A few years ago I got into urban sketching, the art of drawing the everyday things in an urban setting. I have a very nice collection of books on urban sketching and architectural drawing covering all manner of styles, pen and ink, watercolour, digital, pencils....
Sounds great, except I wasn't very good at it. I really wanted to get into sketching and drawing, and some of my pieces weren't bad for a noob. But it just didn't gel with me for some reason. As though other things were waiting in the wings....
Fast forward a couple of years and now I do photos.
But the philosophy of urban sketching stuck. Instead of 'draw your world' I did 'photograph your world', and that's what I do. I find interest in the mundane, the everyday things people ignore.
Back in the day I also struggled with photography because I couldn't go out into the wild frontiers and make epic landscapes or wildlife images, I didn't have the studio room for portraits, and I made the mistake of thinking there was nothing to shoot.
It's an easy mistake to make, another noob error. But you live and learn, and now I combined my interest in urban sketching with digital tech and so I make urban photos. It suits me down to the ground, I feel 'at home' doing this thing. And the urban sketching books provide plenty of inspiration for subjects. I can still enjoy the books without the stress of trying to produce sketches.
Sounds great, except I wasn't very good at it. I really wanted to get into sketching and drawing, and some of my pieces weren't bad for a noob. But it just didn't gel with me for some reason. As though other things were waiting in the wings....
Fast forward a couple of years and now I do photos.
But the philosophy of urban sketching stuck. Instead of 'draw your world' I did 'photograph your world', and that's what I do. I find interest in the mundane, the everyday things people ignore.
Back in the day I also struggled with photography because I couldn't go out into the wild frontiers and make epic landscapes or wildlife images, I didn't have the studio room for portraits, and I made the mistake of thinking there was nothing to shoot.
It's an easy mistake to make, another noob error. But you live and learn, and now I combined my interest in urban sketching with digital tech and so I make urban photos. It suits me down to the ground, I feel 'at home' doing this thing. And the urban sketching books provide plenty of inspiration for subjects. I can still enjoy the books without the stress of trying to produce sketches.