Come on right? The light on that bike rack was like being in a Christopher Nolan movie. I do this marathon every year to remind myself what I love about street sketching.
Keep moving and make your own luck.
Only time and patience will give you the gems.
So ok – I painted this one from a phone snap. (I’m way to honest for my own good! But I have to tell it like it is). Does that put the lie to what I’m saying? If I stood in the snowbank and painted it, would it be any different? It might have been MORE spontaneous :) It’s true. But I feel, in this case, I’m no different from a street photographer – except I develop my pictures in watercolor instead of lightroom.
Less is more! Some of my personal favorites are the simple silhouettes. There’s almost no technique to it. Just let the puddles merge in the shape, and wait just long enough to touch in some shadow.
If you stay with the same pigments year after year you’ll learn how far they float, and when is the right amount of dampness to try charging into a shape.
That one smiling fella was getting some great news on his phone. It’s a lot of fun trying to find good poses when nobody is doing anything. I snapped his pic because he was too good to pass up.
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So I’m not going to show you the rest of the 100; I don’t want to bore you or embarrass myself with the bad ones. Let’s say it was very easy cut it down to the best third. Keep that in mind! if you do 100 drawings, your best 10, or your best 36 in this case, are going to look a LOT better than the whole pile.
It’s good for your morale to tear up half of what you do! When you look back on it later you’re much happier :)
Hope you’ve been doing the marathon too hey? Feel free to drop me a comment with your links! Maybe I’ll see you on Instagram? I’m off Facebook for Lent this year. Please keep using the hashtag so we can find each other!
