Sketching
Do you ever get home from something in the middle of the day, have a few hours to kill and think, “You know what I want to do? I want to do this super random thing that I haven’t done in a long time?” This was me yesterday afternoon after a coffee date with a friend. My husband was working late and I had a few hours before I had to pick him up. Did I have other things to do? Maybe, but for some reason, as I got out of my car and came up to the apartment, I really wanted to try sketching again.
I’m going to blame this one on my Twirly. She was talking about wanting to draw during our Skype date earlier this week and I think it triggered something. Each of us hasn’t drawn since we took a painting class junior year of college. It was a fun class, we kind of learned things about painting and we did a lot of sketching and painting of random things “in nature.” All our paintings had to be of things that were “natural” no industrial buildings or rooms or things I guess. It was a weird criteria, but we went with it. I was always better at sketching than I was painting. I actually really enjoyed the sketching part. It may have been an instant gratification thing. I could turn out a sketch in less than an hour while a painting took time. Time to mix the colors I wanted, time to dry, time to do the next layer, to touch up what I didn’t like, more time to dry. And there’s not a whole lot of precision in painting; at least not in the painting I was doing. It was all very messy and vague.
I’ve always wanted to be good at drawing. Going through high school at a performing arts center I had lots of friends who could draw really well. They always said anyone can be good at drawing, it’s just a matter of copying what’s in your brain onto a piece of paper, or something like that. I could never do it, though. I can’t draw from my head, ever. It just doesn’t work. However, I’ve found that I can actually copy things from a picture, sometimes. As long as it doesn’t have a face. Faces are literally the worst things to draw ever, right up there with hands and feet. Okay, fingers and feet. The whole foot is bad, fingers are really the hard part of the hand. Of the three, though, hands are surprisingly the hardest to avoid. I can get away with not drawing faces more often than I thought but not the hands. Who knew?
The sketch is at a weird angle, but there it is.
So yesterday I sat and sketched. I sketched a picture of my husband and I dancing at Twirly’s wedding. It came out really well until I tried to put an eye on my face. That didn’t turn out so well. I kind of look like I’m old and maybe possessed. The rest of the picture turned out pretty well, even if our hands look a little funky. I sketched a picture of Twirly and I after I gave my speech at her wedding. She’s kissing my forehead and I thought it was a very cute picture. Here the hands were the issue. Mine is on her shoulder and her’s is on my back and that open hand is just such a hard thing to get right. So her fingers all look funny and mine are funky, but hidden a little by my rings, so that’s something. I got her hair right at least. I kind of gave up on the eyes a little bit. Luckily you can’t see mine and hers are closed. The third picture I sketched was one of my husband riding one of those spring animals you find at a park. It’s a frog, and he’s looking very majestic as he looks off into the distance while riding it. I can handle side profiles and it helps that his glasses often obscure his eyes when he looks to the side. This is the only picture I did that doesn’t have something that looks really funky in it.
I think I might keep sketching today. I’m sure there are lots of people without faces I can draw. And it’s fun to look through my old pictures for things to draw. I love looking through old pictures and remembering good times had with family and friends and sometimes just me and my husband. And sketching, while frustrating sometimes, is actually really relaxing. It’s a little mindless without being actually mindless, you know? So that’ll be my day. I hope that you also have a lovely day, my friends.
‹ Not a Morning Writer Count Down to 5K ›