Virtual Sketchwalk

During a sketchwalk you walk around a certain place and stop here and there to make a sketch on location. Often people meet somewhere to do this together. But drawing on location is not for everyone. You often don't have a convenient place to sit down. Not everyone can stand for longer periods of time. Or you just are not comfortable drawing in public.

With a virtual sketchwalk you use photos or Google Street View and do your 'walk' from the comfort of your home or studio. You choose a certain place or topic to explore and draw from (copyright-free) photos you find online or make some from Street View. Of course, you can also include your own photos.

Like the 'real thing', this is even more fun when you do it in a group. You can provide your own photos to the group and draw from the photos other members provide. There is a Facebook group I have joined not long ago. We work on a different topic every month. Last month it was Ireland. This month it's flowers. The group is organised by Kate Powell. If you feel like this is something for you, come and join us.

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Introduction

I have been drawing for 20 months now. I started back then, because I wanted a creative hobby, that you can do on a daily basis without needing lots of material initially. So I decided to learn a bit about the basics of drawing, practiced and soon found out, that it is easier than everybody thinks. And after all, you don't have to be perfect for it to be fun and for your drawings to be valuable. You are free to find your own way of drawing. While drawing as often as possible, I often find myself thinking a lot about this craft and me doing it. I certainly like drawing and sketching in sketchbooks. They are like journals you can browse through again and again and see what you were up to when you filled them. I am going to share my thoughts about drawing here and hopefully will dare to share one or the other drawing.

New Sketchbook

There is nothing like preparing a new sketchbook after you have finished the previous one. I like to decorate the insides of the front and back cover with stickers. One that says „Sylvia‘s sketchbook no. x“ and some simply for decoration. After filling the first page I also add the month I started it. After filling the last page I then add the month I finished it. The stuff on the right is just digital.

Architecture

Drawing architecture can be intimidating. A simple house or part of it is no problem. But something more complicated with lots of details tends to leave you overwhelmed. Where to start and how much detail to include? I'm not experienced in drawing more complicated buildings. So when I came across this photo of a church in Arles I liked the perspective, but at first wasn't sure if I could draw this. But I must have felt adventurous and went ahead. I grabbed a pencil and started with the basic shapes of the tower. Then proceeded with the basic shapes of the rest of the building - as much of it as fit on my page. Then the windows and some other, more detailed parts of the church. I didn't think much about perspective, just drew what I saw. With pencil you can always correct things if they don't work out. I would not have dared to draw this with pen from the start. When the pencil sketch looked good, I went over it with a fineliner. I added some more details an...

Sylvia‘s Art Journey

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