Saturday, October 11, 2014

and i say, it's alright

I always think that as long as I come away from a day trip or sketchcrawl or Dr Sketchy or any sort of drawing event or opportunity with one 'good' drawing, or, at least, one drawing that I like, then I'm happy with that. That's all I ask for. Just a memento of the day.
 By the time I was leaving London last week I still had nothing, apart from a few prosaic, pretty average drawings of people on the train there, and it was getting dark. I'd gone to the city with a drawing in mind. There's a sculpture I wanted to see and I'd packed the yellow and orange pens especially for it. But, our time there went so quickly that I didn't even get to see or draw it. But, that's okay, that's another trip
 .I didn't want to leave though, not without something, a souvenir, to take home. So, just before I caught my train back, I dived into a cafĂ© on the corner of Tottenham Court Road for a cuppa and a draw.
 I missed my next train home. So, I had an extra hour to spend drawing the souvenir shop on the opposite corner. I got another cuppa.
 Is it a 'good' drawing? Do I like it? Not really. It's alright. Ish. But, I feel like that about a lot of my work. I need to close the book and put it away for a while. I almost always feel differently with time between it. Who knows, I might even like my souvenir from London in a few months time. Right now I doubt it, but you never know.
 And here's a couple of prosaic, pretty average sketches of people on the train...

5 comments:

Unknown said...

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Bryan White said...

I don't comment here much, but I've liked your drawings. The style and texture and attention to detail.

The above drawing strikes a discordant note at first glace, as though something had stained the middle of the page, which maybe be part of your dissatisfaction with it. I don't know. But once I saw what I was looking at, I really liked the way you used the yellow to capture the glow of the lights from the inside of the shop as seen from the street. Really nice.

Icy Sedgwick said...

I love your drawing from Tottenham Court Road! It's quite melancholy in a way.

Andria said...

I love your souvenir shop sketch... much more than all right in my book! :-) The yellow makes the shop look like an inviting haven... like it should be emanating from a book store or coffee shop.

Karen said...

What's not to like about this drawing?