Category Archives: Drawing

It’s making visual observation to help me understand the world and myself and also to think and puzzle things out using sketches and doodles.

Inktober – Half Way.

Drawing, Inktober

Inktober banner of dracula.

Fifteen days and fifteen ink drawings done. I’ve made it half way.

And sticking with the hand made ‘only slightly better than toilet paper’ paper has paid off. It has given me a real appreciation for the fine control that proper artist’s paper and board  give.

Because this hand made paper doesn’t give, it takes. It sucks the brush dry the minute it touches it. And after a while the page is a fragile sodden mess that needs careful drying over a hot lamp.

Nevertheless bashing out the drawings while not worrying  about the end result and enjoying the experience has been the way. Freedom.

There Was a Crooked Man.

“There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house. “

I used this illustration for one of my Scottish words because I discovered the rhyme had a Scottish connection. The Scottish word Sicker. 

Illustration of a crooked man, cat, style, mouse, mile and house.
Crooked #Inktober No. 08.

Continue reading Inktober – Half Way. →

Inktober week one.

Drawing, Inktober, ,

#INKTOBER drawings.

Inktober was started in 2009 by Jake Parker as a prompt to improve his inking skills and develop better drawing habits. Practise.

The rules he made are simple. An inked drawing each day, or whatever interval you set throughout October. That’s it. Creating a prompt for mindful repetition so as to get better at something.

This year I decided to have a go. I wanted to escape from my usual digital ways of working and the ever ready wonderful escape of the Command and Z keys. If only that undo was available in real life.

As an extra challenge I used hand made unsized paper with bits of plant in it. In comparison to digital (and even to watercolour board) this is like running over mountains in a rain-storm versus a running machine in a cosy gym – I now know.

Practise.

It’s practise. And in any practise making it difficult can make it more rewarding – if you’re overcoming the difficulties.

One interesting outcome I found is that I get two images. One when the paper is soaking wet (it acts like a sponge – and the washes spread over time – what fun :\’) And another, lighter image, when the paper dries.

Peeling wet paper off the scanner is another story.

I also decided not to be self judgemental. Otherwise the ever judging ‘fear of failure’ would sneakily undermine my resolve and at the end of a month I’d be wondering why I’d done so few.

So if you think some of the drawings are crap. Too bad.

Old man in a super hero costume being overtaken by insects and a girl on a tricycle.
Swift #Inktober No 1.

Continue reading Inktober week one. →

Speed sketching

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Recently for a few years I stopped carrying a sketchbook even after having done that all my life, at least since I was a schoolboy. But I’m back sketching now – and enjoying it.

sketches of faces in a shopping mall.
I was warming up at sketching and added notes to myself as I noticed my faults and sticking points. Lighten up on the pens strokes, people facing to the left are more difficult for me to draw. And I was gripping the sketch book like a drowning man.

People.

People is what I like to draw. I enjoy that more than drawing scenery or buildings.

Usually I draw in a cafe and focus on fellow customers seated at tables. But lately I’ve been sketching at tables in the open inside shopping mall courts.

sketches at supermarket tills.
These sketches allowed slightly more time for me to draw as the people were at self service tills. I still only had seconds but at least they were not traveling past at speed.

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Dog-walk Sketching: Stress.

Dog Walk., Drawing, , , ,

It’s stressful sketching an old log with with my dog about. Debarking wood is one of his hobbies, which means he could make the log worthless as a sketch subject in moments, any second.

Dog leaping rotten birch log in the woods.
I’ve finished the sketch and he’s just leaping the log to get me to put his stick into action. The log remains in the wood with its bark intact.

Sketch stress of having the dog.

Potential doggy destruction of my subject is one stress point. A constant pitiful whining if he’s bored is another. And having to regularly pick up and throw his stick is only a mild stress point since I can lose my ‘place’, but in return it gives me reasonable intervals of peace. Digging on the other hand… Continue reading Dog-walk Sketching: Stress. →

Dog-walk Sketching: practise and spares.

Drawing, ,

It’s my habit when sketching on the dog walk to always carry a spare pen. Just like you carry a spare wheel in the car when driving or a puncture outfit when cycling. Because if you do only have one pen – it does this.

A leaking biro pen.
The thick black ink managed to creep out of the pen everywhere except at the ball point.

Don’t get annoyed.

I’d found a spot and had brought out my sketch book and BIC biro and had begun to draw. Then the pen stopped. Only then did I notice my black sticky fingers and the Ink leaking from the pen everywhere except where it’s supposed to. I was left in a frustrated mess with an aborted birth of a sketch and nothing to fix it with.

Incomplete sketch of a tess showing a trunk and mossy base.
I started drawing the tree at its mossy base and this was as far as I got.

Continue reading Dog-walk Sketching: practise and spares. →