Ugly Sketchbook

More pages from my cheap, anything-goes 3″ x 5″ pocket sketchpad, which I’ve dubbed “Ugly Sketchbook”: These little doodles were actually the first time I had decided to draw buildings out of my head after spending a year intensively sketching buildings and architecture in Washington, DC. The first page is significant; in the lower left corner, I quickly scrawled a building, then realized I did it so fast that the result was of no redeeming visual value. Over to the right of it, I slowed my pen down, gave a little more thought, and came up with a doodled building with a much better perspective and whimsical style.

Metro Sketch

When sketching people on a busy commuter train, some days you just get lucky; this gentleman, with perfectly-coiffed hair, simple demeanor, and conservative wardrobe (including those cool wrap-arond earmuffs), slept still and poised for the duration of my commute. Best of all, my line of sight to him was at no time blocked as the train took on additional passengers.

Retro Sketch

This is from a sketchbook, which I started back in 2009. Not very long ago, compared to other sketchbooks featured in the Retro Sketch postings, but significant none the less; towards the end of this book, almost two years after it was purchased, I finally decided to return to drawing and illustration as a serious endeavor. Up until that point, I had all but abandoned the art forms, and the earlier sections of this book reflect as much. The page shown here started with some weak scrawling of a “broken/destroyed heart” icon, based on a hearing about a relationship that had come to an abrupt and disconcerting end. Not going anywhere with that, I tried a few sketches of people at the cafe, but without much interest. Finally, I relied on my old fallback; a freehand bicycle drawing (let’s see how many cyclists/bike fanatics pick up on the details…)

Sketchbook Drawing: Progress

Here’s a drawing shaping up in one of my sketchbooks: an imaginary cityscape, something of which I have been drawing quite a lot of lately. After a year spent sketching buildings here in Washington, DC, I started doodling little imaginary buildings while on phone calls, coffee breaks, and waiting for large graphic files to save. I soon progressed to doodling a few more of these buildings into imaginary cityscapes, with details culled from my local urban sketches. I decided that I wanted to do a more polished version of these doodles, and finding a 6″ x 8″ sketchbook laying around in a freecycle area was my inventive to give it a go. I’ve since been working on this drawing little by little, completing sections during various drawing Meetup groups here in DC.