Category: Drawing

Waiting…

Stillman and Birn Pocket Alpha, Super5 fountain pen, Rohrer and Klingner Lotte SketchINK and Schmincke watercolours.

Tel Aviv food scene sketches

Three sketches of three different quick food spots in Tel Aviv, before and after applying watercolour. The sketches were done in 5 minutes (for each one), over the past three days. I then took reference photos and applied watercolour at home. The point is to draw more even when I know I have no time to draw.

I used a Stillman and Birn pocket Alpha, a Staedler 0.7 pigment liner (for the first sketch, in the middle of the page), and a Super 5 0.7 fountain pen filled with Rohrer and Kilngner SketchINK Lotte (which is black and permanent). A waterbrush (because I’m going for quick and dirty here, and the Alpha can’t take much water anyway) and my Schmincke watercolours did the rest of the job. The photo came out too dark, but the scans I made of the page were consistently out of focus, so this will have to do for now.

Sleeping cat

At my parents’ house, sketching their cat sleeping.

Happy Hour

Kuretake brush pen on Moleskine pocket sketchbook. Trying to sketch something every day to get ready for the Urban Sketchers Porto meetup. 2 minute sketch.

Seven Dials, London

Just back from a trip to London and York, and still sorting through photos and experiences. This is a quick sketch I made over coffee on Sunday morning in Seven Dials, Covent Garden.

How to start sketching more

A few tips for those interested in picking up a sketching habit:

  1. Pick a notebook that you enjoy using, one that you really want to use. I mainly use a Moleskine pocket sketchbook. I have notebooks with better quality paper, but this is  one is just a pure joy for me to use. It’s nice but not so nice that I’m scared of “ruining” it, it’s light and pocketable so I have no excuse not to carry it, and it’s good enough for all the media that I sketch with – pencils, coloured pencils, pens and brush pens.
  2. The medium you use doesn’t really matter, so start with something simple that works with the notebook you picked:
    • Pencil
    • Fineliner
    • Ballpoint pen
    • Brush pen
  4. It doesn’t matter what you draw so long as you draw it.Don’t wait for inspiration or a lofty subject.
    • Every line you draw is already a personal and meaningful thing. Remember that when you feel like giving yourself a hard time.
    • If you’re trying to accurately document something for posterity – take a picture with your smartphone. Sketching and drawing is about making a moment, person, object your own.
    • That being said, give yourself a break and start with the simple – objects without too many finicky details that will stay still while you draw it.
  6. You’re going for quantity first, then quality, as you are trying to build up a habit. Draw a cup of coffee, your midmorning snack, things on your desk, etc.
  7. Challenge yourself to keep it up daily for a month. You can use Streaks to help you keep up the habit.
  8. Don’t compare yourself to others, ever. You don’t know:
    1. How long they’ve been at it.
    2. What training they’ve had.
    3. How many “failures” they didn’t post.