Great work Danny. Yeah for slovenly! Liberate!

i had removed you from my e-mail,because i did not like what was happening to it, i started with you and went to your workshop a few years ago in AC and loved it. am sorry. maybe its because i love dan price and started with you because of him and your love for his stuff.
anyway am trying again and wish you all the best. "to they self mr true"

jim

I love this.

danny, you kill me. A puddle of drinking water on the sidewalk! my my. Are these your rebellious 'teen' years? Are you indeed, living backwards? Either way, I personally LOVE hearing from you and seeing what the hell your up to.

Danny, I completely agree and I feel as if I'm going through a same sort of passage.
Just to keep myself drawing and creating something everyday, I will use brush markers, pen and ink, various pencils, whatever tool happens to be near me at the moment or whatever whimsy takes hold. My drawings never seem consistent for this reason, I guess. I feel like I’m fumbling through. I do enjoy the doing, but I'm confused by the results. I tell myself I'm keeping practice. That no matter what I do, as long as I do it I'll improve myself in some way. How long will it take? Who knows, it’ll just take as long as it takes.
I always seem to hear a little bit of my own voice in yours, and that feels great – thanks for all that you do and share and put out there!

Hey, Danny!
I LIKE the immediacy and freshness of these lines and words! Anything that gets you back into drawing again with the freedom and delights of the immediate response to what you see is WONDERFUL in my book. I've been in that place too, where one gets so anal about putting down a perfect page that the drawing gets down to a trickle. You'll look back on these years later and re-experience all the things you were feeling when you did them.

Danny, rock on. I have spent years going through the same thing, thinking, "Now THIS is it, THIS is my perfect approach to art," just to think up another approach that woos me into trying new stuff a few weeks later. But isn't that what sketchbooks are all about? Serial monogamy isn't a requirement in art (even though it is be from a commercialistic POV). We CAN be polygamists if we just let ourselves be. Regardless, rock on with this irreverant, splashy approach and enjoy it for all it's worth.

My newest journal is big, about 8" x 12". Normally I would never use such a large journal because it's too big for my scanner. Now I've decided not to care. Its paper is pretty crummy, too,.....

But think how nice it will be some year to flake on the sofa, turning all the pages and remembering those days and those views and the freedom that you were feeling in the painting.

Wow! Saw these on the EDM SuperBlog and did not realize they were yours at first. They are strong, free, and beautiful.

Who is that on the left side of the building, above the trees, in the last drawing?

Danny, I'm a bigger (8x10) sketch book guy, but take heart, there are sketchbooks in those sizes with better (toothier, textured) paper.

Sketching with a brush suits you--and your style (grabbing sketchy snapshots of your town, NYC.) By-the-by, I just spoke and taught again at a writers conference in North Carolina (May '007) and asked the bookstore to have your "The Creative License" available as I am forever encouraging writers to be drawing and painting to enhance their powers of observation and add more joy of living to their lives. Of the half dozen books I recommended in my seminars (besides my own) the two that sold out first and quickest were "Make Your Creative Dreams Real" by SARK and your "TCL." I get emails from folks who are now drawing, painting, and some even taking a class here and there. Thanks for all you are doing to get the world drawing AGAIN (we ALL did it as kids, until schools take away our curiosity, and our crayons.

i like these drawings of yours best of all. i used chunky charcoal, cheap paper and 'i don't give a damn'attitude to truly enjoy drawing and turn out my best stuff. think i'll try the water and ink too.

Maybe your job is where you have to be predictable, where people know your style and come to you just for that.
Your sketch book is to be free to change and experiment and work in what ever style strikes you, at that time, at that moment. For "not caring".
Either way, I LOVE YOUR STUFF.

Dear Danny, It's nice that your readers appreciate and connect to your shared drawing experiences. I esp. appreciate how they seem to like you as you are, each day, each drawing. Sometimes it feels like there's too many critics in wour worlds and I find it very refreshing to hear from these kind, honest, respectful, appreciative fellow-art-people! you are lucky to have non-judgemental-types in your community.
pp

Dear Danny, It's nice that your readers appreciate and connect to your shared drawing experiences. I esp. appreciate how they seem to like you as you are, each day, each drawing. Sometimes it feels like there's too many critics in wour worlds and I find it very refreshing to hear from these kind, honest, respectful, appreciative fellow-art-people! you are lucky to have non-judgemental-types in your community.
pp

I know what you mean about not settling down to one style--I think it's much more freeing and fun to change gears sometimes and do something completely different! I also think it can make your other style, once you go back to it, more refreshing. Keep it up!

I'm new to you and the site. I just finished The Artistic License and I hope to get to the point where I will just use anything and everything to create. You're doing it and that's all that matters.
I agree with Kathleen, I too love the "immediacy and freshness of these lines and words." I'm from NYC, born & raised (now living in NC), you capture it beautifully. It makes me homesick.

Danny - I too have become so damn tight with my journal sketching. I think I have been keeping the idea in the back of my mind that "one day" I could use them for something, so they needed to be perfedct. (Thus losing the freshness of spontaneous sketching.) I LOVE these big lose drawings of yours. You just inspired me once again to say..."what the hay...just draw." Now I have some use for the big, 8x12 "orphan" journals that have been sitting empty in my bookshelf for years.

Hang lose mate.

This is what art is about! I love all your different styles, partly because I tend to do the same.

*
Yes ! be free !
I love that you can do this.

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I like that description--serial monogamist. I tend to do that in my crafting, try one thing for a while and then move on to a new technique. I like the feeling of always learning something new, always experimenting. I have wondered why I don't have a set "style", and I guess you've answered that question for me!

Bravo Danny! I see you on a great journey through uncharted creative landscapes; an explorer or perhaps a free spirited wanderer. Whether or not this is your final destination, I suspect this stage will inform your work in the future in a very positive way.

I myself am resistant to change and impressed with your curiosity and willingness to try new approaches. Thank you for taking us along on your quest!

Whew! These are very cool! I love your flexibility and freedom and range. You go, Dude!
Nice to hear from you- life takes us on some twists and turns and it's nice to see you posting again. Looking forward to a return to normalcy and art myself!

boy, do i know how you feel with the jekyll and hyde business -- i do and think the same thing. but personally, i now think of it as becoming fluent in more than one, visual language rather than being indecisive on style. hey, it helps me cope anyway!

Danny,
I love these. I have just finished art school (as a mature age student) on Friday. I started a new A5 size visual diary yesterday. I did my first drawing in it with Pitt Pens. I was mulling over whether to stick to them throughout the diary or to use whatever media I fancy. Other artists seem to have wonderful integrated visual diaries with a consistent personal style. However these are the PUBLISHED visual diaries. I came to the conclusion that I would use whatever takes my fancy. Why close any doors? I plan to try to use pens, as I love coloured pencils, but you can pussyfoot about with those, and I want to be more bold and put lines on the page to stay there.
This has inspired me to also try the grey ink brush I bought in Japan.

Hi. Y'know, sometimes one just has to break loose and let the paint puddle where it may. And, also, it's a relief to occasionally turn the "self analysis/what are my motivations" switch to "OFF". Close down the internal noise and let your creative "North" show the way.

Hi Danny
I haven't sketched for nearly a year - just lost the desire to for a while there. It began to seem too much like hard work.
ut sat in the garden with my daughter for more than an hour last week just drawing leaves - and loved it. Remembered how liberating it can be if you just enjoy the drawing and don't worry about the end product!
Looking at your sketches here is a further prompt, a little reminder of what it's all about - and a reminder that sketchbook pages can have amazing beauty without being beautifully designed, if that makes sense....

Danny - It sounds to me like you are following your intuition and forging your way on a hitherto unseen path. Why the need to settle on one style? What if you have several different styles? I think that your drawings and paintings are distinctly Danny-esque no matter what medium or size you use. The path is yours only! Aahh, how easy it is to give advice... I am sometimes struggling with this whole notion myself, as in should I stick to botanicals in ink, or watercolors, or small cartoons, or just do all of it whenever I feel like it. Keep up the good work! I love to follow your creative path on your website, regardless of what you do!!

This is far nicer than a "perfect" drawing. It's more interesting to look at. I have been giving my granddaughter (4 years old) saltshakers to draw and her drawings are very fun to look at. I think if the drawing is too perfect the brain says, "I've seen that before...boring." Thanks for keeping this site going. It's an inspiration. Linda

The visual of you dumping water on the ground to dip in will stick with me for awhile. Glad your back. Slash on, my friend.

Danny, I had actually begun to worry about where you are!?!
I'm just so glad to see you're where I left you and that you're still stretching. Enjoy! Everything you've done just charms me.
Sue

Oh Danny, why must you be so hard on yourself. We are all unique and whatever you do, it will reflect your "style". Allow yourself to go with the flow. I'd like to share something I just read, "Remember, gardeners plant seeds and then let go. They give the garden attention - their unconditional attention - and they have no doubt. Be effortless about it, and the desire will manifest. Desires are like seeds left in the ground. They wait for the right season, and then spontaneously bloom." I share this because I am struggling with the same doubts. Take care ~Sharon

I celebrate your freedom. Thank you for taking us with you on this journey, via your post and in your drawings.

Well, I think you change mediums because being repetitive gets boring. I get bored easily. I like change. Change is good. It keeps art interesting. Your art is interesting. I never know what you'll do next. I get excited about that. Who says you have to stick with one specific style anyway? It's like someone lables or categorizes your work or style, then you feel like you have to stay with it; kind of like being stuck.

I say, change it up. Do something unpredictable, and different. Challenge yourself.

We are all our own worst enemies. Hushing that inner critic is one of the hardest things we ever do. Most of us never accomplish it. You are a brave and lucky man to be able to let go of the need for perfection - even if only for a moment. I know that no matter how long this lasts you will take something from the experience and bring it with you to the next. I look forward to watching the journey.

To me they look more like New York than anything else I've seen you do - they capture the essence - Love them!

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