Sketching to Let the Mind Wander

These days, I need to sketch every day. Drawing sketches turn me away from detail to focus on the main idea. Although simple, doing a sketch is hard work. I never had a good disposition about sketching, it was something I could do just to kill time, but now I see drawing sketches as my way to explore and discover.

Currently, my sketches are made with drawing pencils I collected over the years. As I'm nearly 3/4 full into a sketchbook of 120 pages, I realize I enjoy sketching with harder pencils because they don't smudge as much. However, I appreciate the rich dark tones that softer pencils produce. I'm inclined to work on sketchbooks with fewer pages and settle on a good quality of drawing pencils for consistent results.

Using the sktchy app gave me the initial motivation I needed; however, I want to look past that to push my sketching practice to another level. When I turned to youtube for reference, I found two painters whose drawing style and methodology resonate with me. American painter Ian Roberts and Gustavo Adolfo Gonzales Echeverria from Peru. With their drawing demonstrations, these two artists have taught me how fulfilling drawing can be. While Ian sets his attention on simple shapes, Gustavo demonstrates draftsmanship that's quite enlightening.

I always enjoyed interpreting people and scenes to generate characters and storytelling. I struggled to complete my paintings because I would depart from my imagination without prior analysis. Now I can see how drawing sketches help me anticipate obstacles that interfere with how I paint. Also, I like to think that becoming more interested in drawing sketches is my contraposition to tech dependency, which sets a tone for quieting my mind and declutter.



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I retain my curiosity by documenting my creative process. Writing allows me to engage in self-dialogue and validate what I do. I'm always interested in connecting with creative people. Click here to connect!-

-Hernan