Deliberate Sketching

In Saturday’s post, “On the patio,” I had to crop out a portion after making a mess of it. Since I did many sketches that night when I was working on capturing expressions that convey a sense of people not engaging socially with a group, I was able to return to a similar sketch today and develop it further. I began this sketch using pen and ink. Today I continued to experiment on it by making more lines with pen, markers, and pencils. I used Yupo paper for the first time and am getting the hang of managing markers that stay moist and mixable.  In some parts of this sketch the line marks are visible, such as the figure’s hair, forehead, and shirt, and I hope to develop the skill to routinely include this type of line in more of my sketches.

I continued to experiment with markers as I worked on incorporating line into my sketch in a way that did not distract from the story. I began with a line sketch in ink from yesterday, added marker, and then augmented the marker with colored pencil. I used bristol board with markers and the smoother surface took the markers well, leaving fewer distinct marks in the filled in areas.  My limited choice of color markers forced me to work a bit more abstractly and I think this enhanced the expressions on the three faces.

It took some time and several sketches, but as I sketched I realized this was an opportunity to convey the experience of a social gathering where the conversation is lagging a bit. All mouths are closed, there is no eye contact and no smiles. The knitter is intent on her work, the middle figure leans forward looking disinterestedly at the knitting, and the figure on the right is looking into the distance as though he is thinking of a topic that might engage his companions.  I had to wait patiently for each person in turn to take on a real expression I could fit into this story since for the most part it was a lively evening.