Sometimes it's hard to stare down that first blank page. Yesterday morning, I just decided to play with making marks with a Faber Castell Pitt calligraphy pen. This pen was part of the package for Roz's class that I purchased at Wet Paint. Let's just say that I have not become one with this tool yet and it was time to start figuring out how to make different thicknesses of lines with it.
It was a good way to start. My first page is deliberately messy.
I moved on and tried some gesture sketches of the cats as a warm up. I'm not clear on the concept of gesture sketches. When I try them, it always feels a little frantic, so I decided to time myself just to see how long I am taking per sketch. I've been spending around a minute per gesture sketch. No wonder it feels frantic! Plus, I am not able to execute decent lines or proportions at this speed. When I slowed down, I found I was spending 1 1/2 to 2 minutes per gesture sketch and it went much better. Of all of yesterdays' gesture and contour sketches, I am the most pleased with the bottom one on this page. It was the last gesture sketch before I did some contour work. I was warm. I didn't rush. It actually captures the overall cat pretty well.
These sketches are from first thing yesterday morning. Sketching in the morning works better. I'm not sure that I can make this work during the week, but I should definitely try it on the weekends. I feel fresher and less bogged down by the "shoulds" and "rules" that seem to pile up throughout the day.
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