I had a lot of insights pop up in Day 1-5 of The 100 Day Project, which has inspired me to keep going with this art challenge. It’s interesting that so many of the possible improvements to my sketching style are actually tips and techniques I’ve already encountered during Liz Steel‘s Urban Sketching tutorials. I’m hoping that during this 100 day challenge some of these will start to sink in and become second nature.
6/100 – 15 Minute sketch of Hand Colour Shop
What I like:
- Impression of clouds in the raggedy sky
What I didn’t like:
- Solid lines but warped perspective.
What I learned:
- You can get away with warped perspective if you’re doing a blind contour or continuous line sketch. But when using solid dark lines, the balance between the solidity of the lines and the wonkiness of the perspective doesn’t work. I either need to loosen my lines or clean up my perspective.
7/100 – 15 Minute sketch of Hair Salon in Conceicão
What I like:
- Close up framing instead of entire front of the building.
What I didn’t like:
- Too many solid black outlines.
- No white space around the picture.
What I learned:
- Every edge doesn’t need to be a solid black one, I should lose some of these edges and just define them with the paint, or switch to a lighter grey pen.
- I need a frame to work within. If there’s no frame on the page, then I tend to fill the whole page and forget about leaving white space around the image.
8/100 – 15 Minute sketch of Cabanas Church
What I like:
- Shadow effect at the edge of the raggedy sky, rather than a solid dark line.
What I didn’t like:
- No white space around the picture.
- Solid lines makes the building seem too static.
What I learned:
- I really need to start being more intentional about leaving a border to frame the image.
- I have to do something about these solid lines. Either a different ink colour or looser lines.
9/100 – 15 Minute sketch of Fish Shop Peixa Ria in Cabanas
What I like:
- Use of blue as the primary spot colour with lots of white space.
What I didn’t like:
- Not enough white space around the picture.
- Solid outlines on the curved balconies.
What I learned:
- I need to start drawing a border on my page, or I’m never going to remember to leave some white to frame my sketches!!
- I need so lose some lines where is makes sense. Leaving partial lines out would would help to emphasise the convex curve on the balconies. I need to start really looking where the light hits certain parts of the building, and using the most relevant line based on what I actually see, not what I think I see.
10/100 – 15 Minute sketch of house and garden at the end of our street
What I like:
- Flowers and garden as the focal point (especially those Calla Lillies) against the simplicity of the building.
- My variety in the foliage and use of green shades.
- How the garden runs out on the right.
What I didn’t like:
- Sky is too vivid and detracts from the garden focal point.
- Still not leaving enough of a border – almost on three sides though.
- The lines I sketched to show the broken plaster.
What I learned:
- I like sketching gardens!
- Should have depicted the broken wall plaster with paint and minimal lines.
2nd Attempt at the Cabanas Church
I had a go at getting rid of the rigid feel of these previous sketches by reducing the time limit form 15 to 5 to complete both the sketch and the watercolour. I also held my pen high up the barrel so I had less control of my lines.
Being less fussy about the lines and details really helps to create some energy in this image. I like how the watercolour is applied. The sky is less fussy (although I still used two blues to create interest) and the brown that frames the building to the right and the base give an impression of other buildings or a wall without actually drawing any lines.
I don’t love this image, but I like it better than the rigid 15 minute version. I just have to find the right balance of detail and looseness.
