A month of sketches

For the past month I, and several others, have been sharing sketches on my March Sketch a Day page.  The idea was to encourage sketching and drawing and provide an opportunity to share work with others by providing the ability to post thumbnails and links. 

So what have I learned from a month of sketching?

• I learned that I do enjoy sketching and a lot of my work tends to steer towards animal life.  (surprise, surprise)
• I learned that the sketching itself doesn't take a lot of time, but the posting does take a concentrated effort.  Maybe because I can't just plop a sketch on a blank page without telling the story around why it came to be.
• I learned that daily sketching enhances my drawing skills that are the backbone for my paintings.  The lines of sketches and drawings are my path and cannot be ignored.  If I can get across only one message to those who want to create art - good art - it is to learn to draw well.  Everything else falls into place from there.
• I learned that its very good to have company along the way.  Thank you to those who posted either daily or less frequently on the March Sketch a Day project.
• I learned that the most mundane things often make the most interesting subject material.
• I learned that drawing from life or from a photo of something you find interesting are equally valuable exercises.  Yes, the purists will disagree, but drawing is drawing.  If you can get accurate shapes and forms on paper, its never a bad thing. 
• I learned that I can sketch anywhere.  There is no elaborate set up, no rules, no subject that is out of bounds, no place forbidden.  I sketched in coffee shops, my studio, at my desk at lunchtime, on the sofa while the news was on, in the car, in airports, on planes...there is no limitation.

I had gotten into the habit of sketching most days prior to this project, but don't always share my work with the world. I may continue to let the world peek into my sketchbook with a weekly post on just that subject.  It doesn't become as onerous task if weekly than to create a new post daily.   I can share more of my painting work with you in additional posts during the week.

However, the blog may be quiet for a couple of weeks as I'm off on my travels again.  I hope I can fit in some sketches of  things new and different  (to me) and share them with you if possible - technology being willing.

Airport Heads II

Quite often I have layovers or waits for flights in airports and love to people watch and sketch when I do.   This trip was no different and I captured a couple of "airport heads" in my sketchbook.

People are quite distracted or bored in airports so rarely notice me sketching them. I pile as many heads as I can on a page to get information down quickly and not waste time changing pages.  After all these are just sketches not complete drawings.

I find people sometimes do try to make sketches into complete drawings instead of simply captured expression, shape or colour shifts.  To me, it defeats the purpose.  I see my sketchbook rather like an incomplete camera, able to take the essence of something and put it on paper instead of trying for a highly detailed image.

This is the last sketch of the March Sketch a Day project.  I'll share my thoughts on the project in a separate post, then I'll be absent for a couple of weeks, while I take a trip west.   If you haven't checked out the sketching project, please do, its fascinating to see the work and style of other artists who joined in during the month.