2 Quick skeTches & ThumbnaiLs
Thumbnails help me get dull ideas out to make room for better ones and they keep me on point when thinking about how to break an image
down to its simplest form. I tend to do them in ink and you should too! Sketching in ink builds confidence in your mark making and it’s much
easier to do this first with small thumbnails. Start smaller and start easier and before you know it you’ll be covering entire pages in straight ink.
3 warm-up skeTches
Always do warm-ups! If I’m going to spend the day doing rough sketches,
I still take an hour and do a warm-up sketch. Most of the time when we feel
uninspired to sketch, it’s simply a disconnect between our brain and our hand.
Thus it feels like whatever you put down isn’t quite the way you envisioned it.
The warm-up sketches get this out of the way. Some days it might take
longer to warm up, but it’s well worth the time and effort. Do meaningless,
silly sketches if need be – something that doesn’t matter, but just gets the
head and hands on the same page. It’s too often side-stepped in the interest
of time, but doing so will ultimately save you time at the end of the day if you
don’t have to struggle on sketches that matter afterward.
4 consider using calligraphy
tools For sketching
There are few things more beautiful in life
than a masterful calligraphic mark. It can
be small and quick, or long and flowing,
sinuous, straight, loving or harsh and
thrown down with gusto! But always the
idea is the feeling that the calligraphic
mark is conveying. The weight, and the
motion and the emotion.
My two favourite tools are brush pens
and pencils. They both achieve beautiful
calligraphy when used properly and they
both can achieve very similar marks. So
what I learn from one, I can apply to the
other. Try them out for yourself.Often when we feel uninspired
to sketch, it’s simply a disconnect
between our brain and our hand
August 2017 71
Artist insight Drawing skills