This week I spent a bit more time on a digital sketch, so it's not really a doodle per se, but I've included it on purpose. In comparison to the limitations of pen on paper, I was reminded that digital sketching offers a lot of nuance and detail. I was also reminded that I don't suck as much as I thought I did.
In fact, I've always been better at sketching digitally than with real media. I always put it down to having an undo tool more than anything, but in the spirit of the Sunday Sketchbooks, I haven't been 'undoing' anything lately. In fact, I've been trying to keep as close to my pen doodling as possible, but I still think the digital versions look a lot better.
Don't get me wrong, every now and then I manage to draw something I'm happy to share and am not completely embarrassed by. Although, most of the doodles I post have a long list of imperfections and inconsistencies. It's purely because the spirit of this project is frequency over quality, so I suck it up and press on.
Having said that, I do think I've gotten better over the last year and a half, or however long I've been doing this. In fact, now I can bust out a face without thinking too hard and it looks much more recognisable than when I started. So despite my own lack of faith in my abilities, I have to admit that I'm pleased to have improved, even a tiny bit.
At the same time, most of my doodles are done with a fairly relaxed attitude. Expecting everything to be terrible is a great way to never be disappointed, and it opens up the possibility of trying different things. I promise you I'm getting to a point.
The thing that's different this week is that I took a little more time to work on my little sketch of Rachel Riley (see the end of this post). Sure I might be watching too many episodes of Countdown, but she has a face that's easier to draw. I'm not commenting on aesthetics, just functional geometry. People with more asymmetrical faces and interesting lines and distortions are naturally a little more complex and difficult to reproduce.
Anyway, I decided to doodle her, but after an initial pass I figured I was close enough to tighten it up a little and add some more depth. Thus, I spent a little bit more time on it and added things like higher contrast and a bit of shading to give it a little more life. It's still not a perfect portrait, but I think it's a fairly good likeness and if you'd watched as much Countdown as I have, you might even recognise her.
Although, the real thing that it taught me is the difference in the tools I've been using. When I sketch in Photoshop, I use a hard round brush with pressure sensitive opacity. This isn't anything fancy, but if you don't know what I mean, it's like using a pen, but the lines get thicker and darker as I press harder with my pen. This is the exact thing that reminded me how much better it is to have the ability to use different tones.
For ages I've been sticking to pen on paper, because I really enjoy the limitations of making a mark and being stuck with it. However, I'd forgotten that only having a single tone and mark, is an easy way to get bored of the possibilities. So I figured I'd have a little fun with it this week and change things up a little.
As you can probably tell already, most of the pen doodles this week are looking a bit sketchy and messy. This is because I started using my pen in the same way I use my tablet for digital sketches. That is to say that I alternated between light and heavy pressure, as well as different orientations of the pen and paper.
Seeing as most of my felt tip pens are running out at the moment, I was able to get more of a sketchy outcome thanks to random ink flow and broken pen tips. Plus, I took a bit of extra time to apply more shading and fill in dark areas a bit more than I usually would.
I'm pretty happy with the result, but there are still some stinkers and issues in the pen doodles that I think are pretty unavoidable. The other thing with digital sketching is that you can slowly build up a line, making tiny adjustments along the way.
This is why it's easier to make shapes look balanced and proportional, as you're constantly editing the line until it finds its final form. With a pen, as soon as the ink hits the paper, you're done. If your line was askew, or if a shape was wonky, that's how it is for the rest of the drawing.
So I've made a minor breakthrough this week and been reminded that even though limitations are fun and challenging, they're not the end of the story. Changing it up and using different methods and tools goes a long way to stretching the mind and gives your hand a break from the usual interface.
I guess I'll keep doing some more digital drawings, as they're a nice break from the quick and dirty paper based doodles. I'm still going for quantity and frequency as the primary goal, but having another excuse to regularly use my tablet is always a welcomed thing.