Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Róisín's writing is very entertaining, so apart from giving expert advice on drawing people, which she does very well, you will get a good laugh as well. I particularly like tips like 'How to channel your inner alien’ and why you shouldn't sketch from photos ‘Photos are the enemy of lively sketches. Leave your phone in your pocket’ which is so true.
Nice to be sharing a page with these talented individuals; @pauloj.mendes @mikedaikubara @nelson_paciencia and @matlet
Kiwis can pick up a copy at Gordon Harris, who deliver during lockdown online sales here. My copy finally arrived after months languishing on a cargo ship somewhere in the Pacific thanks to COVID-19, and if we weren't in Level 4 lockdown I'd go and draw some more people right now.
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