  Not the Disney version, the original. A good memory.  And, second, I remembered playing in a pothole after a heavy rain with my best friend, Mary Elizabeth.  We were perhaps four years old.

The assignment had stirred up some bad memories, even tho I tried to focus on the positive.  I missed one day, due to emotional exhaustion, I suppose.  But, the next day, the last day, I found  one of the best memories.  I did the text below left using Sketch Club, which has a text setting. 

The current week's assignment: pick an object, draw it each day using a different technique/style.  I will post those drawings next week.  And, for your amusement., here is a Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial from 1953, the year before I was born:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSFIdYcClrs  

My favorite week of the Daily Draw Group: pick an album and do a drawing a day based on a different song title each day.  I picked Abbey Road, by the Beatles.  Usually, I prefer to draw from life.  I have the devil of a time trying to draw from my imagination.  I enjoyed this particular assignment, tho.  Here are my four favorites of that week, all done on the iPad, using the Sketch Club app, then editing in Camera+ and a few other photo-editing apps.

Yes, there were three others.  But, I'll stop here.  With my favorites.

I have come to peace with myself.  I am a draftsman.  My lofty goal is to meet the dictionary definition: "an artist exceptionally skilled in drawing."  I know the "Art World" considers drawings to be the least important, aka the least marketable of the arts.  If we just look at 2-D artworks, the Market hierarchy goes like this:  

Paintings are the most important.  Oil paintings first, acrylic second.  In general, Big is Better.

All other media pale in comparison.  Watercolor and pastel jockey around for second place, I suppose.  Printmaking -- intaglio, lithography, woodcut, silkscreen, etc. -- might come in third. Collage is in there somewhere.  But, drawings?  Pencil or ink on paper?  Smudgy charcoal?  Puh-leeeeeeze!  They aren't "finished"!

I am at peace, though.  What do I love to do?  I love to draw.  Do what you love.

Here is a recent drawing.  Done on my iPad, using the Sketch Club app, then editing in Camera+.