642 Things to Draw

The By-Product will achieve its tenth year early in 2018, believe it or not! It has more than 3000 distinct images and with a few interruptions has been posted every day. So many things to draw....am I running out of vintage art, and am I running out of ideas to draw? Or "reality" things to draw, how many wastebaskets or wine glasses can I depict? I found an answer in what might be called a "play sketchbook" for artists. It's called "642 Things to Draw" and I found it on the "art inspiration" table at Plaza Arts. Each page of this chunky book has one or two places reserved for drawings, and at the top is the art  prompt word. My opportunity is to make a drawing inspired by the word. At first I was sniffy about it, since Real Professional Artists don't need kiddie prompts to get ideas. But then, why not. So I now have 642 places to put a clever sketch, each with a different prompt word. Many of the prompts are ordinary things like "salt shaker," or "spiral bound notebook," but others are fanciful. I intend to be fanciful all the way through, using the prompt to do visual puns, funny stuff, scary stuff, cartoons, twisted little draws, and surrealism.

I still have plenty of vintage art to scan and show, so you will never be rid of my fan art. I will also be doing plenty more Geometrika. I'm not giving up reality drawings either. My drawings from 642 will be identified as "642" and since every page is more or less the same size (7" x 9") I'll just quote the prompt word and maybe say a little about the drawing. Here the prompt word is "Footprints." Something is happening to the human who is making these footprints. What is it? The line is part of the divider between two prompt areas.

So get ready for creativity and feel free to comment. The "642" book is published by Chronicle Books in (where else?) San Francisco.