An Assortment of Sketches

Well, it might not be as good as an assortment of cookies, but I decided while I was on the topic of sketching, I'd post some more sketches. These were pulled out of my (finally full) sketchbook. The oldest one probably is from four or five years ago, but I'm not really sure since most of the sketches weren't dated. Note to self - make sure you date all of your sketches from now on!



I wanted to share this sketch because I remember it being the first one where I thought, "Holy cow! That actually looks kind of like what I'm drawing!" You will notice that it isn't really finished. As I was looking through my sketchbook I found a lot of sketches which weren't finished. I'm not sure what that is all about. All I know is that now that I recognize this trend I am going to try to break it.



This second sketch is of a conch shell that my husband found on the beach. It is a looser sketch. I admire people who have a loose, free style of sketching. A lot of times when I try for that style I end up with a sketch that looks hurried and sloppy, but this one turned out half decent.



I don't often sketch people, mostly because I am afraid I'll get caught and the person will be angry. But I did find these two sketches that I did on the beach. The people were far enough away that I didn't have to worry about being noticed. You can probably see where I lowered the guy's head. I didn't worry too much about erasing my mistake because I wanted to focus on capturing his whole body before he moved. I also left my construction lines. I like seeing the underlying work in a sketch. It shows off the process more than a finished drawing would.



Is anyone noticing a trend here?? I do a lot of my sketching while I am on vacation. I rarely seem to be motivated to work on larger works while I'm away, so it is a good time to keep my sketching skills up. And I don't feel guilty about not working on any of those unfinished projects, because I make sure to leave them all home!! These two sketches were done with my trusty 005 Micron pen.



This last sketch was done for a Wet Canvas composition class that I participated in. Obviously it is a more finished sketch than any of the others. Another difference is that I used charcoal pencils. I was pleased with this sketch for two reasons. One, because I set the still life up all on my own and really worked on getting an interesting composition before I put pencil to paper. And two, because it makes a great value study for a future painting.

I had planned on sharing some old, embarrassing sketches with all of you as a form of encouragement to those just starting down the sketching/doodling path, but most of them weren't finished enough to really make any sense out of. So you will just have to trust me that my first sketches smelled like three week old garbage.

All sketches copyright 2007 Stacy L. Rowan