Recently I’ve come to realize that I haven’t really drawn on paper for quite some time. So, I decided to switch it up, and do some “daily sketches” on paper for a while. I wanted to see if I could produce a few rough drawings, on paper, everyday. I usually spend a few minutes a day doodling random shapes and lines, to rough conceptual, preliminary sketches, as part of my “warm up” or “free time sketching”, where I brainstorm new ideas and/or transition from one project to another.
When i started practicing digital art many years ago, it was not only because that was the way the world was moving, but also due to the fact that these sketches would end up in a stack somewhere, collecting dust until eventually ending up in the shredder. However, digital sketches usually end up deleted only when the files start to pile up in my drawing program. Or they are moved to a folder somewhere else, or anther device, only to be deleted when that storage space also becomes overcrowded.
This keeps the digital sketches sticking around just long enough to potentially be useful. Becoming a sort of punching bag to experiment with different styles, or work on different poses or common problem areas. Such as hands holding objects at particular angles, or even when drawing new objects, plants or animals for the first time. Slowly I’ll build up a library of poses, figures, or “assets”, which can contribute to or subsequently be used in other projects or designs.
Sometimes these sketches are related to, yet separate from a main project. Other times, what starts out as a sketch will become its own project. For example, while working on some realistic portraits, I’m asked for a specific breed of dog in a cartoon style. Before i can get out a design, I will need to spend a bit of time drawing different cartoon dogs to get my brain “re-wired” from drawing realistic images.
This led to another exercise, after the original drawing was finished. Whenever I had a creative block or it was time to warm up, I would just sketch or draw up another dog and add it to the collection. Resulting in more elaborate designs and detailed images, something I continue to do to this day.
The paper sketches started out strong with drawings based on random images found while browsing pinterest and google, eventually moving on to a few family pets. The early drawings started out detailed, with dark, confident strokes, bold lines, and texture. I was working on a smaller scale by drawing multiple sketches on a single piece of paper. This was because I knew I was going to have to scan the images to get them online.
Eventually I found myself busy among other responsibilities, and I realized that I was drawing as quickly as possible, to finish the sketch for the day. Resulting in a few sketches ending up with softer lines and light on detail, scribbled in just to get it “out of the way”. After scanning the images, I brought them over to Sketchbook Pro to darken the ones that needed it. Finally cleaning up the finer pencil lines and re-emphasizing details to make the digital versions look closer to how they appeared on paper.
I didn’t want to have to go another few months of working on projects, before I have anything to upload. So this project pretty much was just focused on creating sketches with the intention to place them in a category called “Sketches”, as i said i wanted to do in a previous post. I can begin posting work on a more sustainable schedule, now that there is a place to live, for any sketches that survive the shredder.
The majority of these sketches are of animals that I randomly found online, as well as few pets.
I’d like to open that up a bit: I’ll occasionally be inviting followers and visitors to submit their own pet photos for a chance to be included in the drawing schedule.
If your image is selected, you’ll be able to download a **free JPG** of the artwork, with the option to purchase it as a print, greeting card, mug, or high-resolution PNG if you’d like something more polished or printable.
If you’d like to see new drawings, works in progress, and future updates as they roll out, you can also follow me on social media. I’ll be sharing finished pieces, sketches, and occasional calls for pet submissions there as well, so feel free to follow along and say hi. Steweird.com/rayman
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