Use your sketchbooks to draw a space you are familiar with. Draw the location, the people and activities taking place and use noted to capture your thoughts and feelings, dialogue and other details that can help to bring the drawings to life.
You may want to work in a private domestic space or an external location you know well. Either way, try and capture the day to day life of the space with all its comings and goings, busy periods and quiet spots, activities and events. You can spend a chunk of time doing all the drawings in one go, or work on them over a period of time.
I am very keen to increase my sketching practice, so this exercise was a perfect opportunity to do just this. I have previously mentioned that I tend to procrastinate so it took me a while to put pencil to paper. I decided to base my drawings within the living room of my house as that is probably where the most activity takes place. I also have a major issue with feeling self-conscious when I draw around other people, which is going to be challenging in the context of this section of the course! I thought, therefore, that drawing my family within the safety of my home is a good place to start.
I began by drawing the sofa without anyone else in the room. I was able to spend quite a long time on this sketch as there was no movement to capture. I really tried to focus on the shape of the sofa and particularly paid attention to the fall and folds of the cover as drawing materials/clothing is an area I need to practice and improve on.
Next, I moved onto drawing my cat sleeping on the sofa. As an elderly cat, she did not move very much as I drew, so, as above, I was able to spend some time on this drawing. Again I attempted to focus on the folds of the cover and the position of the different lines/shadows in relation to one another.
I then decided to draw my mum sitting in the single chair. I tried to make positive, quick marks and not worry too much about the details. The perspective is slightly skewed and the chair is not wide enough, but I think I managed to capture the pose, character and proportions fairly well.
I moved onto drawing my brother sitting on the sofa whilst he had a cup of coffee. He was moving quite a bit so I had to work quickly to first get down an overall shape/positioning and then I added more details.
Next, I chose to draw my mum’s feet on the coffee table. The angle was difficult and I was not sure how the overlap of the legs would turn out, but I maintained my intention of drawing what I could actually see, not what I thought I was seeing.
I began to develop the habit of having my sketching materials close to hand and thus drawing small, quick sketches of various objects, such as the remote control. I only had a couple of minutes before it was picked up for use, so I really worked at speed to capture the visual information as best I could.
I drew my brother’s hand holding a knife as he was eating dinner. This was not an easy task as his hand was constantly moving and twisting/turning all over the place. I quite liked how I managed to draw the different segments of the fingers.
I moved on to sketch part of the table and a chair. Again, I tried to do this a quickly as possible. I was not particularly pleased with this drawing as it is very messy and the proportions are incorrect.
Another unsuccessful drawing of the table. I decided not to finish this one as it was a bit pointless and uninspiring.
I was starting to get a bit despondent with my sketches as I didn’t feel they were as good as they should be. I think I was trying too hard to make the ‘perfect’ representation of subjects/objects.
For the next drawing I worked covertly, sketching my dad speaking on the phone to the bank (he was quite angry…). I sketched quickly and kept taking quick glances between him and my paper. I feel I managed to capture the annoyance in his facial expression and it definitely looks like him. I think I must have just gone ‘into the zone’ during this drawing as it felt fairly effortless. Of course, I can still find negatives such as the size of his body (too narrow/small) and the arm holding the phone does not look right, but I am quite proud of the face area.
I wanted to attempt more drawings that involved movement, so I sketched my mum putting the decorations up on our Christmas tree. She was constantly moving, so I was forced to just draw the basic posture and outline. This is definitely something I want to do more often as it prevents me fussing over the details and I just have to get on with it.
Final Thoughts
I found this exercise a good introduction to sketching and I intend to expand on my practice going forward. I found that if I actually fully focus on the subject/object I am able to produce work that shows potential – I just need to keep doing it. I keep stating my intention of joining a life drawing class on a regular basis, so hopefully I will be able to make this a reality soon as it would be very beneficial for my development.