Drawing with pens: bringing the spontaneity back into my drawings

Recently I began to realize that my drawings were loosing their spontaneity, that they were becoming more deliberate than ever, and that drawing was not meant to be so deliberate. This thought was somehow very worrying. :/ I had to do something to make my drawings as springy, spontaneous, and playful as I myself am. ;D 

For that, I decided to do sketches purely with pens. No pencil under-drawings, and absolutely no rulers or compasses or geometrical tools whatsoever. I decided not to be too obsessed with proportions and straight lines and accurate angles, and focus more on the essence of drawing rather than its mundane technicalities.

This one was the first drawing I did with my new mission in mind. I started off with the scissors and the jar and then proceeded to the surroundings. In this drawing you can see me and my siblings' joint desks, in its typical, natural, messy state. XD Even though the results are not very good at all, the activity was very relaxing and enjoying and helped change my perspectives on drawing. 
A very cluttered desk 
 This drawing turned out at least a hundred times better than the last one, and although some things are out of proportion (ie. the bookshelf) it mostly looks good(I was even considering getting it framed). I think one thing I did differently was that instead of making scribbled lines to look like text, I wrote real text instead(like the '12 BRILLIANT COLOURS' on the fineliner box) I think it makes the drawing look more realistic overall. Also, I did this one with brown fineliner(instead of the black that I usually use) which was an experiment that turned out to be successful, even though I wasn't expecting it.
Books galore

This new experiment turned out to be largely successful, I'm glad. It helped me rethink drawing and improve drawing as well. I'm happy I did it; and saved my drawings from becoming too deliberate. :)

Comments

  1. Kenza19 September 2017 at 12:59

    Oh my, I'm shook these are SO GOOD!! 8D Ahhh Zainab these still-life sketches are just so pretty! This challenge is also super inspiring, the way you decided to ignore the fundamentals of art (which is a great thing to do!) and the result is amazing...
    Those details on the stationery and books are fantastic and make me wonder how long you spent on each of them? You're so right about sketching straight from a pen being a lot more relaxing about having to consider proportions, angles, etc..
    The books galore one looks like it has just come straight out of a beautifully illustrated picture book! :D I really like how you chose a brown fineliner instead of the usual black for a change and the resulting effect is really cool.
    I'd love to see you draw more of these! And speaking of which, I'm currently thinking that you'd have the ability to participate in Inktober this year! That is, if you want to of course. ^^ (I'm going to have a go at it!)

    (PS I've just seen that you have posted a story excerpt and I'm hyped! I'll definitely check it out soon but for the moment my tablet is about to go into its curfew! D:)

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    1. Zainab Salman Siddiqui21 September 2017 at 05:45

      Hey thanks Kenza! XD Do you really think so?!!
      These sketches took half an hour at the most, I think, because I wasn't very concerned about the proportions and everything. :)
      I will definitely post more as I make them and yeah, I was considering participating in Inktober this year too, but I don't think I'll manage to adjust it with studies and other stuff into my schedule, PLUS I'm not very good with ink(the smudges are inevitable, don't you think? :/), but I may do it next year(not to mention the drawings you did for Inktober 2016 were super cool!!)

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