Sketching

So I've been making sure to do at least one sketch a day of something. It doesn't even have to be something major. Just to practice drawing. So here are a couple pages from the last few days. I'll scan some more later.

Here's a couple of things I've learned doing this. Sketching with a pen is hard - no eraser. It forces me to slow down a bit more, think, and be ok with imperfection, which is not easy. I'm a perfectionist. So it's been a really good exercise to just let that part go.

I also have been thinking about something that Danny Gregory said in his book Everyday Matters.

"The reason why most people draw badly is because they draw symbols instead of what they see. A nose is a sort of triangle. An eye is a circle with another one inside. An ear is a circle with a squiggle. The brain has an inventory of shorthand symbols for stuff, and that's what we draw."

I really recognized this when I was drawing the leaves. Most often we draw the perfect outline and shape of a leaf and it's flat. When I was drawing I wondered why do we do this? There is no such thing as a flat leaf, especially during fall. All of them are curled and wrinkled. It was one of those moments when I realized I do just draw symbols and not what I really see.