SKETCHING: A Creative Journey Towards Painting

Da Vinci - Weiblicher Kopf im Profil
Female head in profile A sketch
Leonardo da Vinci

How To Learn Pencil Sketching  For an artist, nothing can be more important than the primary sketch of a painting. Many artists experience some fear at the start of a career in doing sketches. It might be the apprehension that the sketch would not be enough good or it would result in clear waste of time. 

But with the growing experience in this field and proper following of technique would produce astonishing results. Sketching is not a complete picture, it is the first feeling that you had in your heart upon seeing things.

How To Start Sketching   The difficulties lie here only. Artists holding the pencil in hand and sitting with blank paper before eyes would find it like standing on the last rock from where the valley starts; no road going ahead. Believe me; I had the same experience of fear. But now I own a full big box of the sketches I had done on paper, book pages, and on the reverse side of tickets for film shows. Do keep one thing in mind while doing a sketch of any object or a scene: do not leave it incomplete. Do it fully, and do it with the same feeling you are going through at the moment. That is the real purpose of the art of sketching. And remember one important aspect: sketching is just a record of an idea that you would be translating into a painting in future.

The Skill of Sketching   The art of sketching is a skill that can be developed. It would equip you in recording your immediate response to the surrounding. The process of going into this field could enhance the level of confidence in learning more about the art of drawing and painting further. 

A sketch of Sydney Harbour Bridge
Photographic Collection from AustraliaCC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

A good sketch would lead to a better pencil drawing of a perfect painting, may it be in watercolour or oil. For an artist, sketching provides ample opportunity to mingle with the subjects and understand the very feel of the air in which s/he is standing while doing it. Even a loose sketch done within ten minutes would be providing you with valuable detail about the tonal values and the light effects of the atmosphere in which you did the sketch.

Sketching From Photographs   Many artists have put forward mixed views about making sketches from photographs. Some believe that the photos we have taken are just like sketches in a different form. Some artists think that while painting based on photos, one would tend to copy the exact details s/he would see in it and would render the artwork into one more copy of that photo only. But in reality, things are very different now.

The artists of the renaissance period also used preparatory works as a tool while doing their final work. Artists like Vermeer also recognized the importance of the photographs of objects to be painted. To minimise the risk of making just a copy of a photo, an artist should make out several sketches of the objects or the scene depicted in a photo. That would give the feel of being artistically present in the scene.

My Experiments With Pencil Drawing   Those were the days when I was sincerely trying to come out of my marvellous ignorance about the art of painting. I turned down the reference sections of a library. It was not the case that the librarian was my friend or an art lover. He simply wanted to dust some books without making a payment. My newborn curiosity about books of painting fitted well in this scheme. I cleared the dust from almost three hundred books, out of which I had read fifty at least.

Finally, I decided to meet those who have practical knowledge of art. Had I met the art teachers? No. Sorry. I did not take that long circuitous route that leads nowhere. But one of the artists I met strangely satisfied my curiosity. I asked what I should do for becoming an artist. “You are like a barren land,” he looked at the sky and started addressing me. “Till the land first… and then pour water on it for a time. Thereafter plant some good seeds of imaginations, and the flowers would be blooming in due course.”

I asked him about how I should start. “Purchase the ploughs. For tilling the barren land, a good set of ploughs is required. By ploughs, I mean pencils. Start the journey from Pencil drawing.” Yes, before becoming an artist, the gentleman was a farmer. But I followed his advice in spirit, and not in letters. For two weeks no noticeable change was there. But thereafter things started to change. The forms became identifiable, and the shading looked convincing. Even the flat drawings seemed to become three-dimensional and the thin figures on my drawing papers were on the track of being voluminous. Thus I entered the field of pencil drawing. 

DRAWING AN OLD COUPLE: Hand in hand

Hand in hand - Pencil Drawing,
originally uploaded by 
RobbScottDrawings.

Theme: Pencil Drawing of Standing and walking people.

Art: Drawing is an art that gives us pleasure we hardly can get from other activities. We can have this pleasure just by sitting and doing something with paper and pencils. Pencil drawing is also a technique that can be learned by those who have a passion for putting their first foot in the land of art. Among the various section of the drawing, we can say that the portrait drawing is one of the most beloved sections of the art of drawing and painting. 

The Artist:   Look at the work of many well-known artists, and you will find one or two beautiful portrait paintings in his or her collection. So portrait drawing is the most loved art among the artist, too. The beginner who wants to be a portrait-making artist should first learn to define the outlines of the figure he or she is going to draw. See here the artist has shown the master technique of shading and lining of the pencil drawing. 

The Artwork:    The drawing portrays an old couple, grandparents. The position of their hands and feet shows how they desire to be nearer to each other. Here the artist has shown the inner wish of every old couple, a wish to have the company and support of his or her spouse. The different shades applied makes the whole pencil drawing looks like a three-dimensional photograph. The thin and long shadows falling behind the back of the couple indicated the ending hours of the day, a symbolic one too.

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