A new everyday sketch challenge

Liz Steel has announced a new everyday sketch challenge. Just like many of us Liz struggles with sketching daily as the mundane can take over and squash creativity and sketching the mundane doubly so! There are a number of everyday sketch challenges online but they all propose either drawing a thing or an idea. Probably one of the first and best was Danny Gregory’s Everyday Matters Challenge. The EDM challenge suggested drawing things like a coffee cup, trees, tools, or bikes etc solid things – nouns in other words- that you go and find and draw. For me this was …

Free drawing lessons from the great master Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai is well known for his iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa. He was a master in the true sense of the word. Hokusai also produced a three-volume series of books of drawing lessons. These are now online free. The title has been translated as Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing. These books neatly demonstrate how drawing is taught today too! For instance, if you have ever done any basic drawing classes, you have probably been asked to draw a sphere, a cube, and a cone. It is a drawing exercise that many courses start out with. The idea is that many things …

My response to the #OneWeek100People2018 challenge

This week, my goal with the #OneWeek100People2018 challenge was one of practice, not perfection. This challenge was proposed by Liz Steele and Marc Taro Holmes. The idea is to sketch 100 people in a week. As I said last week that I was going to do the challenge, here are my efforts and thoughts about the challenge. In the past, I have always left people out of my sketches – often because I am more interested in the location rather than the people. Both Jerry and I have been known to get up at dawn in order to photograph/see a place without …

One Week 100 People challenge 2018

Marc Taro Holmes of Citizen Sketcher and Liz Steel are running the One week 100 people challenge again this year. The idea is to sketch 100 people in 5 days between Mon 5 – Fri 9 March. With 100 people to sketch I know I will be aiming at doing quick gesture drawings so hopefully it will loosen up my people sketches. Marc Taro Holmes says “The goal is PRACTICE. Not perfection. Think of us as your gym trainers, Standing behind you yelling ‘Get out there! Keep your hands moving!’” Although the rules are open enough to allow all sorts …

Canberra Urban Sketchers visit to the Royal Australian Mint

Our local Urban Sketchers group got together this morning to do some sketching at the Royal Australian Mint. This was an informal sketch meet. As usual we all had a great day. I am pleased I remembered the bulldog clips as the wind was really blustery making sketching a bit of challenge. I have been experimenting with black and white ink drawings. This is because we will be traveling again in 6 weeks or so and I wanted to explore some pen and ink techniques. This is done with a Lamy pen loaded with De Atramentis Document Ink which is …

Choosing an Eraser

If you have ever been dazzled by how many erasers in an art store you will find Choosing a Rubber: Comparing Erasers is a huge comprehensive article. I know many people think that an eraser is big no-no but that is tosh as erasers can be a great tool for subtractive drawing techniques where you lay down a colour or a layer of graphite then pick out highlights with and eraser. There is also nothing wrong with erasing the odd line or two Some of the questions Julie tests and discovers the answers for are “I set out to see …

Some ideas on how to journal

I am often asked how to journal. Journals can be kept in any way you choose. You can write in them, sketch in them, add photos, paint in them, do a collage, paste ephemera in them in other words just about do anything in them! There is no certain “look” or style in journaling. There is no blueprint that must be followed, no right or wrong way to keep a journal. There are no rules because they are a creative space and if you tie up a creative space in too many rules it quickly becomes a non-creative space. In …