Packing Your Art Travel Kit

 

Rose Drawing, watercolour and watercolour pencil

Blog 9



The warmer season is a great time to practice drawing. You do not need a lot of equipment, and you can do it anywhere. You only need a sketch pad or book, pencils and an eraser.


I can already hear some of you say that you cannot draw a straight line. The good news is that most natural shapes do not have completely straight lines. The trunk of a tree might look straight from afar, but the closer you get, the more you see that it is irregular.

small sketch from this week

Drawing is like writing: everyone has their unique vision and way of expressing themselves. If ten people draw a subject like a tree, you will get ten different drawings. There is no right or wrong way. The first step is to observe your surroundings. Look for simple shapes (circles, ovals, rectangles, squares, and triangles) and then practice drawing these shapes.


Like everything new, drawing feels uncomfortable at first. Do not be obsessed with the final result but enjoy the process. You might surprise yourself. Look at what you learn about yourself in the process.

 

Challenge yourself and work from nature if possible! Push yourself outside of your comfort zone to get better.


Aside from improving your drawing skills, you will heighten your sense of viewing the world and the beauty of even the small things. You will suddenly make many new observations because you see what you previously overlooked.


If you love to add colour to your artwork, put watercolours or watercolour pencils into your travel kit. Compared to other paint mediums, watercolour is the most portable. It dries fast, and you can easily cover large areas very quickly. You do not even need special watercolour pads. Most sketchpads will handle a quick layer of watercolour if you avoid soaking your pad.


By using watercolours, you can add colour to your sketch, which will be very useful when the colour is what intrigued you to sketch the scenery in the first place. You can capture the mood of the situation. I am just thinking of the beautiful sunsets or sunrises, the mesmerizing greens and blues of the water, menacing dark clouds and sky just before a storm. Consider that the paint dries about three times lighter than the paint you put on the paper.


When you work on-site, keep in mind that the scenery in front of you changes quickly. You are capturing a visual note of what you see. It is easy to get overwhelmed by getting caught up in too much detail. Therefore, ask yourself why you want to draw a scene, then focus on that.


It doesn't matter if anyone but you can relate to your sketch. It is just for you, not to impress others. You want to capture the mood of the situation rather than the realistic technical drawing. The more you practice, the better your observational skills will get. You will appreciate the stunning world around you even more. You will suddenly see things that you never noticed. Over time, your sketchpad will become a journal reflecting what is important to you and your vision of your environment.


Due to my five-week stay in Germany, I will take a blogging break until mid-July. If you enjoyed this blog and would like to get more information about what's going on in my business, I encourage you to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter on my website www.KerstinPeters.ca. When you subscribe, you will automatically receive my free e-book, I Am Ready To Paint But Where Do I Start? which will be replaced with a needle felting resource soon.