Lemons with disrespected lines

Disclosure – this post was inspired by a @WheeTeck video about disrespecting lines.

What is Loose Sketching?

There are many different levels of loose sketching, and some of them look very abstract to me. That extreme level of loose sketching isn’t something that appeals to me, either to appreciate or replicate. But I am at the stage in my creative journey where I’m trying to identify the level of looseness I’d be happy with using in my street-scene sketches, and learning how to cultivate and finesse it.

I watched a video the other day which was a tip from @WheeTeck about how to sketch more loosely, and in it he used this phrase:

Disrespecting the Edges

Up until now, every artist I’ve watched on the loose-lines topic has talked about wobbly lines being the cornerstone of this style of sketching. The trick with wobbly lines is not to try to draw them on purpose, because they’ll looked forced, and look … well … like badly drawn lines with wobbles in them.

But if you make changes to your sketching style (e.g. how you hold your pen, or how quickly you sketch), you’ll be able to create wobbly lines that look organic and natural.

But there’s more to loose sketching than just wobbly lines, and @WheeTeck covers it quickly and simply in his video.

When it comes to applying paint, instead of painting within the lines (that has been drilled into us all from an early age) – Whee shows how disrespecting the lines can help us to paint more loosely.

Here’s how to disrespect your lines:

• Don’t always paint up to the line (leave some white)
• Sometimes paint over the line

Both of these techniques will help to turn your tight sketches into loose sketches. In the example below I drew both sets of lemons with a tight ink lines so we could see the impact loose watercolour can have.

• The top lemons I painted in a tight style, was mindful of the edges and respected the lines… just like we’ve been taught.
• In the bottom lemons I disrespected the lines. I left white areas by not painting all the way up to the line in some places, and in other places I painted over the lines.

The tight lemons look believable but boring, whereas the bottom lemons are dynamic and have a lot more life and interest to them. The majority of us know what lemons look like, and if you want a photorealistic picture of a lemon, the simplest way to get it is to take a photograph. But when I’m creating art, my goal is to create something with an engaging level of interest in it. And this is where disrespecting the lines becomes an integral part of the process.

I painted another set of lemons – loose and quickly. For this one I used loose and wobbly lines (I held my pen further up the barrel away from the nib and I drew quickly). Then I disrespected the lines when applying the watercolour.

Depending on what I’m painting, I’m happy to disrespect the lines, but when it comes to sketching buildings … tight lines and tight paint application rule supreme. It’s my comfort zone, and I’m still trying to figure out how to escape it.

Sketching Loose Lines

I’m comfortable sketching with loose lines when I sketch people. They move a lot, and you have to be quick to capture their pose, so you have no choice but to use loose lines.

In this sketch I only went over the lines in the shaded area on the bench, but left white areas of most everything I sketched.

I’m also ok with sketching loose lines when I doodle. These spontaneous flower sketches are on the back cover of a recycled sketch book I made, I didn’t plan the layout or plan each flower. I just started scribbling and voilà.

It needs to be an unconscious decision to disrespect the lines when you’re sketching. So the trick is to paint quickly and intuitively, and not worry about the outcome. The not painting up to the line and leaving white space, happens automatically when I sketch people and doodle. I’m comfortable with that level of disrespect, but I’m less likely to paint over the lines with wild abandon, so I have to figure out how to overcome that deep-held belief that lines CAN be crossed.

Maybe once I can do it for people and doodles, it’ll be less overwhelming and intimidating to try and do this style of loose sketching on buildings.