Getting better...

The more I see of the amazing work that's out there, the more I realise how much I still have to learn. I've decided to put aside a lot more time to just... practising. I was sketching in a lovely Moleskine, with thick creamy pages and a classy leather cover - because if your sketchbook looks like a thing of beauty, then your doodles are automatically quality work, right? Nuh-uh. Half the time I was too scared to draw in it in case I messed up a page. And I didn't feel like I could just grab it when I had a spare 5 minutes and whack down something - anything - no matter how quick and dirty. So yesterday I went out and bought myself an A4 pad for $5.00 to take with me everywhere, and my first step in getting better is to draw in it whenever humanly possible, no matter how rubbish my sketches are! It's a very liberating feeling. I've also started drawing with a pen so that I can't be tentative about putting down lines, or change my mind about them once they're down.

So, here are some of the sketches I've done in my new frenzy of self-improvement. I'm concentrating on trying to catch figures in motion - I've been really inspired by Walt Stanchfield's notes on Gesture Drawing for Animation. If you want to have a look at them you can download them as a free PDF here.