Sketch Your Life
Sketch yourself!
Sketch your co-worker!
Sketch your pet!
Sketch while on vacation (or staycation)!
Sketch while on your lunch break!
Introduction
Drawing and painting is meditative and completely engaging. The mind clears and you are in the moment, focused on the next line, curve, color. There is no room for distractions. There is only the next step, movement, and then nervous excitement/anticipation of performance and creation.
It is so important for us to have those kind of moments in our lives - to be forced to let go of the good/bad thoughts that occupy us continuously, which clutter our minds and weigh us down. I often feel refreshed and ready to take life head-on again after completing a sketch.
Many people desire to draw more, but fear being no good at it. You can’t be good if you don't start. Let go of the expectations of yourself and your poor hand, forgive your wobbly lines, and just go for it!
Guidance
Sketch with pen instead of pencil. There are two main reasons for this:
It's fast. We all live busy lives, and if you are like me, time is the number one excuse not to start something. You can finish pen sketches while waiting for the food you ordered, your bus to arrive, your date to be ready, your latte to be empty, etc. If you want to draw faster still, don't pick up your pen. Start by outlining the contour (boundary lines) of your object in the air. When you put ink to paper, commit to one line for the contouring - don't "chicken scratch". Another quick method is blind contouring, where you draw the contour of a subject in a steady, continuous line without lifting the pen and without looking at the paper. It is a great method to loosen up the hand and relieve the pressure to get everything exactly right at the first go.
It's permanent. Pencil is extremely frustrating as a beginner artist. You keep erasing, re-drawing and adjusting your work to get to something that resembles reality as well as possible, but you can’t seem to get it exactly right. The pen, however...what liberation! You draw your line and you let it flow, let it go where it wants to take you. Doesn’t look proportional? Oh well, too bad - can't change that now; call it Picassoesque. Line came out funky? Better next time. Let it be. Just stick to a single line for the contour and look forward, not backward.
The pen helps me to let go of my high expectations, to not be caught up in the outcome but to focus on enjoying the process.
Once you feel comfortable with drawing, add paint. Leave areas white/unpainted. Don’t color within the lines. Try out different color combinations. You have artistic freedom to not paint exactly what you see… paint what you feel instead.
Then perhaps you’d like to go directly to watercolor without drawing first. To simplify a complex subject, try squinting your eyes so you only see color shapes. Then paint those shapes. Use a bigger brush (size 10 or 12 or a large water brush) and you will get better results, faster.
The more you paint, the better you’ll get, and the more you’ll want to repeat the virtuous cycle. Because lots of times the result sucks. Sometimes it’s satisfying enough. But sometimes, it is better than expected, and you can’t help but to be a little proud. It’s a beautiful feeling - creation.
I am an artist. And so are you.
My Favorite Materials to take on-the-go
Paper: Small, light sketchbooks that are easy to carry around in a tote bag or purse. Try out different brands and you’ll soon figure out which you like best. You’ll start to discern paper quality, absorbency, texture, etc. 100% cotton paper is the best for holding a lot of paint and water.
Ink: Both water soluble and permanent ink pens. (To check if your ink is water-soluble, wet a brush or Q-tip over your drawing and see if the ink runs. If it doesn’t run, the ink is permanent. If it runs well, it is water-soluble, and very useful for shading.) For extra fun try using a small bamboo stick (or a popsicle stick and cut off a sharp point) and dip the stick into a bottle of black sumi ink.
Brushes: I enjoy water brushes because they’re very convenient - they hold water inside them and don’t require you to have an extra container on hand. For beginners, this is the best tool. However, plastic bristles feel nothing like a real hair or good synthetic brush, so when you start discerning what kind of feel and absorbency you like in a brush, I would recommend that you invest in better travel brushes. I use Rosemary & Co’s pocket brushes for travel, and various Princeton brushes and Chinese calligraphy brushes at the studio.
Paints: I have two travel-size pans - Winsor & Newton and Schmincke paints - they’re moist and high quality. They are on the expensive side, but they are fine artist-grade. At the studio, I use Da Vinci Co and Daniel Smith watercolor tube paints. When my watercolor pans run out, I refill them with the more affordable tube paint. Stay away from paints that get very dry and crack - they won’t get you the results you want.
Bonus: iPhone notes application - if you own an iphone, did you know that you can draw in the Notes application? Tap on the pen icon, which is next to the camera icon on your screen. I always have my phone on me so when a subject catches my eye and I’m bummed I don’t have my sketch materials, a very rough sketch on my iPhone will scratch the itch!
Resources and Ideas for further practice
If you’d like to see more of my informal sketches or plein air paintings, follow me on Instagram and/or check out my UrbanSketching stories highlights.
Look up your local Urban Sketchers chapter. Urban Sketchers Oahu meet about once a month. It’s really fun to see the different style and perspectives of fellow sketchers when you’re all sketching at the same location. Skill level doesn’t matter here!
I began my watercolor journey by taking this Skillshare course: Sketch Your Life: Create Expressive Sketches in Pen and Watercolor. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in having fun with sketching. The instructor, Elisa, is now a dear friend of mine.
Buy local! Stop by your local arts supply shop and browse around for materials. Feeling the thickness a watercolor paper sheet between your fingers and touching the different bristles of brushes is a valuable experience in itself. Plus, your local small business can use your support. Amazon is prospering and can go without it. In Honolulu, I like to go to Hawaiian Graphics, Benjamin Franklin Crafts and Fisher Hawaii.
This blog post is an expansion of an old blog post written in 2017, titled Are You An Artist?