That’s right, today is World Beard Day. This celebration of beards falls on the first Saturday of September. (Click on the link if you want to find out more background.)
Why am I writing about World Beard Day?
Everyone who knows me knows that I love to draw men with beards. Beards are marvelous. Beards are sculptural. They add interesting negative space to profiles. They allow us as artists to play with color and line. I could go on.
As soon as my brother matriculated he grew a beard and has had one ever since. That, and the fact that I spent my teens and 20s studying 19th century literature, art, and culture meant there were always photos of beards around. Beards are the norm for me.
Earlier this year I began using the Sktchy app. I’ve been excited to find many fabulous muses with beards there. You can’t always count on seeing a bearded man in the course of daily events when your studio is in your home.
Well, if you know me and have been reading my blog you know I love celebrations, sketching, and marathons (sketching marathons, my running days are over).
About 6 weeks ago I started thinking about how much I loved sketching men with beards and how lucky I was to find so many on Sktchy. I wanted to celebrate and I asked Google, “When is International Beard Day?” Surely there must be one. Up came World Beard Day—and it was almost upon us.
I decided it would be really fun to live stream my beard sketching marathon. I started looking into how you can live stream on Facebook and asked friends about different cameras to add to my set up so I could switch back and forth between views.
I even got permission from several great bearded men on Sktchy to show their photos as I sketched.
Everything was coming together—but of course life always intervenes, and often it’s good stuff that jumps up and demands our attention, like the Minnesota State Fair (I was able to go three times this year and each day was fabulous).
The sad news is I couldn’t get the lighting issues worked out so that I could live stream today. The light was too bright for the camera or too dark for me to sketch.
So I’m 90 percent sure that I won’t be live streaming today as I sketch. BUT I WILL BE SKETCHING BEARDS! I will post them all on Sktchy when I finish so you can check on the app if you would like to see them. Look for #WorldBeardDay and #Beards. The sketches will also show up on my instagram with the same hashtags. Some will certainly come up on the blog.
In the mean time I will keep fussing on the tech end of things. I will work out the lighting and space for my paints at the computer table.
In the near future I will have live streaming sessions of me sketching so that I can talk to you about brush pens and gouache and other sketching related stuff.
In the meantime I encourage ALL OF YOU TO CELEBRATE WORLD BEARD DAY by sketching someone with a beard. (And if you post your sketches don’t forget, #WorldBeardDay, #Beards.)
Beards beautify the world. Beard growers are doing artists a great favor by putting the time, energy, and effort into growing beards. I think we need to celebrate this not just on World Beard Day, but on every day!
Get busy sketching.
Can’t wait to see your live streams!!!! Luv ya Roz