Week 7 // Making Art Everyday // Year Two • Bardot Brush

Week Seven

As part of your daily art practice, there are going to be some pieces you create that you just don’t like. Maybe it didn’t come out the way you imagined in your head. Maybe you’re a developing artist and you’re still working on your drawing skills. Maybe it just looks…off. Whatever the reason, you finish the day feeling a little disappointed with what you made.

1. This is COMPLETELY NORMAL and a part of the creative process.

2. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn something!

When you find yourself unsatisfied with your art and feeling discouraged, here’s what you do: look at your piece and say, “I like this ONE THING.” Pick out one thing. It could be the way those two colors look next to each other. It might be the look of that one brush stroke. Maybe you liked the way you approached shading that day. Or the way you depicted the texture of one particular part of your drawing. Perhaps it’s the way you drew that nose, or that leaf, or that or that background. Identify that ONE THING…then use it again in another drawing!

Most of the time, this process of re-using small wins is happening without you even noticing. If you look back through old work, you might even be able to identify the first time you started drawing something a certain way. It’s pretty cool once you start noticing!

If at the end of the day, you discover just ONE thing about your art or about yourself as an artist, that is a HUGE WIN.

What to Do

It’s normal to want to avoid sharing the work we aren’t proud of. This week if you make something you aren’t happy with, I encourage you to share anyway (especially in a safe, supportive space like the MAE Facebook Group), and talk about the ONE THING you DO like about your piece.
Go back and look at some your old work. Look for ONE THING about each piece that you really like. Maybe even look for things you find yourself using again to this day!

February Prompts

Unusual Animals

This week we’ll be drawing animals doing actions that they don’t usually do. Each day this week pairs an animal with a more “human” activity for you to depict it doing. A great way to approach this is to study both the way the animal looks and the pose needed to do the activity. I made you a quick tutorial about the process which I used to illustrate Thursday’s prompt “gorilla + ballet”!

If the animal of the day isn’t your fav, feel free to switch it up to a different animal. Remember, these prompts are designed to inspire you and you can customize them any way you’d like! The whole point is just to get you making art. It’s pretty fun to imagine animals doing people stuff, and even more fun to bring them to life through art! Can’t wait to see your animals this week!

Week 7 | Feb 10-16

Animals in Action

Mon: chicken + surfing
Tue: hippo + makeup
Wed: octopus + cooking
Thu: gorilla + ballet
Fri: otter + kissing
Sat: koala + crying
Sun: frog + painting

You can access each week’s prompts at makingarteveryday.com

Making Art Everyday // Bardot Brush

We’ve got a Facebook group just for participants of Making Art Everyday and all things Bardot Brush! Come join our group of supportive artists of all skill levels, share your work, ask questions, and be a part of the community!