1 down, 11 to go

End of Month One…sketched at least 30 minutes a day. Haven’t noticed a dramatic improvement in skill, but ideas are coming a little easier now, and that’s huge. I’m turning off the light and going to bed.

Wheels within wheels, in a spiral array...

I think this is a good concept. Time will tell if I can fashion it into an interesting maze.

Plumber's nightmare

More adventures with over and under pipes. When you drop down, you can go on either side below it.



I'm thinking that a good balance is to alternate sketching "real" objects, with "mind-only" geometrical mazes. Some of each should eventually yield some cool integrated designs.

Tower, trees, down & up

Did some quick sketches while walking around today (about 10 minutes each). I like the idea of capturing an essence of something without laboring over details too much. The nature picture is a little disorienting…



Later, drew a circular stairway coming down, and going up slightly lower on the left. It’s interesting that while I’m working on a particular section, I often lose focus on where I am or what I’m drawing, and only when I pull back do I see the stairway again.

When you get to a number, jump to the other same number

With pencil on graph paper:



After computer enhancement, which took about twice as long as drawing it:

Playing with graph paper

The fun part here was drawing the lines freehand. I've always thought I had to use a ruler to do this, but this is so much faster (and I don't smear the lines).

Getting red-y

Colored over the lines with a red marker…certainly more Valentine’s Day ready.

Experimented with the “mouse trail” in the four walls. Not sure whether different colors are better to orient which wall it’s in, or dots/dashes/etc.

To the heart of the matter

Start at the top left and work your way through the pipes. Where there’s a gap, you must stay in the same direction (no 90 degree turns) across it. See if you can identify a shape in the design.

Here's lookin' at you kid

I sketched some circles with the idea of creating a "time tunnel" type thing, but ended up with big glasses instead. Good to go with it sometimes.

Long meeting at work today

Spent some time listening to voices from England on the speaker phone, so I sketched it. (It's sitting right near the juxtaposition between four conference tables.)

Came out fairly recognizable, unless you didn't know what it was, then you might think it was a pastry or an alien head.

Finished one

I'll call this "phase one" because I'll come back to it later and add shading, or colors, or something.

Happy Inauguration Day

Enter on the Right and come out on the Left.

Progress, and a see-through house

Did a little more work on the "pipes" maze. Felt a little easier to link them together, which is exciting in its own way.

Glancing through an architectural magazine this evening I saw a "see-through" house (only good for warm & dry climates, obviously). I sketched it from memory, then thought "what if I have a mouse digging around in the walls?" Could turn into something interesting.

"No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

I set up a matrix of larger and smaller circles in between plays of NFL games today, and started to design a maze into it. Might try designing this straight to computer, too. Should work pretty well.

Better in color

I used some freeware Photoshop-like software to color in yesterday's maze. I like the result.











Also experimented a little more with yesterday's concept. Coming up with some fair ideas to pursue in following days.

Adding to an idea

Against my urge to come up with something new every day, I built on yesterday's "hedge" concept, but this time making them true rectangular tunnels and adding pipes to create alternate types of paths. Solid black was a nice choice, as I just drew the rectangular paths first, then filled in the black pipes over them - no erasing necessary (except for the part that I messed up badly). I might even try adding one more dimension to this concept tomorrow.

Landscaping 101

I started my own attempt at a hedge maze today while waiting in a long freeway ramp line. Not sure what I was thinking because with a hedge maze you travel between the hedges, not in them. It's also ridiculously easy-to-solve, but was a nice compromise between "easy" 2D drawing and hard (so far) 3D perspective drawing. Kind of relaxing. A little more pre-planning might help next time.

Maze on a cup

Had some time to kill in a meeting today so I started drawing on a water cup. Finished it off later tonight. Start at the top and work your way to the bottom. Unfortunately, you have to be holding the cup, because it's basically impossible to follow from picture to picture working back and forth, left to right.

Map experiment, with mixed results

Thought I'd try a quick topographic map, using the lines to make a maze. The hill on the left (west) started out okay, but the finish on the right (east), not so good. Anyway, it's another entry in the idea bank for another day.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice, practice...yeah yeah yeah. So I start with a simple concept: A couple of rings to be joined by straight pieces. Suddenly I can't figure out where the lines go to connect them properly. I realize this would be a lot easier if I set up a model to copy but either I'm lazy or masochistic - I try to figure it out with just pencil on paper. I figure that once I get it, it will be worth the struggle. Maybe tomorrow I'll try it another way...

Circle concept

Didn’t have much time for drawing today. Starting with the arches idea from yesterday I tried drawing (freehand with mental picture only) some concentric circles with links between them. Hope to build on this later. Hard to tell which way is up without any shading or coloring.

Time at the mall

As I waited for my brakes to be fixed nearby, I took a walk at the nearby mall. There’s an archway at the entrance of the Hot Topic store that caught my eye. I tried to copy the nearest one, but it’s a little tricky in that one side goes straight up but the other side curves under near the bottom, to while my brain wanted symmetry it didn't match reality so I ended up somewhere in the middle (i.e. lopsided). Once the near archway was completed, I left and later did some more arches further in. Nothing very maze-like or exciting, but it helped generate some ideas for a future one.

Heart and mind

I was driving home today thinking of "heart vs. mind" in making life decisions. So tonight I sketched some "hearts" and "minds" and then I figured that decisions of the mind have to go through the heart before they can be validated, but of course that happens in the mind again (this time on the left side, perhaps).

Getting a little easier

From a freehand sketch made about a week ago, I filled in the lines and corrected a bunch of corners. That's one of the hardest things for me at this early stage, but just a week later I can tell I'm starting to get better at it. This is starting to look visually interesting and have a fair amount of structural integrity (though far from perfect!).

Triangle tower

Decided to take another shot at a 3D maze again (hey, only 29 years since the last time!). The idea for this one came from a photo of a power tower taken from the inside, ground toward the sky. Not sure this went well, but maybe I can build on it later.

A sketch with a bad punchline

I sketched this view from my parked car, where I saw the first "people ahead" sign. I made up the next two (the last one is an alien head, heheh). No maze again today, but got some needed practice at perspective drawing.

Hearts under fire

When in doubt, I start with a heart. At first I thought I'd go with a theme of protecting your heart behind a wall, but soon the hearts were on sliders and pies were being flinged at them by slingshots. A metaphor for your heart's desire being under attack, but not by anything fatal, just some silly pies. Didn't turn this into a maze...yet.

Nothing happening

No luck today. Tried several approaches in a 3-dimensional space and nothing came of it. I'm tired and I'm thinking about going back to work after 2 weeks off. Not a conducive state for creativity, unfortunately.

Less internal resistance

Today went much better. I reserved a "quiet room" at my local library for 30 minutes and went right to work, using yesterday's late-night session for the seed of an idea. A plane flying in from the left and branching off in many directions. Tried to introduce "3D" to the drawing, by making the width go narrower to imply going "back" into the page. Fair result for little effort.

Procrastination avoided (barely)

I was kind of out of it physically, so I frittered the day away, while in the back of my mind not forgetting my promise to get some maze work done. So, while laying in bed at the end of the day, I pulled out my sketch book and started this. Didn't get it completed but did the 30 minutes and some ideas for later.

It's a start

Day 1 of my goal to draw maze-related artwork at least 30 minutes a day. Nothing spectacular here, just kind of forced myself to get it done. Staring at the blank page, I didn't have any great ideas, so I drew an oval, which turned into a trampoline, which I started "jumping" off of with my pencil.