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So yesterday I did too much walking around and not enough drawing. Good exercise, and it was a sunny afternoon so I didn’t mind, but I didn’t get my 100! – and then the next day; winter is back! So that sucks.
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Here in Quebec we have a convenience store called ‘Couche-Tard’, meaning, Go-to-Bed-Late. Back home they’re called ’40 Winks’, but I’m not sure if there’s many of them still standing in Alberta.
Here we call it a dépanneur, or just ‘the dep’ (which can also means handyman or helper, so that’s the word for ‘convenience store’ : )
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Couche-Tard is famous for their fake Slurpee which is called a Sloche. The interent says “The Sloche has gathered much publicity through an aggressive (and sometimes controversial) marketing campaign.” < [That’s just a list of the obnoxiously funny drink names ]
This is all just a long winded way to say, it really sucks when it rains and snows at the same time. You end up with this whipped-meringue of ice water that weighs about 10lbs per snow shovel. I had to do that two days in a row this week.
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Anyway – I’m just chatting at you today while we look at sketches :) :)
Sometimes everyone is just ‘normal’ – so I look for conversational groupings. People often walk in pairs and you can sketch the way they’re interacting with each other.
That guy in the hoodie was very suspicious what I was up to. These are from cellphone photos and then drawn in the café. Is that ‘cheating’? Depends! If your goal is to develop your reportage style (that is, the ability to draw on the spot, in the action, under pressure, without fail) then yes, you’re cheating yourself of the discipline if you take pictures. Drawing purely live, in the moment, takes a lot more practice. And a lot more acceptance of your own mistakes. But how often do you really need this skill? If you want to be a reporter or a courtroom artist – sure! Or if you’re really serious about your journaling :)
But if your goal is to practice proportions, or draw drapery (clothing and bags are fun!) or learn how to make sketched portraits with personality – then all that is fair game from phone-shots.
Let’s just say : both skills – live drawing and sketching from reference (or the posed model in class) – they both contribute to each other. It’s cross-training. You need to do a bit of both.
