I’m having a hard time to keep up regular sketchbook work. Usually I’m stressed and tired from working full time in my day job, and when I work on course projects, I do “goal-oriented” sketchbook work or use loose sheets. During the summer months, I made it a habit to carry a small sketchbook with me and go outside for lunch breaks and sketch. But now as it’s winterly cold and wet, I barely make it outside for a walk, let alone sit down somewhere, and so there’s hardly any more sketching.

I did make some efforts at home though to just grab the sketchbook and draw or paint something. It’s not yet a habit as I haven’t found a method where to regularly integrate it in my day-to-day life, but at least I’ve filled a few pages to make a start.

I started with a view from the studio window towards the rooftop opposite the street – grayscale study where I aimed to bring out the white of the paper against pale gray tones of the sky.

Then I made a small sketchy portrait of Abraham Lincoln from a photograph. This takes up my interest in portaiture. I’ve recently watched a Craftsy tutorial where the instructor explained that the most typical features of a face are in the shadows, not in the particular shapes of eyes, nose or mouth. I found the approach intersting and this was a first attempt to try out whether resemblance would result if I focused on the shadows.

Getting back to the poinsettias, a view from further away in coloured pencil and a study of negative space from closer distance.

A ballpen portrait of Bill Bratton, Police Commissioner of the NYPD, drawn from a TV emission of his speech referring to two police officers that had been killed while on duty. I think I captured his sad mood.

Two Drawings from TV of Joshua Bell playing the violin at a Christmas House Concert. Drawing the figure with its motions was difficult already, but what made it worse were the constant camera cuts to different viewpoints were annoying because I had to wait until the camera came back to my chosen view.

Mark-making with india ink and my cat Gina sleeping on a cushion on the folding chair.

My cat Micky sleeping next to a cushion on the sofa, india ink. In the second sketch of Micky, I tried to extend the tonal range by including darker tones as well.