Wreckless Inking

Wreckless inking ensued this morning when I impulsively took the Pentel pocket pen brush for a quick spin on the sketchbook lane. Wreckless because I didn't care much... kind of smudgy, and careless. Also, the copic marker is showing signs of giving up the ghost, dirty tip dragging the not-yet dried black ink already on the page. Silly frog. Any art activity is good these days for me. Impulsive indeed.

Some Conversations

Another "on impulse" sketch, out of the blue. Started with the face, then evolved into something kind of weird, maybe even sad. The little floating kitty balls were probably influenced by the anime me and my daughter were watching at the time, but the old guy may as well be one of those guys talking to themselves on the street.
Yep. There are some conversations we may never be privy to. Maybe? :)

Workday Doodles

I found "rhythm" in my workday where I can do a little drawing. The pressures of the job have been interfering a lot more with my "art mojo", and the impulse to have that mojo express itself is showing.
Here's yesterday's sketchbook page. Each of these doodles was done on quick little breaks between tasks. I noticed some had fast lines, and others were a bit rendered or "noodled". This difference is probably worthy of exploration. The conclusion: there's something about being in a zone that artists can control, and I'm taking it for granted, letting it happen, which is my standard approach.
These are all impulsive doodles, so here they are.

Impulsive Meeting Sketch

Yep. I was in a meeting (teleconference) waiting for everyone to show up. In the end, no one did. While waiting, I decided to calm my nerves sketching for the Tuesday Sketch (a weekly sketching initiative). The topic was whales. Work has been kind of tense lately. Lots of "hurry up and wait" situations, and that can really get to one sometimes. So I drew these cartoony characters. I usually look up reference, and "inform" myself before drawing something specific, but this time, the cartoon impulse took over, and it made for a great relief-valve during the day. You can say "I phoned it in" with double meaning, this time. Impulse wins.

Sketching on the run

Pardon this crazy post. Bad photos of sketches, on the run. On holiday here. These sketches were done last week on one of my airport moments. Trying to keep the art up with the crazy work life. Hope you like. Will be sketching some more this week, and hope to share.

Thanks for dropping by!

Impulsive Dolphins on Mother's Day

Sat down for an art session with my daughter, the day before Mother's Day. I know, this post's content is a bit old. These days I barely have time to keep up with my art, or my blogging activities. Nevertheless, here goes.
It was do or die time if we were going to gift my wife with something original for Mother's day. The best part of this little endeavor was sharing with my daughter. So we went at it. Dolphins are a favorite of my wife's and a very nice necklace featuring a mother/daughter pair of dolphins was part of the ceremonies.
Here's my daughter's acrylic painting of a dolphin. She insisted in using sketch paper. Lesson for her, wet paint warps thin paper, and rough brushing can build up "paper-paint-bunnies". She did enjoy the process, and of course, she didn't mind my advice too much. But I do love the colors, and the fact that she even worked on her texture. The texture on that dolphin has a great look.

My impulsive acrylic painting was done on thicker paper meant for watercolors. I used some reference, and in the rush, didn't even notice the dorsal fin was blocked from view. Oh well. It was fun to do, and a breath of fresh air, art-wise, since time hasn't allowed me much time to indulge. I really appreciated the moment.

All in all, an impulsive painting session that turned into very nice gifts for my wife. Of course, she loved them both. We obviously love her, and that's not just because she's our captive audience. :) We hope you like these. Thanks for dropping by. Have a great art time!

Sketch-shots

I dedicate this impulsive sketching post to a good friend who's venturing into the world of drawing and cartooning. You know who you are, "N". :) We were talking the other night about trying to sketch people, on the move. That is, life drawing the folks around you in everyday situations. Of course, folks continually move. They're not posing for you. And of course, any attention drawn towards your drawing would break the magic. Just tell anyone you're taking a photo of them, and the spontaneity of their pose and looks usually fades away. Same goes for sketching. But I digress.
We were talking about not having time, under these situations, to really draw someone. I gave him my take on this. First take a quick rough or gesture drawing, then finish it off later. I kind of equate it to taking a snapshot with a really primitive camera that doesn't see everything. That's why I called this post: "Sketch-shots".

I was in the local shopping mall, waiting for my family to finish up in a store I didn't really want to be in, and I had my mini-sketchbook, and a stubby pencil. What to do? Oh well. Surrounded by folks that wouldn't stand still, I decided on the 30 second approach. This time, 30 seconds to take my sketch bearings (gesture lines of sorts), and later 30 seconds to enhance, or stress the salient points of the sketch of the person, rather like, stress the personality of the sketch-shot.
The first two were mid-way "kiosk" dwellers, filling in their time idle time in conversation. The other two were random folks, one in the cell-phone wave pose, the other had a significant hair style to capture (that last one through store glass). The last lady, well, she was very much into her conversation, and had interesting facial expressions, hard to resist drawing.
Anyway, the point I wanted to stress to my drawing friend was that you can pretty much capture a situation, look or emotion from someone, from the pose, in a few seconds, and work on it as much as you like later. It doesn't matter if you make it look like a cartoon, as long as the image's message comes through. I didn't sketch any masterpieces here, but I'm happy with capturing the moments. The experience becomes part of you, and later, no matter how badly you portrayed someone, it serves you as a learning tool, and something you can "draw" on the next time you're at it. Its all about learning, all the time, and if you hit a good one along the way, celebrate it. I celebrate even my ugly mistakes (look at that ugly hand and arm with the cell phone guy). But I drew, and that's what I wanted to do.
Hope you liked these... they were fun to do, and now they served a purpose, I hope. Onwards, art warriors!