ordinary moments & outdoor sketching

Watching a video on urban sketching and I like the guy’s perspective on capturing the ordinary moments of life that often fall through the cracks. He says he’s not into drawing the big monument in the center of town. I mean, it’s fine, it’s not a bad thing to do. But there’s not much point. That same monument is on fifty postcards. Whereas if you capture a bus stop, a moment of laughter, the plates and cups on the table after a good meal, that’s unique. It’s interesting.

I have a similar philosophy on vacation pics. Dad really likes the classical style of vacation photo where everyone stands in front of the big monument and smiles. I’m a hater because I don’t like standing for posed pics. But also, I just don’t find it interesting. I prefer the unplanned, impromptu pic that captures a moment in time: people walking down a trail or chatting at dinner. Of course, it’s kind of ingrained that if you see someone taking your photo, you turn to face the camera and smile—which, to me, ruins the organic-ness of the moment. This is why most of my vacation pics of people tend to be when they’re taking photos or looking at their phones. They’re too distracted to notice me, so I can capture the unvarnished moment.

I also particularly like taking pictures of Dad taking pictures, because he’s the family photographer and often doesn’t get in the classical vacation photos. So he can have some pics that are all his own.

Anyway, I got inspired to go outside and do some sketching. I did three drawing sessions around the condo grounds, sketching the defunct little guardhouse by the south gate, the central gazebo, and various notable trees. (Discovered the small tree on the hillock is probably dead. No leaves at all. Must’ve died a while back, but I only just noticed, even though I pass it all the time…) Today I went down the block to draw the rusted boat outside Bobby’s Body Shop. I like it.

For all that I rarely draw observationally/on location, it’s kind of how I got my start as an artist. In sixth grade we had an in-class assignment to draw the front of the classroom. I guess I got pretty into it. The teacher liked my drawing so much he gave me a point of extra credit. That was my very first inkling I might be good at art. I tucked it away until junior year, when I suddenly decided I wanted to draw anime art. Ever since then, my art has generally been imagination-focused…but real-life drawing is fun too.

I recently watched a Danny Gregory video where he did a flipthrough of his art journal from the past month. It was very mundane. He drew his backyard and his dogs. He got sick and drew himself lying in bed. He drew the pasta his wife made for dinner and the bowl of lemons a friend gave him. His house got painted and he drew a bunch of his stuff under a tarp. His point was that nothing is too insignificant or boring to draw (and encouraging viewers who might think “my life is too boring, I couldn’t do this”).

Myself, I’m too attached to digital journaling to do a full-on art journal. But if I did, it would still be heavily imagination-focused. I’d draw my lions and dragons, sketches of video game characters and scenes from books, raid diagrams, cartoons of work scenarios (real-life characters, but visuals from imagination). Imaginary worlds are just where I live most of the time. You wouldn’t want a bunch of pictures of me at my computer anyhow.