December/January Sketchbook pages
Winter sketching is tough
Dear Reader
Here’s a little look at what I drew in my sketchbooks on location during the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I think you can see that Winter sketching really is a bit more of a challenge hence the fewer posts.
Particularly looking back at my contribution for December it looks like I had given up. Below post was sketched whilst waiting for my husband from the car and I was feeling a bit worse for wear.
I know this was in part to my prolonged sore throat illness and December generally being a busy time of year but when the weather is dark and foreboding it is a lot easier to close the curtains, put a soft light on, get cosy and stay put (not that that is a bad thing - I thoroughly enjoyed sketching inside at my parents house on boxing day evening).
And I’m not going make it sound easy to sketch outside in Winter. It’s not. When the weather is pelting down with rain and showers are like scenes from the ice bucket challenge you really do need a lot of will power to get out and start sketching.
However if and when I did get out, I found it to be an exhilarating and meaningful time. Even drawing in gale force winds, or bone shaking temperatures, the act of drawing in such an extreme weather condition for some reason makes me feel alive and thankful.
The best part is finishing the sketch and the sense of accomplishment that comes for sticking it out. And it doesn’t have to be for a long period of time- 10 minutes of sketching in the mizzle can give you the same buzz as 50 minutes in the sunshine.
It’s really not about how it looks (although that can be nice if a scene comes together) but in the act of what you did in getting out.
So all that being said here are my sketches for December/January. I wonder if you can tell the temperature by the sketch? Let me know in the comments.
What an absolutely beautiful post, Melanie! 😊
Lovely sketches. Did you use the same medium for all of them?