Back in June 2013 an artist friend gave me a blank sketchbook, with the advice to "Draw in it every day." Here is the very first sketch. Done on my fortieth wedding anniversary, no less.
I really had no idea how to go about sketching. At libraries and bookstores, I'd looked longingly at art journals, with their beautifully composed pages and beguiling drawings. The same with on-line sketchbooks. I was pretty sure to fill an entire book with your own drawings required having started with private art lessons as a child and then moving onto a formal art education (with perhaps a degree or two thrown in along the way). At the very least, there had to be a trick or a secret process that led one to make that kind of magic.
Well, there is a trick. And that's both good and bad news. Because even for those born with a natural talent and inclination for drawing, that trick is to draw. A lot. Every day if you can. That's the only way to learn to draw and the only way to get better at it.
Sure, tips and lessons can speed up the learning time, and there will always be people whose drawings are better -- more accurate, more skillful, more charming -- to our eye. But that's true with pretty much everything in life!
A year later this same friend asked me to join her in a sketching challenge. For 75 days we were to do a daily drawing, in ink and with continuous line (meaning you put pen to paper and kept drawing until done without once lifting the pen).
Working in ink, I discovered, was immensely freeing -- I couldn't erase so there was nothing to do but keep going! And drawing in continuous line means really looking at your subject plus, by default, it lends a certain wonkiness to the drawing -- at least in the beginning -- and that is freeing as well.
Here's a bottle I did on the fourth day.
Here is another bottle done about five years later. Again straight to ink and mostly continuous line. I did lift my pen a bit, here and there.There's a little added watercolour to liven up the sketch. My bottle is still off-kilter but I think it's a stronger image, with more presence. And I quite like the addition of the graphics. To me there is a sense of looking through the glass, something I wouldn't have been up to when I first started sketching.
Even early on, my wonky drawings made me happy! I still like this one:
For a few years, I kept repeating the 75-day challenge. Always in ink but not always with continuous line. During this period, I really did sketch every single day. (Sadly, I'm not as disciplined now! But I "intend" to sketch daily, which keeps me connected and, over time, the sketches and the practice add up.)
Sometimes I picked a theme for the challenge, like 75 days of Japanese tea cups. I struggle with drawing symmetrically so the little cups, which I had on hand to use as models, were good subjects. Using the same object was a chance to try out different techniques and media. Below, I collaged my own hand-printed tissue paper over the drawing.
Here I used watercolour (a challenge on the absorbent sketchbook paper) and worked on leaving the white of the paper for highlights.
The sketch below is done on a dictionary page first painted over with white acrylic paint.
Here's another done with with a Sharpie fine-liner, a thicker-nibbed brush pen and watercolour.
This one was done with a branch on our frozen pond. A bonus sketch!
Look how symmetrical that turned out! Why can't I do that on paper?
Sketching, for me anyway, doesn't go uphill in a smooth straight line. It's more of a zig-zag mix of good, bad, and sad. In the next post, more on staying the course with that aggravating up and down.
