I don't do too much spontaneous (or even planned) sketching or sketch journaling--I never seem to be sitting in one place (other than my reading chair, in which I am otherwise occupied) long enough to capture something. But this morning I had to take my car to the dealership for its 30,000-mile service, and an hour into the two-hour wait at the greasy spoon across the street, having finished both my breakfast and the book I brought along to pass the time, I pulled out my lovely little sketchbook my friend Anarda gave me for my birthday last year (which I faithfully carry around just in case) and did a little sketch of a stretch of this industrial area of not-quite-Glendale. (I watercolored it after I returned home.) Although my dealership is called "Glendale" Kia, I have my suspicions that it's really Atwater Village or even Los Angeles proper, since it seems too far away from anything recognizably Glendale.
This kind of sketching is good practice in observation. Nothing is ever quite where it should be, and details get compressed or expanded to fill the page, but at least it's a sense of the street. Drawing with a pen always seems to render a rather cartoonish result for me. I should make more opportunities for this kind of practice.
Yep, I draw with a pen and I always get those cartoon comments. I really like this sketch! There is a definite sense of place and great bright colors!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dan! I look at the work of others who draw with pen (like one of my idols, Nina Johansson) and don't see the cartoon aspect, but alas...
DeleteI also love this sketch. Sketching with a pen turns out to be very freeing.
ReplyDeleteI started doing it after taking a workshop from Brenda Swenson, and your comment about it being freeing is exactly right--you can't erase, you can't rethink, so you have to do two things: Look really carefully, and then commit.
DeleteI think you did great. Love the colors. I have the cartoon problem too, I think because I don't create enough breaks in my lines? But even when I think about that as I draw...I still cannot make them. So...I usually use pencil. Not really the way to learn, is it?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to keep going with pen, you do it too! Maybe the breaks is one thing, since Brenda Swenson really emphasizes that, and hers are beautiful. Maybe also accuracy, depth and perspective, all areas in which I could improve mightily. But cartoony or not, I still enjoy drawing with pen. I still use pencil if I'm painting a "serious" piece, but I love the wonkiness introduced by the pen, too.
DeleteThe colors and composition are really nice. I like it a lot!
ReplyDelete