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@robinboyd, really beautiful work! I really love the one with the stone (?) in it. Lapidary? I’ve never even heard of that, but it sounds neat! 😅
@muzikmama, that method of drawing faces using the lines is a really great way to practice proportions and getting a sense of facial structure and facial features and things like that. I definitely have practiced drawing faces like that before a lot, partly because it’s really fun to do. 😅
So, I have done that, but when I’m drawing a portrait I want to finish, I look a lot at the “negative space” to get a sense of how big to draw the overall figure, which is just basically the background; the distance between the edge of the drawing and where the figure starts. It’s hard to explain, hopefully that makes sense. 😅
There are also other ways you can measure, like using a pencil as a guide. This video explains it super well: https://youtu.be/BavOGXGcR1o?si=MDM0THJtbaFYPB6g
I also do that, but after a while of measuring that way, you get better and better at imagining those lines without using a pencil, but it can always be good to check if you want to be sure, especially when you’re first starting the drawing. Thank you for saying I have a good eye, I love to draw, I should do it more, too. 😅
With the uke strings, that’s a good example why measuring the proportions initially can be so helpful. But I think your drawing turned out very lovely. I think it’s true that a drawing can still be really great even if it doesn’t exactly match the reference. That’s part of what makes visual art fun, too, is that you can modify in that way. The same goes for playing uke.
Oil pastels are tricky. Kind of better for looser drawing styles IMO. Another thing you can try is charcoal and charcoal pencils. They come in black and white and in color. They can be really fun but really messy. 😂
Here’s my uke edited to look like a sleep paralysis demon, trying to bring this back to uke (haven’t finished the other uke drawings yet, lol):
@abster, agreed with everyone else, such amazing talent in someone so young! Beautiful playing. Such a gift and so precious indeed. 😊❤️🎄💚🎀❄️ Happy Holidays to you and everyone else here, all the other performances were so beautiful, too! 😊
@robinboyd, that’s so cool! Awesome that you don’t have to tote unfired pots and things around and you can do it at home! Maybe at some point you could take pictures of your setup or at least more of your work! 😁
@muzikmama, haha, no worries about that! My technical knowledge about pretty much all of my creative hobbies is surely lacking compared to a lot of people. I kind of go more based on feel and replicating what I see with most creative things. I think it’s totally okay if you stray from the reference; I actually think that’s really cool. Ha yes photorealism is a w totally different challenge. 😂 I think that’s a good brand of colored pencils. They are tricky though because they can be waxy and it can be harder to get fuller colors. Ha thank you so much for that! Visual art is just another thing I love to do. 😂
Haha! For a second that seemed right. That is kind of a pianolele. I saw a guy on YouTube who made an actual pianolele, wonder if I can find that.
Same!! Anyone can share their art here even if it isn’t directly uke related. Or other things too like @robinboyd shared. Doesn’t just have to be drawing or painting. 😊
@muzikmama, that is so beautiful! I think you did really great adding color. That definitely adds another level of difficulty, always, because then you’re not just thinking of value, but color-matching and things like that. 😅 What kind of pencils are you using? Another thing you can do, carefully, is add more pressure to make the values darker. I would practice doing that on separate sheet if you haven’t done that very much before though. Try going from the lightest pressure to the hardest you can get (without hurting yourself or the pencil). 😂 You can do that in a scale from the lightest pressure to the hardest, as if you’re shading in a rectangle (if you don’t know what I mean, I can send a sample). That’s just my thoughts on that, since I’ve done a fair amount of drawing in my life… most of my life in fact, though I stopped for long periods here and there due to reasons. I hope you don’t mind me suggesting that, but that’s one thing I learned from taking art classes in high school and experience, is how to get a range of value. 😂 But the form you created is so, so good. It’s perfect. So many people struggle drawing people and getting things like proportions correct and you nailed it. 😅
I think I love both equally, digital and traditional mediums. I’ve kind of gone through phases of doing both, depending on what I’ve had going on in life. Digital is great because it’s practically way easier to do, you have all the tools right in front of you with no mess. I really just haven’t had the space to draw with traditional mediums for a while but hopefully that’ll change very soon.
Look forward to sharing / seeing more! This is such a fun side tangent that we’ve managed to link to uke playing. I do think one creative outlet can enhance another. 😅
@leb397, ha! Thank you for saying so. Perhaps you’re right. 😂💕 And thank you! I’ll share the other two ideas once they exist, of course. But now I actually have three ideas… 😅
But here’s the other thing I already had finished. The story behind it is, one day when I was thinking about all the different “ukulele combo” instruments, such as a banjolele and guitarlele, it got me wondering what a pianolele would be like, since I played piano for a large chunk of my life and wish that such an instrument existed. 😅 Hence, I created this prototype of the “pianolele.”
Attached: first, a closeup of what the top looks like; and, second, is how it would be played, by standing atop a small staircase and tilting it against yourself. All very realistic and safe. 😂😅
I sent this to Matt a while ago (I’ve sent him too many bizarre things) and he said that the keys should be the same notes as a ukulele, which was my biggest mistake: I had all 88 notes of a piano broken up into four 22-key sections, but again he was right; it’s missing too much of the “ukulele” half of the instrument.
I have too much time on my hands. I know that. 😂😳
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I realized I didn’t answer you fully earlier, @muzikmama, I do the digital drawings freehand. When I’m drawing with real pencils, I have used a grid before to map things out better, but it’s still all freehand. No tracing, but it’s totally fine if anyone draws that way, obvs. 😅
@muzikmama, that drawing is gorgeous! Very well done indeed. Do you keep it a sketch or ever add color to it? Again, really well done! How often do you draw?
Thank you so much! In some ways digital drawing is easier. It can be easier to keep the drawing clean and yourself clean. 😅 But it has limitations too, like having less control over the “material” and drawing tools in some ways, such as delicate/more refined pressure control that you’d have with your hand and a pencil. I’m sure there are drawing programs now that are a lot like drawing with a physical pencil or brush and look super realistic, but I still love MS Paint too much. 😅 I use the touchpad on my laptop to draw or my finger on the touch screen, but I’ve been thinking of getting a pen tablet sometime, hopefully soon. Thank you again for sharing! 😊
@leb397, thank you so much, my friend! 😅💕 When you’re an introvert and single most of your life, you get to have a lot of hobbies. 😅😂 At least I have. I have more besides even the obvious two. 😅Oh I was going to say that I have a few more ukulele-related arts to share soon. Two of which are just ideas, one already exists but I don’t have it on hand. 😅
@robinboyd, ha, thank you! I also sent the comic to Matt, but I’m not sure if he’s seen it yet. Not sure if it’s clear but it’s suppose to be him in the comic with the slug. 😅
That is so beautiful! I love that. Do you have a wheel and such at home? Do you take it somewhere to fire it? I’d be pretty surprised if you had a kiln, but it’s not impossible. 😂 I’d love to see more pictures if you have them! I actually remembered you specifically saying you did pottery, so it’s funny that you posted, lol. Thank you for sharing! 😊
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I already posted a few of my paintings in the December challenge thread awkwardly (sorry), so I’ll share a few more of my digital drawings here:
1. Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins
(Done in a Facebook drawing program that no longer exists called “Graffiti”)2. Audrey Hepburn
(Done in the old version of MS Paint)3. Strawberry
(Done in the slightly newer version of MS Paint)MS Paint is just a generic drawing program that comes with Windows that sometimes allows you to draw pixel by pixel, but I love it because it’s very simple. Also I already posted the strawberry, but I can’t remember where. Now all the drawings / art will be in one place. 😅
@muzikmama, thank you so much about the balloon! I’m pretty proud of that one. 😅I created a thread for art in the forum “uke talk”! And I figured out a way to connect it to uke-playing (explained in the thread I created). 😂 You should totes break out the paint! I think it’s cool to see the other artistic things people here do. You can share any drawings you have there, too, I’d love to see them! I’m sure others would too. 😊
@johanna2509, so true! Playing with just the thumb is such a beautiful and delicate way to play and it also suits the kind of arrangements Matt creates so well, as he often includes rubato–All things I also love about playing uke. 😊 And yes, honestly it’s way more comfortable than using the index finger to strum (for me). 😅 You always play with that approach so gracefully, beautiful to hear!
That’s a really great way to think of recording, as practice sessions. I like to listen back to recordings, like I said, because then you can really see issues you’re having with certain parts of the song that you may not realize in the moment as you’re playing. It’s weird how that works. 😅
Thank you very much about the painting! I’ve only done maybe… 8 paintings ever, I’ve mostly done drawing with charcoal, pastels, and digital drawings. I thought about creating a topic where we could share our visual art but I don’t know if that’s too off topic, as this is a uke site. 😅😂😳 I love to draw reflections, it’s very fun. I posted this somewhere else here, but this is a painting I did of a balloon, one of a fall sky, and a digital drawing I did of a strawberry. I’d like to see some of your paintings if you wouldn’t mind sharing! 😅
@leb397, it is very pretty here. My family and I have referred to it as “The Shire” of the US (like from The Lord of the Rings) because it is indeed very green, pure, and peaceful here. 😅 I’ve never been to Connecticut, but have a weird fixation on the poetry lectures from Yale University and just all the poets who lived in that general region: Frost, Poe, Dickinson, and others. And I lived in PA for a few years and have been to NYC multiple times for… reasons. It’s cool that you’ve been camping in almost every state. Now I wonder if you plan to camp in / visit Idaho? Seems a shame that you’re just missing that one. 😅
@johanna2509, that was so lovely! Literally perfect to my ears. It is funny that you’ve never heard the song, but you did such a beautiful job with it. Agreed I love that style of arrangement/thumb-strumming Matt does. After I first saw him do that, it quickly became one of my favorite ways to play, too. 😊
I agree with your and @leb397 ‘s statements about recording. It’s smart that you take a break when the recording is just not working. That isn’t productive then. I also do that when my anxiety with recording is interfering too much.
@madz_about_uke, very lovely take! Agreed with @leb397 that it’s impressive how calm and focused you are, even with distractions. 😅And one more note to @leb397, I don’t know if I’ve said, but I’m from Wisconsin, USA, the land of cheese and cows and Midwestern spirit, man. I went as a cow trick-o’-treating with my nieces and nephew this last Halloween. It was udderly ridiculous. 😉😅
This topic is always fun! All three goals I set for this year did pretty much happen, plus so much more, which I never really expected. All “with a lot of help from my uke friends.” So, I’d best choose these goals carefully… 😅
1. Learn to strum well enough to *teach* a capuchin monkey how to strum. Learn 3 strummin’ techniques.
2. Try to create one ukulele recording–Just one–That doesn’t sound like it was recorded underwater or like a synthesized Playskool uke being heard through a paper cup.
3. Create one non-“basement”-y ukulele tab that includes what the chords are and the correct measures. Terrifying…
Bonus: A whole *cough* year later, finish that blog. 😅🤐
Thank you to RC101 again for a beautiful year of ukulele fun! And Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays! 💚🎄❤️🎀❤️🎄💚
@muzikmama, hahaha!!! The contrast there is pretty beautiful, but I will say this arrangement is pretty simple. 😂😅 Thank you very much! Hopefully I can get at least that section written down pretty soon so I can share it.
I was going to say in reply to your comment in the challenge thread, that I thought you called the ornament a bauble, unless that’s for that specific kind of ornament. 😅
Also, I attached the balloon painting I did last summer. That conversation spurred me to take a picture of some of my paintings. 😅
@muzikmama, agreed! That’s part of what I love about these challenges is how they get you outside your comfort zone. Thank you so much for liking my “bauble” painting! 😂 I was confused for a second. Maybe it’s obvious but I don’t know where you’re from; in America they’re usually called “ornaments.” I love hearing different vernacular like that. 😂 And so true! For those who don’t paint or draw often, drawing a perfect circle or sphere is hard. I picked that reference because I liked the pretty reflections and colors. 😂 But yes thanks! 😊
@leb397, very, very lovely playing, friend! 😊💕 And @planetfink, too! Agreed Matt’s arrangement is so beautiful. 😊@nat-uke, it shall always be special, Aura Lee, also because I feel like I’ve grown so much with my playing since then because of RC101 and gotten to know some of the people here more. 😊💕 That’s really smart that you do that, record your practices. That is a good motivator and is so encouraging to see how far you go with a song. And honestly it can be helpful to record yourself and play back that take immediately, as well, because for some reason that does help you see what you’re playing more objectively and you can see issues you’re having that you don’t even realize you’re having. 😅 For me and I know for others, it can be a challenge dealing with the anxiety of recording, so I’ve tried a lot of different things to work through that, many of which were suggestions from people here. Yes, just doing it more can help though. 😅
@deadbuggy, very lovely take!@muzikmama, lovely playing and ha, definitely a different sound to that song! 😅😂
