Making Art Exploration: Sketches

I used to love drawing and painting as a kid, but as I was growing up with an extremely artistically talented brother, I guess I have not developed the confidence to stick with my interest, and it became more art appreciation than art making. When Justin saw my little drawings the very first time, he was surprised and started encouraging me. I still did not take myself very seriously and kept doing my sketches only once or twice a year. Now I have a very artistically gifted daughter to support. :) It's funny how we find excuses to not do something we are not confident about instead of just doing it and gradually growing and becoming better at it. Sound familiar anyone?

Anyway, I felt that I wanted to get into the habit of sketching more often than I used to and bought myself what they call "a visual journal" (thick paper, good for many types of media, from pencils to pastels and watercolor) and just started step-by-step sketching whatever. Usually it's from my head - the portrait above would be a good example of this sort of drawing. It's not that I was looking at Sam as I watched Foyle's War this Summer (loved it, by the way). But her face was in my head as I drew this portrait. Another example of such drawings is in my other blog, in the post HERE.

The pair of  flip-flops, on the other hand, were right in front of my eyes as I was sitting on the beach on Bainbridge Island.

The last sketch page is what I tend to do lately - a mix of objects around me or fantasies in my head (like my latest little obsession with steampunk fashion reflected in this drawing).

I am not declaring a newly found great talent or anything like it (and if you saw my big brother's or my 11 year old daughter's drawings, you'd see why I shy away from trying to develop whatever talents I've got in this field). But I find that sketching does me good in so many ways. It relaxes me, calms me down, and just that one thing is worth continuing. It makes me notice details around me which otherwise completely escape my mind - my vision so very often is directed inwards that I tend to overlook what's in the outer world. It is my visual diary, like the sketch of my daughter cuddled in an old chair with her hair wet after the pool, under the dim light of a floor lamp asking Justin about his school years in the evening. And it brings something out of my imagination which at times I am not even aware of existing. So for all those reasons and maybe some others which I haven't thought about just yet, I decided to include the scans of my sketches in this blog which is dedicated to my "making art" exploration.