TS - Essence of a Pinecone

Apologies for not posting for a few days, I was away on a short trip and found little time to draw or sketch. Now I'm back though and here is another sketch:

Essence of a Pinecone - Pencil, Colour Pencil

In like the mix of sketch, colour and pseudo scientific and technical elements in the picture.

No Picture Today

I went to enjoy the sun this afternoon and didn't get to sit down and draw. It'll have to do for today that there is no picture.

TS - Backs

Backs - Fountain Pen

Another quick sketch from a meeting.

TS - Über den Dächern

Über den Dächern - Fountain Pen, Paintbrush

A quick view out of the front of our house over the roofs of the city.

TS - Bridgman's [47] v.1.0 - v.3.0

Bridgman's [47] v.1.0 - Fountain Pen

And another version of the same motive. This time the proportions are slightly better.

Bridgman's [47] v.2.0 and v.3.0 - Fountain Pen

TS - Foot

Foot - Fountain Pen, Paintbrush

TS - Self Portrait

The picture for this will come on Monday. I originally drew it today but then left it out of reach for the weekend. Once I get my hands on the picture I'll upload it.

It's been uploaded.

Self Portrait - Pencil, Aquarelle

It's been uploaded.

TS - Power Plant

Power Plant - Pencil, Aquarelle

A walk this evening led me past this power plant.
Surrounded by trees it stands all alone,
far away from any other buildings.

The sun was just low enough to illuminate the belly of the clouds,
bathing them in a bright orange.
All the while the tops remained in a steel grey.

I liked the light and the composition of what I saw,
yet the paints on paper do not live up to reality...

TS - Lines/Brown on Blue

Lines/Brown on Blue - Markers, Tracing Paper

This was done on tracing paper, a paper, I must say, is not that great with markers. The marker does not absorb into the paper very much. Once two or so layers of marker have been applied, the alcohol in the third layer will let the pigment on the paper float up and resettle along the sides of the marker line. The result is a very uneven colour distribution with weird dark and light spots. I will certainly not choose tracing paper for markers again.

TS - Stopwatch

Stopwatch - Marker

Something very quick today...

TS - Topographic

Topographic - Pencil, Ink Pen, Stencils

Something on the technical side. I recently inherited all my fathers technical drawing stencils. Today I got to use them for the scale, border and compass on this little map.

And yes, I do know the map is missing a legend.

TS - Hand v.1.0 and v.2.0

Hand v.1.0 and v.2.0 - Colour Pencils on Cardboard

There are two things I like about this picture.

First, we went to IKEA to get some furniture and inside the box there was some very thick corrugated cardboard as packing material. The cardboard came in nice rectangles and I've always liked drawing on something that's not quite white and allows you to add highlights with white. I quite love the highlights, it adds a new dimension to sketching.

Secondly, this picture is a perfect example of having to fail in your work and be OK with it. v.1.0 was drawn first and is quite hideous, the proportions are out of whack and the outlines on the fingers are just not where they need to be. After having failed like this I just picked up the pencil again and started anew in v.2.0. The proportions are much better this time around and the fingers are much more clearly outlined. All in all much better.

BP - Patterns

Patterns - Pencil

A little more proof of my productivity during meetings.

TS - BAM

BAM - Pencil

 Another productive meeting. One might start to think that all I'm doing at work is attending meetings and one wouldn't be so wrong about it. At least not this past week.

TS - Dragon

Dragon - Fountain Pen

Another quick sketch during a meeting.

BP - Bridgman's 42

Bridgman's 42 - Fountain Pen, Water

I've been strangely prolific in my sketching today. I think the trick is to sneak some doodling in at work...

BP - Water Bottle

Water Bottle - Fountain Pen

When taking a picture of todays sketch I noticed that I had been sketching in my last meeting a couple of days ago too. So here is a bonus picture from a couple of days ago.

TS - Presenter

Presenter - Fountain Pen

Work has started up again and I've had a bit of professional development today. For our professional development we had a presenter come in and he was presenting in front of a wood panelled wall that had rows and rows of little holes in it. I thought it was a nice background to add to a quick sketch of a silhouette.

TS - Bridgman's 30 and 40

Bridgman's 30 and 40 - Fountain Pen

Nothing special, just a quick sketch to keep my people drawing skills up. Once again from my much valued book by George B. Bridgman.

TS - Bactarian Camel

Bactarian Camel - Fountain Pen

I'm really enjoying these quick sketches with my fountain pen. What I like about the fountain pen is that you cannot erase anything and are forced to deal with all the lines you have put on the paper. It teachers you to not be afraid of "Less Than Perfect", and I believe that this lesson is essential in becoming an expert at anything. Not being afraid of failure is the skill that will allow you to get back up and try again, even after defeat.

To see one of my defeat moments, here is the whole page:

Bactarian Camel Page - Fountain Pen, Pencil (sorry for the shadow on the page)

TS - Lines v.7.0

Lines v.7.0 - made with Adobe Line

Some Data

Below is just a little puerility I made out of my love for graphs and data representation. It's interesting to note that my average number of monthly posts in 2015, so far, is lower than my average number of monthly posts in 2014. A significant increase in the number of posts can be noticed in August 2015 (compare Fig. 1). This increase in the number of posts is due to my renewed goal of sketching and posting at least 5 times a week and the fact that I uploaded a number of pictures made during the month of June and July that year.

Fig. 1: Posts per Month on Tägliche Skizzen. Note that the number of posts does not necessarily accurately represent the number of pictures posted that month. May 2014 represents the start date of this blog.

TS - Lines v.6.0

Lines v.6.0 - Marker

I am really enjoying making these Line pictures. I use masking tape to tape off parts of the paper to get the nice straight marker lines while also getting the effect you get from quickly and roughly shading in an area with a marker. My father used to use self sticking see through foil to cover up parts of his artwork. He would then cut and peel away parts of the foil to create a stencil, apply spray paint and finally peel the whole thing off again. It left incredibly sharp and well defined edges and looked great. I'll have to see if I can find some of this stuff and experiment a little with it.

TS - Lines v.5.0

Lines v.5.0 - Marker

This time a version of the Lines Theme made on actual paper.

No Drawing Today

Sorry, there won't be a drawing today as I chose to spend my time tangled up in black berry bushes, picking a shit ton of delicious berries. And the best thing about them, they were absolutely free.

TS - A Tooth

A Tooth - Pencil

Just a quick sketch of two very different teeth.

TS - Iron (or: my worst nemesis)

Iron (or: my worst nemesis) - B7 Pencil

The summer seems to be coming to an end, or at least the time where I get to spend my days any which way I please. And the first herald of the end to my lazy days is my old arch nemesis, the iron.

TS - Lines v.3.0 and v.4.0

Lines v.3.0 - made with Adobe Line

Lines v.4.0 - made with Adobe Line

Two more quick sketches playing with the depth of colours and their arrangement.

BP - Lines

Lines v.1.0 - made with Adobe Line

Lines v.2.0 - made with Adobe Line

I must say that I do like the first picture better than the second one, just because the colours work nicer together.

TS - Diagonal

Diagonal - Made with Adobe Line

A picture I found on my iPad that I had totally forgotten about. It was made about a month ago or so.

TS - Hummel

Hummel - Fountain Pen

I've recently bought some fountain pen ink to fill one of my fountain pens with and I'm loving to sketch with it even so it's clearly meant for writing and not really for drawing with.

TS - Gänse

Gänse - Fountain Pen

The fist one of my more regular pictures again.

TS - Blick aus dem Fenster

Blick aus dem Fenster - Ink Pen, Pencil, Aquarelle

This is the view out of my living room window in our new place.

TS - Grumpy Fish

Grumpy Fish - Pencil

I saw this specimen in a fish tank at the dentist. He was the most grumpy fish ever and kept on bullying all the other fish in the tank.

TS - Squiggles

Squiggles - Ink Pen, Colour Pencil

TS - Walrus Grandpa v.1.0 and v.2.0

Walrus Grandpa v.1.0 - Pencil

This friendly Pinniped has seen many things in his time and now is settling down for a quiet life. Being retired though doesn't mean that he's not staying classy, a white shirt and suspenders are always a must. 

Walrus Grandpa v.2.0 - Ink Pen

The v.2.0 was meant to be coloured in with aquarelle but then I was too lazy...

TS - Crossroad

Crossroad - Ink Pen, Colour Pencil

Unfortunately I couldn't get the paper to lay flat while taking the picture, hence the slightly warped lines. The image quality aside I really like the combination of colours and the simple and minimalist nature of this sketch.

TS - Whisky

Whisky - Ink Pen, Aquarelle

I really like this one, it has a nice mix of detail and "messy" colours. I also just had fun making this sketch.

TS - Waves

Waves - Marker

TS - Ohne Namen

Ohne Namen - Marker

TS - Courtyard Tree

Courtyard Tree - Pencil

A quick sketch of a tree in a courtyard and the shadows from a neighbouring building.

TS - Window View

Window View - Marker

The view from the living room in my old apartment.

TS - Lemonade

Lemonade - Marker

A little refreshing something from a hot summer day...

TS - Escher Like v.2.0

Escher Like v.2.0 - Pencil and Marker

A marker version of Escher Like with slightly changed pattern.