Here’s something fun to try: Pick up one or two "mark making" instruments and start making a library of marks. Start with some simple obvious marks. Maybe do some simple hatching (like in the bottom right of the image). Then start experimenting to see what various marks look like.

Make every mark you can think of. Then trying grouping them or overlaying them in different ways. Do everything you can think of and then KEEP GOING. Once you’ve exhausted all the obvious things, THAT is when you’ll start getting creative and discovering new things.

If just experimenting is too vague a goal for you, set some limitations on yourself! ;) Have fun! Trying to do a page full of only one variation of a mark or try to take whatever marks you’re already making and attempt to turn them into a gradient.

There’s no need to rush through every item in your media collection. Take your time. Make a page using a pencil and then another page with a pen. Or a page that explores how two mark making instruments interact with each other.

You don’t have to do every mark making instrument in your collection. Make a library for one pencil today and another pencil some other day. Do it often and just see what you get.

Some advice, take notes. Note what you were making marks with and then how you were making the marks. For example, if you’re holding your 4B pencil from the far end in the wrong hand and trying to make circles, make a note of that. After all, we’re making a library, so make sure you tell yourself how to reproduce these marks when you rediscover this page again 2 years from now ;)

Some ideas to try:

• Make marks with your palm on the page, then make them again with your palm not touching the page.
• Isolate parts of your body. Make marks using only your wrist, or only your fingers, or by only moving your elbow and shoulder
• hold the pen or pencil in odd ways. hold it "wrong" if you have to.
• play with your distance from the page. trying being far away and holding the pen/pencil from the far end so you have to reach
• try on difference surfaces and positions. Put the paper flat on table or tapped to a wall. You can stand, sit, lay, lean, or move while trying to make the mark.
• make the same marks or motions using very different media
• layer media
• use the wrong hand or try using both hands.
• turn your paper then try to reproduce some of the marks you’ve already made from this new angle.
• Close your eyes and make random marks, then open your eyes and see if you can reproduce them.
• Don’t forget your tools that take away marks. Throw down a pattern and then start experimenting with your eraser, whiteout, etc

Example 1: Micron 005

My sketch at the top of this post is pretty straight forward and "obvious" stuff **after the page is full.** Now I can look at the page and get ideas for patterns and gradients using a Micron 005 without having to take time out of the project I might be in the middle of when I realize I want to use the Micron 005.

Example 2: Skipping My Charcoal Pencil

Below are some more experimental attempts. In this first image, I discovered that if I held my charcoal pencil at the right angle, it would skip across the page making a dotted line. After a bunch of experimenting I was able to consistently do it.

All of these dots are downward lines made with a skipping charcoal pencil (and really took no time at all to make once I figured out how to do it)

Next I started stacking the marks on top of themselves and got something that looked like a commit. Then I tried going out in different directions to make that explosion of dots. Again, these didn’t take very long because I was drawing "lines" not making dots.

Example 3: Eraser Marks

Another experiment. I took a brand new eraser and rubbed it on a patch of charcoal, then stamped it on the page 3 times from top to bottom. What’s interesting is the 1st strike is solid (like you’d expect), but the 3rd strike is an outline.

What are you waiting for!? Start your library of marks today!

Bonus Example: Art Cars

UPDATE added 9/26/2009.  We just happen to walk by an art show with art cars.  Check out the way this artist made "marks" on these cars.

Give it a try and feel free to share your work with everyone by post some links to your marks as a comment.

Part 1 of 2:

Part 2 of 2:

Wikipedia entry for Xiangqi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi

More Ref on how to play:
http://www.chessvariants.com/xiangqi.html

Play online (Chinese Characters; 1 player):
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Grid/6544/cccintro.htm

Play with a friend online (Chinese and Western Symbols; IM them the game’s id so you’re both in the same room):
http://www.playok.com/en/xiangqi/#

I also found a few sets on amazon.com:

Here’s a summary of all the feeds.

• DannyBurbol.com
  
  Only new Webcomics & Comicbooks on the DannyBurbol.com main site (like Juvenile Drivel on Thursdays).

• Danny’s Comic Journal
  
  Only new posts to the blog titled: “Danny’s Comic Journal.”
• Danny’s Vacation Journal
  
  Only new posts to the blog titled: “Sofia & Danny’s 1st European Vacation.”
• Danny’s Art Notes
  
  Only new posts to the blog titled: “Danny’s Art Notes.”

How do I know if a site has an rss feed?
look up in the tool bar, there should be a little square with some radar pinging looking waves. If it’s lit up (like on this site), then there is an active rss feed.

There are two (major) way to use an rss feed:
-trust your browser
-find a third party rss viewer.

trust your browser:
just click on that icon I mentioned and you should have an option to subscribe… then you can find your subscriptions in the same place you find your favorites and web history.

third party rss viewer:
I use google since they do so many things so well.
http://www.google.com/reader
with this specific viewer, you would click on the icon mentioned, then copy and past the address into google’s reader to subscribe. (the advantage here is that it’s on the web, so you can check your rss feed from ANY computer with web access.)

The Result:
Now you no longer have to manually surf to the sites on your rss subscribe list. Now when you turn on your computer for surfing, the first thing you do is check your rss feeds. **rss viewers will automatically tell you which sites have been updated since you last checked**

Imagine, you have 50 sites/blog/comics/etc that you surf to every day only to find out “oh man, they haven’t updated with anything new since last time I was here :( ” –those days are now gone. Now the sites come to you and tell you “Hey, there’s something new to see, come check it out!”

Hope that’s helpful, ~Danny