Week 1 A Sketch A Day in August

Week 1 A Sketch A Day in August

I want to share a selection of sketches done over the past week. I thought that I would do more watercolors, but really I have enjoyed just picking up a pen or pencil and sketching, which I do, but not every day, so this has been a great excuse to get back to it. I also decided it better to just update this blog once a week rather than everyday so that I do not bombard people’s inboxes.

 

 

This was a really fun sketch and maybe my favorite from the week. This was done at Bramante’s beautifully designed cloister in the center of Rome.

Originally I had intended to do a watercolor, but when I arrived I had everything except my watercolors! Luckily I had my 3 gray Tombow brush markers and really I think that this was the better choice for what ended up being both a study in values and perspective. It is always good to exercise those muscles!

 

 

These are all what I like to call “1 line pen drawings”. This has to be one of my favorite ways of sketching. What I do is just pick a place to look in front of me and start drawing. I never pick up the pen, so the drawing is just 1 continuous line.

I love drawing this way for several reasons. The best reason is that you cannot be fussy, you just have to go and keep going until you feel like you are done. There is no wrong line, you can always just make another. It is  a wonderful way to capture gesture, space with overlapping objects and these drawings have so much fluidity and character that a pen drawing may not otherwise. I do this exercise in my sketching Rome tour and I always love seeing the results, they are like fingerprints where no 2 are ever the same. Try it sometime, I really find it to be liberating and a lot of fun.

 

 

It has been extremely hot here in Rome, which to tell the truth I love the heat of summer. But this day it was just too hot, so I took a train out of the city to one of my favorite places Santa Severa which is a castle right on the sea.

I realized that I had never really explored the castle before, mostly I just spend time on the beach. So I took my watercolors into the walled castle to do this small watercolor study.

 

 

And finally is a series of small pencil sketches. I had intended to go to this spot to paint, but when I got there I realized that I was unsure of exactly the composition I wanted and how to frame it, so I pulled out my sketchbook do these few studies before beginning.

This has been a wonderful week of sketching, to remember how much I love to just sit and draw, but also that it is such a valuable tool for so many things! Sketching is good for relaxing, for playing and loosening up and for study. I am sure there are 1 million other benefits as well.

The other and really best part of this project is the community that is forming in our Facebook group. We have people from around the world sharing their sketches, giving each other support and feedback, it is a joy to be a part of. We also have lots of members who do not sketch themselves but enjoy seeing what others are doing.

If you would like to join us, you can do so here.

Happy sketching!