While the tech industry compels us to offhand our creativity to machines, I am going against the grain and sketching.
Inspirations
The kick up the bum came via a local artist named Ritchard, who currently has an exhibition running at The Goat Gallery. He showed me one of his sketchbooks he carried around. When he’s walking or out on the bicycle, he’ll pause and sketch. Oddly, this links to some recent misspent hours replaying Red Dead Redemption 2. A minor part of the game involves finding points of interest where the main character, Arthur Morgan, will make a quick sketch and jot down a few notes about the location.
I will be the first to admit that my sketching abilities are nothing to sing and dance about. If I’m being honest, they’re barely worth a blog post, but it’s the practice that makes improvements and the enjoyment found in the process. I set myself the challenge to do a daily sketch for 30 days. Armed with a sketchbook, pens and watercolour pencils, I ventured on one of my usual stomps.
Pause
Photography was my first serious creative hobby. I don’t take the DSLR out as much as I used to. However, phones offer a camera with limited capabilities that can fit handily in my pocket. Plus going out with the DSLR, numerous lenses and a tripod made photography the prime purpose. A camera phone is a handy extra to take a quick snap while out and about. But the brevity means there is little connection between the subject and the viewer. This is something I wanted to reclaim through sketching.
By pausing and sketching, I appreciate the details I’m trying to capture. But even if it is a very brief sketch with few lines, it is enough to invoke the feel of the place. The pause also allows time to soak in the atmosphere. Although I’m not religious, I have a fondness for old, empty churches. There is a hushed stillness, yet my mind ponders on all the births and marriages celebrated and all the deaths mourned. There is a human echo lingering just out of hearing. But I love exploring old places. Disused factory ruins harking back two or three hundred years that have been left for nature to conquer. Ancient tombs stand prominent upon the windswept hills. Stone circles where we can only hazard what purpose they held for the people who built them. Equally, I love the natural landscape, and I can’t get enough of the sea.
The pauses offer opportunities, too. Perched on a tomb in a churchyard, I noted the names on the headstones for future use in my creative writing. An old woman passes and gives me a smile.
‘Been to see the boss,’ she said, meaning her late husband.
We talk for a while before parting ways. In an increasingly individualistic world, I enjoy these small connections made.
The Result
Did I complete my 30-day challenge? Almost. 29 days out of 30, one lost day due to sickness.
What have I learnt? Mostly my freehand perspective drawing is in need of improvement! But I have enjoyed how it has become a visual daily diary. Although on days stuck indoors, I sometimes resorted to sketching from old photographs. I found taking 20 minutes out of my day to sketch calming. Art and walking are two activities which are like meditation for me. If I have a banging headache, I’ll opt to do some art because that usually cures it.
Are my sketches any good? That’s up to the viewer. But as I mentioned earlier, practice makes improvement, and it’s the enjoyment I gain in the process which keeps me coming back.
Here are a couple of my sketches. Let me know what you think!
