I’ve read that quick sketching is a great way to learn to draw the most important things and lines in a drawing.
By forcing yourself to draw quickly, you’ll need to find the areas and features you want to focus on, and decide to leave some other things behind.
So I decided I would do some speed sketches, using no more time than 5 to 10 minutes drawing. Then I added a quick layer of watercolour, much in the same style.
I’m hoping to get the courage to do some sketches (and paintings) outside, but for now I used some photographs from a 7 week trip we did in Southeast Asia in 2016.
I remember a lot from the actual location where we took the photos, so I decided that this would be the next best thing.
Anyway, the first one is from Mui Né in Vietnam, when we were waiting for a pickup truck to come get ut for a hiking trip.
While we waited for our car, we sat in a small café, watching other tourists leave in groups for the trip.
I can still remember the sounds and movements that surrounded us.
The photo itself looked like this:
My quick sketch ended up like this:
It was fun doing these kind of sketches, as it took away some of the pressure I feel with paintings to make them worthwhile.
It got very green, though, (and the wrong type of green) because i didn’t wash the brush well enough. But what the hell, it’s just a quick sketch.
I only used my small pocked box of watercolours.
The next one was a photo from when we came to the island Koh Rong Samloem, Cambodia in a ferry boat.
Our first view of the island was a man in a smaller boat waving to us as it bounced around on the waves coming in to shore.
It looked like this:
My quick sketch ended up like this:
Again, the colours aren’t very precise.
But this was all about working fast and loose.
So, to sum up, I’ll be doing a lot more of these in moments where I’m short on time.
So, on to the next!
These look great! I’m doing a similar exercise at the moment (although I’ve not put them online yet). It’s great fun to sketch and paint fast. I started at the end of May doing a few of these a week and already I can see the change in my line quality when I look back.
With the issues you had with your greens being too bright, I wondered if you know the trick of using complementary colours to push the saturation of a colour down. With green the complementary colour is red, so when you paint on some green and it seems too bright you can drop a tiny bit of red into the wet wash and move it through the paint. The colour will calm right down for you.
Anyway great work – thanks for sharing your journey!
It sure is fun. And a great way to get in a full session in small time gaps ☺ I’ve heard of the complimentary colours, and try to use them. But I’ve just used them because I’ve heard they look good together. Not to calm each other down. What a great tip. I’ll definitely keep it in mind for future work. Wish you well on your further sketching as well. Can’t wait to see them ☺☺
I’m glad you like the tip – all the best!
I like these loose and fast sketches, to me they are full of life and very dynamic 🙂
Thank you ☺ I’m very glad you think so. I’m really trying to get into the whole style ☺