Sketching with (almost) nothing

I pulled out my kit at home to sketch when my friend and fellow sketcher Uma visited. And (I’m blaming it on the wine, see empty glass on left?) then I forgot to put it back in my bag.

So the next morning I headed out for my day with my sketchkit still on my work table at home. All I had in my bag is one tan paper sketchbook and nothing else: no pencil, no pen, nothing. That meant drawing with whatever I found where I went. Maybe that’s a good thing, because I was forced to use stuff I would normally never use.

Like a ballpoint pen for this little sketch. Not that a ballpoint isn’t a valid sketching tool, ( Don’t believe me? Check out Richard Johnson‘s incredible work, all in ballpoint pen) it’s just one I don’t usually think of using.

Next up was the hairdresser and all they had on hand was a mechanical pencil. I never use mechanical pencils: I find the squared off point makes too neat and rigid a line for my liking. But since I didn’t have a choice I worked with it, on these quick sketches below.

And I kinda like how they turned out. Just goes to show that I should switch up my toolkit once in a while. And experiment more.