More red

I think this was a 10 min pose, so not a huge amount of time, but it benefits from that as it is just big washes of two colours, with a quick drop of shadow just to sit the body down.

And walk away from it.

Good model.

From yesterday

Pleased with this one.

There is a sense of a new step taken with it, a small edge towards being a better artist.

Always both satisfying and daunting when that happens.

Always stuff to learn and work towards.

A little back view

A two minute pose done in the sketch book.

Sketching, fast and slow*

Two sketches of the same girl.

One done fast.

One done slow.

Liked her hair.

* with apologies to Daniel Kahneman.

3 times a face

Sketched this guy several times.

First a quick preamble.

Then did some one line, 'drawing without looking at the page' kinda stuff.

Did quite a few of these. All different, all loose. ( and intriguing as hell to the woman sitting opposite me )

Then took what I had learnt about the shape and forms and redrew him again more formally.

I like the process, I like the changes that happen when you try to see, rather than just looking.

Always an admirable goal.

In times of empty trains

Drew this guy several times on a train journey, as he was the only other person in my carriage.

First up the sober and serious sketch. Like I was trying.

Shall I draw him again ? No one else around and he isn't taking a blind bit of notice of me... 

So went for his overall pose as he sat.

Very, very pleased with his shoe. Very pleased.

Then went in for a quicker sketch.

And it all got a bit cartoony.

Nothing to really tell you about him. His coat was red, but he wasn't giving anything away.

6 of 1

Combining the 'sketch the same person several times', with the 'speed sketching' thing.

This business man, minding his own business. Liked his sort of quiff.

As he moved I started a new sketch.

And then just got faster...

And a bit cartoony...

Very pleased with last few.

Look. Two lines. A whole face in two lines. Most excellent !

( Showing my age there )

Time flies...

So, following on from Sam's speed sketching thing.

Decided to actually time myself, using the platform clock, and allowed myself 30 seconds per sketch, and no more.

Blimey. Talk about stress. It really focuses you. No sooner have you started than the numbers are clanking round like the bedside clock on 'Groundhog day'. Forget detail. The best ones I managed were of a passenger who had his back conveniently to me. Otherwise I doubt I would have got anything even anywhere near enough to register at all.

Look, I didn't even get time to give him both legs in that one. I would have said I sketch fast, but this proved how fickle my judgement of time really is.

We've only got 10 seconds to sketch the world

Sam offered up the 30 second sketch challenge the other day. Had a go.

Made me aware how I look at things. I tried to pick people who would be gone almost as soon as seen, and to just look, and imprint them in my mind, sort of photographic memory. ( and as I write this I instantly think of Barbara Windsor in Carry on Spying -  which says waaaaaay too much about my film tastes ) But found I couldn't, and it was a real struggle to lock everything in my head before I started drawing. Which makes me wonder if there is a difference between seeing and looking ? If I have removed seeing from the process and need to rediscover it.

Anyway, here is one of the results.

And I think it was because it was such a familiar view that I could get it down. He was gone long before I had even got to his shoulders, and really had to think to get the arms and backpack in place. Also almost managed the mythical one line drawing.

Liked this one.

But am cheating, as he sat down, stretched like this, then stood up again and wandered off and I just got his hand down before the mental image faded, and I liked it too much to ruin it by trying to draw any more.

Oh, and happy May 1st everyone.

More runners.

Marathon.

It was the London Marathon yesterday. And I have never sketched it...

Found that the more you tried to pin down the runners' pose the more they were impossible to see. Especially the legs. I needed Muybridge to slow them down.

Just found

Just found this one.

It had metaphorically slipped down the back of the sofa on my laptop. 

So I've blown the dust off and popped it where it belongs.

313

Almost abstract, this one. And for some reason it scanned with a very fetching border.

This was one of the very first I scanned when I decided to do this, and don't know how it has taken almost a year for it to get here. 

Sketch 9

Don't often draw in blue.

This was one of the sketches where the subject leaves before you finish, and you think Damn. But when you look later it's not so bad. Like the lips. Again one of those lines you can trace from the top of the forehead to the shadow under the bottom lip

Quick sketch, quick post.