Sketchbook: 17/09/2011 & 18/09/2011

Relatively unproductive weekend, didn't get very much drawing or anything done at all! Had the best night's sleep I've had in about 2 weeks though, it was nice to just go home and have one last taste of normality before things get going.

We took my sister's puppy to the park and let her off the lead for the first time and she went absolutely mental, darting and diving all over the place. For some reason, though, I totally forgot to take my sketchbook. So unfortunately, instead of exciting dog pictures, you get my fireplace and a chewed up bird puppet.

Another unsuccessful attempt. I've not quite taught myself to consider buildings and objects in terms of their most basic shapes, which I think is why I struggle so much. I just kind of start drawing without really thinking it through or planning it at all, leading to all sorts of scale and perspective problems.

As above, same issue. The angles on the door are all skewed but I at least attempted to look at it in bits, rather than the whole object all at once.

This page is really really empty so I might go back and add to it. Started drawing my cat's ears then he got the hump and ran off.

Drawing fast-moving cars whilst in a car, on a motorway, is very difficult. It's easy to get frustrated — there's barely enough time to even put pencil to paper before the car you're trying to draw is gone. I think I'm worrying too much about the detail at this point, so I need to focus on the shape of the thing.  I'm finding it quite laborious to keep working in pencil so next time I attempt some buildings and whatnot, I'll give it a shot using ink.

Really wish I'd done more this weekend. Must admit this blog certainly puts things into perspective in terms of your output, although it's quite disheartening to look back and realise that you've been nowhere near as productive as you thought you were.

Sketchbook: 15/09/2011

Met with our very lovely theory tutor today. Really excited to get started on the course now — I'm strting to get all itchy and wanting to do stuff... though I'm sure I'll rapidly change my mind when the big sticks come out.

Did a bit of drawing this afternoon with a couple of classmates. Tried an interesting little experiment and walked in a random direction with a timer set for 5 minutes. When the timer went off, we just sat down and drew whatever was around us. Unfortunately for me, this was a most inspiring view of a big brick wall. So I just drew some people instead. Oh, and a bush.

The aforementioned big boring wall, and the uninspired half-finished drawing that it spawned. It's mostly my fault, I'm a bit biased towards anything that wasn't living at one stage or another. I think the main reason I find things like buildings so difficult is because there are so many perfect lines and edges. It feels a bit like there's less room for error?

I've made myself sound like a bit of an idiot. Off I go!

Sketchbook: 13/09/2011

Starting something is always the hardest part. The first line of an essay, the first blog post and especially the first drawing in a sketchbook, as evidenced below.

It's been a very long time since I've kept anything even vaguely resembling a blog or diary, so you'll have to forgive me if I sound a bit stiff. It feels very alien, talking to a big white void like this. To try and kick this thing off, here are the first few terrible pages from my sketchbook!

I'm certainly not the best at drawing in any case but these drawings are a lot stiffer than usual — it's been such a long time since I've actually been drawing properly that it's a little difficult to get back into the swing of things.

Only the leftmost figure was drawn from life, the other was scrawled from the cover of the student planner we got given today. For shame Alex!

I'm hopeless at drawing inanimate objects, but it's something I'm really going to need to get to grips with.

Didn't do too much drawing today, unfortunately. The fact that I'm still only half-unpacked and living mostly out of cardboard boxes may have had something to do with it. Still, baby steps, eh?