The fishing trip

by Sandra Busby
(East Sussex, England)

Fishing Trip Quick Sketch

Having taken the advice of Kerry, I am now carrying a pocket sized sketch book with me almost everywhere! But, up to now, I have found that my 'sketches' always seem to look more like drawings and I really feel that I need to free them up and loosen my technique.

I decided to capture my son fly-fishing during a recent trip to Wales because although he would be moving, it would be only a little.

I gave myself one and a half minutes to capture the scene and I was pleased with what I got. I did shade in the hat which I admit, defeated the purpose, but other than erasing the unnecessary lines when I'd finished, I left it at that. So, I classed this as a proper sketch!

I took a photo of it in case I lost the book so I could put it on the site. As you can probably see, it was raining at the time and the drawing was wet!

When I got home, I showed my friend - who is a trained artist - my sketch book. She liked most of it, but she is very honest with me and remarked on this one that although I had captured this quickly, I had still thought about it too much.

I still have a lot to learn!

**Note from Kerry:
Hi Sandra, it takes a lot of practice to become adept at sketching from life. You are doing the right thing and you are mindful of what you have to achieve. Any artist will tell you it's a matter of doing it consistently.

You can use quick strokes like cross-hatching to indicate where you want shadows etc. Then, if you decided to build on the drawing once you got home, you have indicated which direction the light comes from.