I am reading this book from the library Fast Sketching Techniques by David Rankin. Very interesting. He draws a distinction between drawing and sketching, and the idea is to train yourself to sketch fast. I was awake early two mornings ago, and it was a beautiful morning. so I got in the car and went off to Blackwattle Bay, a harbourside park, about ten minutes' drive away. Rankin uses a type of 9B pencil that we don't have here. He only uses this one pencil and a paper stump. I tried an 8B, but it wasn't sufficiently soft. I ended up using a type of fat propelling pencil with a lead about a quarter of an inch thick. This pencil gives the same look as his drawings (except that his are more expert than mine!) My pencil and the refills are all no-name, so I can't tell you more than that. For a first try, I am quite satisfied, although I must say it surprised me how long it took me to do a pretty ordinary drawing. The second one took 15 minutes. But I plan to carry on with this, and maybe in the fullness of time, I can join Gabi Campanario's plein air sketching group.
I have scanned these images with my new Epson CX8300 all-in-one inkjet. I decided on this one thanks to a lot of research and the advice of some book art bloggers, Carol, Gail and Lee. I bought it yesterday morning, uninstalled my old scanner and printer on a very hot day, and installed the new all-in-one. I've tried printing and scanning and so far it seems to be great, and in my little terrace house, what I love is that it doesn't take up much space.
7 comments:
Is Blackwattle Bay a suburb of Sydney? If so, I think you must live near to a friend of mine that I met in a French class in Paris years ago. I have visited her in Sydney and loved the area.
Linda, it is an arm of the harbour, quite near the city. The suburbs would be Glebe, Annandale Rozelle, maybe. I live 4km from the city & it would be similar (the city being measured from Martin Place).
You've really captured the atmosphere of the bay, lovely drawings. Happy New Year for tonight and best wishes for 2008.
Beautiful sketches! I have one of those lead holders too, with the thick leads. They're great for drawing.
thanks for your comment wendy and lovely sketches. we always used to do fast sketches as warm up exercises for life drawing. they were always the best.
happy new year!
I love that book! A couple of years ago I went through it and learned so much from him about sketching - quick and loose. You're off to a great start - enjoy yourself!
hi wendy, these are great! please do share them at the urban sketches group!
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