So far in my studies to become a sketcher I have learned about how to anatomically draw lines, shading, and other such things. Liron suggested that I should pick something around the household to practice on. That brought to mind something that I have been thinking about for some time. Why not take a photo from my 22,000 piece portfolio and trace it using what I have learned so far. I need much practice in the elementary stuff. Why not that?

So, in the next few weeks I will be giving you my first attempts at sketching using pencil tracings. I am going to use a picture of a place that I am intimately familiar with and that is my 21-year homestead. There are lots of lines and shading to be accomplished to get it to resemble the photo. In the coming weeks I will likely do several versions of the picture below to see if I can improve my techniques. In some ways, I feel like I am cheating, but this makes perfect sense of learning the manual side of this art.

Of course, my end goal with sketching is to be able to look at something and sketch it. That will likely take more years than I actually have left, but that is ok. One of my favorite quotes is:

Live your life as if you will live forever, but be prepared to die tomorrow

I’m pretty sure my first attempt, which I will be giving you next Saturday will be pretty crude, but then of course these are baby steps, so I wouldn’t expect anything else. I have mentioned before that my Feedly list has a couple very experienced sketchers that I visit weekly, so I will likely be reviewing the way they do such things as trees and lighting and things I have no idea on how to presently do.