A blog about writing, sketching, running and other things
Today was all about live sketching of very fast moving people. I learned that I am very out of practice, and that I need to work looser than I normally would have. My hands were also not in the best shape, but I did get some nice poses and more sketches done than yesterday.
Drawn with a Lamy Safari fine nibbed pen with De w Document Ink Urban Grey, Schmincke and Daniel Smith watercolours on a Stillman and Birn 5.5” x 8.5 ” Alpha.
Day 1 of the OneWeek100People challenge. I’m drawing from Flickr photos, challenging myself to draw whichever people I see in those photos, and this time also work in colour from time to time. I’m not going to get 100 people in 5 days (my hands really hurt today, so I only drew five), but I am going to draw 100 people.
Drawn with a Lamy Safari fine nibbed pen with De Atramentis Document Ink Urban Grey, Schmincke and Daniel Smith watercolours on a Stillman and Birn 5.5” x 8.5 ” Alpha.
Next week the OneWeek100People challenge starts, where you try to draw 100 people in five days. I participated in the challenge last year and really enjoyed it and found it to be a great way to practice my portrait sketching. This year I plan on participating but as my hands are still far from 100% well (my neuropathy has gotten better but still hasn’t left me and brushwork is a bit of an agony), I will take more than 5 days to draw 100 people.
Meanwhile, I went on a walk and sketched a bit today. Here’s the resulting spread:
Sketched this spread despite my hands killing me throughout the sketch. I still have poor control over the brush but I sketched it despite that because I really missed drawing. So glad that I got it done.
Here are some process photos:
We had our weekly zoom call with our old family friend, Joe. I did my best to sketch him while we talked. It was slow, hard work and came out only so-so, mainly because my neuropathy is really bad lately (which is also why there’s been a dearth of posts). Still, I’m glad that I tried.
Drawn with a Lamy LX Palladium, fine nib, filled with Diamine Harmony (an Inkvent 2021 ink).
Writing done with a PenBBS 535 Year of the Ox, RF nib, filled with Pilot Iroshizuku Ina-Ho.
The sketchbook is a Stillman and Birn Alpha 5.5’’ x 8.5’’.
Today’s fountain pen is also my first fountain pen, the wonderful Waterman Phileas. It’s filled with Diamine Ruby Blues from the Diamine Inkvent 2021 calendar.
My hands have been an utter nightmare this week and I’m only now starting to feel a slight improvement in my neuropathy. This is the most that I’ve been able to draw and type all week.
I finished the Ramat Hanadiv spread today, drawing the second page from photos, as I had a few moments when I could sort of feel my hands.
I wish I knew what these palm trees were called. They looked amazing.
Drew this today and it was super painful to draw. Here’s hoping that things with my hands improve soon because I miss drawing.
I’ve been trying to draw better foliage, which made me want to investigate the various greens I can mix from my current palette. So for the first time I dedicated time and a few sketchbook pages to experiment with green watercolour mixes. I thought that the process would be tedious and boring, but it ended up being very interesting. Mixes that looked like mud on the palette came to life on the page. I discovered a whole host of green hues that I had no idea that I had access to. And once again I fell in love with Schmincke’s Glacier Green.
Note: DS stands for Daniel Smith and Sch for Schmincke. The paper is Stillman and Birn Alpha.
Writing at Large 