I love to paint, I love color, I love telling stories in words and pictures. At the core of it all is what I love best: to draw. Why? I think Edgar Degas put it well when he said” “Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see.” But sometimes, I think it’s not even that. It’s that I don’t truly see some things until I draw them.
Some days though, it’s not even about seeing. Those days I’m drawing just for the joy of smooshing pencil on paper, or dragging a juicy pen nib across the page, making a ragged line.
And then, I’ll draw anything. Like these “People I’ll never know. The page started with tighter line on the portrait on the left but quickly moved to the jumping, bouncy, continuous line I love on the bearded face.
Mostly though, I like to draw the people I know. This spread is in what I call “almost continuous, not quite blind contour”. My pen stays on the page more than it lifts, and I look up more than I look down, but there are no strict rules about it. Working like this just lets me work fast-ish and loose-ish.
Another kind of drawing-only page in my sketchbook is like this one below : a page of notes and observations made on a naturalist-led boat trip at Everglades National Park. Drawing and writing means I retain and remember better, and it isn’t important to me to make a nice-looking page.
Of course, I add color to a lot of my drawings. Pieces like the ones below are done quickly and color certainly adds to the piece, but its done very quickly, usually just a single wash or a second coat added in before the first one dries.
And now I’ve sort of lost the point of where I was going with this piece. But maybe it was just that I love to draw.
Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook 
Suhita, thank you for this post. During the Direct Watercolor in June last year, I realized how much I enjoy, yes! Drawing! In a FB group, you once answered me in a specific post: “Drawing is BIG.” And you added that we can learn to draw anything… There is something about line work, I like details, some here and there or everywhere. I am still to discover the joy of sketching People Alive! trying out your kind of “continuous, almost blind contour drawing” of them. One step after the other, life is happening and enriching my creativity, I am sure. Thank you so much, once again, for being inspirational, creative and so encouraging, positive!
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Anneli, it’s a constant game of reminding myself that my practice comes first: and posts like this are important because they’re not about insta-perfect pages.
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Love it, thank you 😉
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I love that you’ve said you don’t care about creating a nice-looking page. sometimes that’s all you see on social media and for me it’s irritating at times. not everything has to be this curated “perfect look” sometimes as you’ve said, you just want to draw something ________________________________
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After reading this post, I feel like I have been given permission to follow my inclinations to break rules when it feels right or just makes my sketching experience more fun and spontaneous. Rejecting perfectionism in myself is a constant battle. Accepting that making the marks is more important than creating the perfect, most IG worthy spread or a sketchbook of “finished” sketches on every page.
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Karen, you are right. Social media’s preferences affect what we make and share, don’t they? For me I have to remind myself regularly that the practice is for me and sharing is secondary.
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Dear Suhita! I love your comments as much as I love your drawings! Will you permit me to share the following with my sketching students? “This spread is in what I call “almost continuous, not quite blind contour”. My pen stays on the page more than it lifts, and I look up more than I look down, but there are no strict rules about it. Working like this just lets me work fast-ish and loose-ish.”
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Oh Rhoda , of course and thank you so much for asking. I’m loving seeing all the drawings you’re posting right now from life drawing to coffee cups!
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And I love to watch you draw through your blog. Thanks for the thinking behind your process.
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And thank you for writing in: it makes me happy to know that these posts are useful!
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Great post!
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