Accidental drawing breakthrough

Pushing myself on the Gold Coast

I recently got back from a trip to Australia’s Gold Coast. It wasn’t a drawing trip, but I drew a lot.

When I travel, I usually take a big bag of art supplies. It’s a security blanket. I don’t need it all and don’t use it all, but it’s nice to know it’s there. I tend to pack all kinds of stuff I probably won’t use.

Without care and attention, the 80/20 rule strikes, and I only use a few things from the bag. When packing this time, I took a smaller, big bag of pens. Still heaps, but not everything. I didn’t think about it much; I just took two-thirds of the pens out of the bag.

The pens I took and the bag they live in.

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The first drawing was at the airport, looking out the window waiting for the flight.

I drew on the plane a bit and added colour with Poscas later. From a prior incident, I know that the lower pressure in the plane turns these paint pens into paint guns.

Over the next day or so, I made some small drawings over this spread in between other activities — this is always a good way to fit in drawings.

As I finished the page I realised I had already used quite a few pens. What if I made sure I used everything? I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. Challenging myself leads to learning and growth. And it’s easier to do that when I’m out of my normal daily routine.

I still took everything I had with me on the half-day I had to go out drawing. I rode a bike down the path by the beach and wandered around Surfers Paradise's very touristy streets.

I spotted an ibis at a cafe. It was an interesting scene, and there was shade nearby, so I got out my bag of pens and folding stool and drew it.

Originally wetland waders, these big birds have only been urban since they lost their fear of humans sometime in the 1970s. The reasons are unclear, but a big drought, habitat destruction, and zoos probably have something to do with it. These brave and bold scavengers are now a common sight in Australian cities. This one was eating sandwich scraps from tables as people departed. I felt sad to see the reality of nature and the city colliding.

I headed back to the beach to draw one of the lifeguard towers. They’re a Gold Coast icon— 41 are dotted along the 52km beach. Next year marks 100 years of lifeguard service, but none of the dudes I saw looked anywhere near that old. I guess the sea air keeps them young.

I enjoyed making both drawings, but I was just doing my normal thing. The protagonist was my favourite pen, and the black lines do the heavy lifting. I added a bit of colour afterwards and then some shadows. It’s a familiar process; despite the hot weather, I am staying well within my comfort zone. I want to change that.

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Cool view, but no shade means no drawing

I thought the skyline would be a good challenge for me. I try to find a shady spot to draw it without any success. Then, wandering through a park I spot a jacaranda tree in full bloom. As I sit down to draw, large ants crawl up my legs. I have no desire to find out if they bite.

I carry on through the park and out the other side. This building is almost the same colour as a marker in my bag. Warm colours and pointy roofs are different; the rest of the tall buildings are clad in blue and grey glass.

It’s hard to spot the difference. Photo from Google Streetview

There’s shade here, so this is a chance to use that marker. The scene is a bit different from my usual choice; I like to sit as close as possible to a building I’m drawing, but this one is a couple of blocks away, and there are much smaller buildings in front of it. I want to capture the contrast between these dated motels and the glamorous high rises.

I’m out of my comfort zone, which is what I want; between the view and the tools, the newness forces me to construct the drawing a bit differently.

I start with the foreground in a black pen, taking care to make some clear silhouettes. Then, with the marker, I put the shape of peach-coloured spots on the tower smack in the middle. Finally, I add the turrets and windows with black and grey pens.

Though they don’t quite fit the crop I chose, I think the other highrises are worth including for the contrast (and that lets me use two more pens). I draw them in with a blue fineliner and then colour with a watercolour marker that ended up being a bit too dark. I softened the dark blue a little with the last remaining drips from my drink bottle. It’s a hot day and I’ve been thirsty.

I’m glad I included them. The blue contrasts nicely with that warm beige.

Finally, a grey pen lets me get some background clouds.

I look at the finished picture, and I feel like I am getting somewhere. I’m drawing and thinking differently. It’s forcing me to learn. This is what I hoped would happen. Without the challenge, I wouldn’t have made a drawing like this.

Every time I actively push myself in new directions, I unlock a new understanding. It happened last summer when I went out drawing all day with just black pens, and the summer before, when I treated a sketchbook as if it were a kid's picture book.

It’s easy to forget that pushing leads to growth and stay in my comfort zone instead. And although that’s vital for keeping my spirits up, the real breakthroughs seem to happen when I change everything.

I’ve gotta double down on this. And I need a cold drink. It’s too hot.

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I grabbed an iced coffee and thought about how I could keep going. Back at the apartment, I looked at the pens I had yet to use. There were three fine liners, a blue paint pen, a posca maker and a random coloured pencil that I found in the bottom of my backpack.

I decided to test the colours on the page — I don’t want a repeat of the too-dark blue incident. Then, I made this drawing of the view out of the window.

Over the next few days, I also applied some of that new thinking to more drawings.

They’re just little drawings, but they’re teaching me something. I particularly liked one of them, so I might make this into a full painting in my studio.

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Now that I'm back to normal life, I’m trying to figure out what I learned from the experience and what advice I would give myself if I wanted to do this again.

• Colours are candy; values are vegetables. I know this already, but it’s a good reminder. Get the darks right, and the rest of the picture will take care of itself. You can do whatever you like with colour if you get the darks in the right place.

• Swatch your stuff. I always have a swatch sheet when doing a big watercolour painting. For some reason, I never thought to do this when using pens. When using new media, little marks like these help me to understand how they interact; I can resolve issues and make decisions on a smaller scale before fully committing.

• Work small first. Thumbnails are fun and fast to make and lead to better pictures. I don’t do this much when I’m working in a sketchbook.

• Work out which shapes matter. Some shapes are essential. And some can be more abstract. Find the icons within the scene and make those shapes clear. Put your effort into the things that matter, and don’t concern yourself too much with the rest. On this trip, I learned to draw palm tree silhouettes.

• Think in layers. This layer idea keeps coming up for me. All of my most successful drawings used one pen for each layer. As you get farther away, each layer gets lighter, less saturated and less detailed.

Mostly, they’re just toys, but art supplies can inspire growth. You don’t need new things.

Maybe you can challenge yourself with what you’ve already got.

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The next edition of Sketchbook Club, my online drawing meetup for paid subscribers, is this coming Sunday, 27 October, at 7 am NZDT. That’s Saturday Lunchtime in the Americas and Saturday night in Europe (sorry, Australia and Asia). The time in your time zone is here.

For this session, I’ll share an exercise to help you balance energy and detail in your drawings, and then we’ll draw together. A couple days later, I send my paid subscribers a summary article.