Change it up

Last month (was it last month already?!), I went out on a weekly stroll around the neighbourhood with my wife and 3yr old son. I usually bring along a pen, or fountain pen, watercolours and sketchbook. That's what I consider my usual Urban Sketcher kit. And I'd draw whatever I see in front of me, simply and quickly. (I teach that). I've been doing that for so long now, I wanted to change it up. 

So I looked through my drawers and chose 4 different kinds of tools. Black marker for lines. 2 colour pencils for line/colouring, one light green coloured marker for colouring, and a box of chalk pastels for dramatic effects. I wanted to see what I would come up with, limited to just these few things.

Not only that, I decided I would NOT draw from observation. I'd remember what I saw, and draw an reinterpreted version from my imagination. That means I will be looking at my paper when I draw instead of looking at the scene (the opposite of what I teach when I teach Urban Sketching.)

This were the pictures on my page:

1. I drew the lift buttons doing down.
2. I met up with my wife and son along the street.
3. My son playing in a shop.
4. A train set my son was playing with in the shop.
5. A busker (who was also my friend)
6. My son eating a snack.

What I liked about the approach was that:

1. I didn't have produce a drawing in an inconvenient spot. I could draw it a few minutes later when it was more comfortable. 
2. I am able to use my imagination to craft a graphically pleasing picture. If you look at the 4th picture, I was looking at the train set from an angle, but I reinterpreted it as a picture from a top view angle, which is more graphically pleasing.
3. I'm more carefree about the details. When I'm interpreting the picture, I can take out lots of details and simplify it to the essential in my mind before putting it down on paper. And that can result in a totally new surprising perspective on how that scene can described.

I like the draw-from-observation approach but I also like this approach. In this one, I'm finding that it is good training for illustration styles that require more simplified/stylised forms. But I'm keen to try this again simply because it was pretty fun!