Everyday sketches

Last week I posted a bunch of quick little sketches made over the week, and some thoughts on ways to keep sketching everyday. So many of you responded with great tips on ways to do just that. I thought I’d share them in a post, so we could all find ways to make this sketching thing a daily habit.

Sue Anne Bottomley says that a lot of her sketches come from a sense of urgency: she draws things that might be gone anytime: animals, a sunset, a fairy circle of mushrooms.

Harold Goldfus  and Carmel Campbell carry a pocket sketchbook everywhere. Anna adds an unusual item to the mix: She carries a small blob of plasteline with her and practices forming and understanding the human head whenever she has some time.

Tina Koyama keeps it simple with her philosophy that any sketch, however small, is better than none!

Richard Sheppard makes a to-do list of all the stuff he wants to accomplish in a day and he’s going to be adding sketching as an item to that daily list.

Shiho Nazaka is a daily sketcher. Her personal goal is to sketch as early in the day as possible, (especially since daylight hours are starting to get shorter in the northern hemisphere).

 

Swati and Phoebe, on the other hand, sketch at the end of their day and often sketch the same thing over and over, and find it to be a really good practice.

Here are some quick sketches from last week:

People at the coffee shop.

A reconstruction of Empire Firehouse in San Jose. Can you tell I love wires?

And of course, weekly figure drawing.

A quick little sketch of my son and his friend.

And 4 quick sketches of my morning cup of chai. In (clockwise, starting top left) brushpen, brushpen and diluted ink on wet paper, pastel and brushpen on tinted paper. And last of all, brushpen, ink and colored pencil on wet paper.

I did these 4 pieces all in one go, a few minutes each, on one day. But I was inspired by this post by Liz Steel that talks about sketching the same thing, over and over, day after day.

What strikes me with this list of complied ideas is that there are so many, often contradictory, ways that we all find to making sketching a habit: so try some ideas, and see what sticks. Or play with them, modify them, and make them your own.

Happy Sketching!