The purpose of a sketch a day is just to do it - sketch! It doesn't matter if it is an involved sketch or if it is a simple contour or gesture drawing. There are no rules except to sketch each day.

Life parameters can dictate the time investment, but a sketch a day commitment is designed to elevate the personal priority of sketching ... to enforce sketching. Making it into a "resolution" validates the activity (invests it with a bit of a challenge even!) and defends against competing demands. The sketch a day is designed for practice - to reinforce basic skills, and to provide daily contemplation on the issues of two dimensional representation.

Several of us are doing a sketch a day, and I would enjoy hearing from anyone else who decides to join in. We share our efforts, support each other, keep each other honest and... hopefully we'll have some fun doing this!

Click on any of the sketches to enlarge...
and don't forget to check out older posts!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

September 1, 2011

    This started out as an exercise in speed - I was going to see how far I got in fifteen minutes, with no measurement (I often don't measure... I guess I'm lazy that way) and no erasing (I often erase the consequent mistakes I make as well as erasing for texture). I was using a light (HB) woodless graphite... I'm not sure why... 
     I really felt I was almost done, with five minutes to go, when the dogs had to go for a walk... urgently. I was optimistic that another five minutes would do it, and I would have done a respectable sketch within fifteen minutes; not a "highly finished" drawing, but a sketch, and it would be done.
    When I got back I forgot to watch the time closely so I believe this took closer to twenty five minutes in total time. The last ten minutes were really just doing things like adding details and darkening shadows. In other words, I could have called it "done" in fifteen minutes, but the last ten minutes finished it up. All in all, it was still a practice in drawing quickly, although a different type of practice than doing gesture drawings. 
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1 comment:

  1. Amy MannSeptember 3, 2011 at 2:55 PM

    Forcing yourself to draw quickly is a great exercise, as it focuses your mind, and drawing something in an unaccustomed position, such as this upside-down shoe, is great training for your eye. You're able to see shapes more abstractly, instead of relying on what you "know" about a shoe... which doesn't help in the drawing experience.

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