“Never worry about making mistakes. All the marks you make, even the ones you aren’t happy with, contribute to the overall drawing. Think of it as a tapesty of lines. Sketching is also a learning curve. It’s always interesting to revisit old drawings and see how much your work has changed, modulated and improved during the time that you’ve been sketching.”
This is a quotation from Simone Ridyard’s marvellous new book, Archisketcher. Urban sketching is a rapidly filling field; there are almost too many books to choose from. But this one is a great one. The text is well-organized and carefully explained and the concepts are illustrated with excellent examples from a variety of the best urban sketchers.
But back to the quotation. I take heart from the thinking about mistakes, and being a fibre artist, I love the idea of a sketch being a tapestry of lines.
We were in Kingston yesterday and I had an hour to sketch. I sat in the open window of a café with a good view of the tower of the City Hall. This is one of my favourite buildings and I have sketched it before. Yesterday afternoon there was a big storm coming. I just finished the sketch as the drops began to fall. I’ve been experimenting with skies and yesterday’s sky was full of grays and purples. A run back and a blob are a few of the mistakes in this quick sketch but just looking at it now I am reminded of the stolen hour before the storm and the great fun it was to sketch such a magnificent building.
Leave a Reply