I realised after publishing my last post that I hadn’t told you what I was going to do with my holiday drawings.
Don’t worry. I don’t plan to cram them all into a never-ending blog post.
I know you can only take so much of looking at things.
Even if they may interest you.
I think a picture, a work of art, a doodle… needs space to be seen.
Otherwise it can feel like some of those popular exhibitions.
Where you may pay for entry.
To find that a few hundred people had the same idea. And they all chose the same time as you.
So the paintings are no longer an invitation to dream. They become an obstacle course. You have to duck and dive and twist your neck because the tall person got too close to the painting so you can’t see it whole any more.
Frustrating.
-Enough of my last gallery visit.
My plan for my blog is to pick a few of my drawings and talk about them.
Maybe talk about the reasons I chose to draw that particular subject.
Or about the memories that scenery holds for me.
Or about the techniques I used and what I learned from my failures (there’s no failure, only learning in progress, did you know?)
For instance, the sketch I used on my last blog post.
I decided to draw a self-portrait of me in a bedroom. It was a change from taking photos.
I like to keep an image, a memory of familiar places I revisit every holiday. Every place changes on each photograph.
However, when I stop long enough to draw what I see things become special. They no longer feel automatic, impersonal. I don’t depend on a particular light. I draw it as I want it to look.
Same with landscapes, city scenes, buildings…
When I draw them I notice things that have a particular look. I take them in. I learn them.
I notice the subtle changes that pass unnoticed when I only take photographs.
I also like to carry my small sketchbook all the time.
It makes it easy to get started. Its small size is not intimidating, like a larger piece of paper can be.
It allows me to spend just a short time observing a scene. It works as a warm up exercise. I may perhaps return later on with a larger canvas and more colours, to finish the image I saw in my head, the possibilities offered by that small sketch.
And, of course, using a biro pen is a way of working fast. You don’t get as precious as you can do when using pencils (those tempt you with perfection, mistakes get erased and redrawn until they are just right… or until you start overdoing it on the details and lose sight of the whole picture)
Anyhow, let me show you what I mean.
These are some other doodles in pen:
I think these are enough for now.
I don’t want to cram the space. Not even the space on this page.
See you again soon, with some more of my drawings coming up.
Thanks for reading this. I hope you enjoyed it.