Sketching

Thought I had nothing to say today. But thinking about sketching I realized that, for every one I pop up here, there are pages and pages that I don't consider good enough. I have literally hundreds of sketch books, from each one of which maybe a dozen will make it here. That's a lot of rejects. Was thinking about something Teresa wrote about trying several attempts before she got something she was pleased with. And that it is each attempt that teaches what to do. I know very quickly when something isn't going to work, and flip the page straight away. My books are full of pages with one line, or half a face. But it is only having done this thousands of times that I know when things are going well, or not. Trust me, if I put those pages up here you would just be bemused.

So what I think I want to say is never diss down your trials and misdraws, because they are the ones that show you what not to do, and that is just as important a contribution to a good drawing.

Or even a bad one.

( This sketch has one of these abandoned drawing in black, that then got overdrawn in blue later because I ran out of pages and wanted to sketch a. n. other guy. )