Rinse and Repeat
My brushpen ran out of ink during today's excursion. I had no time to check my supplies even though I planned the day out about a month in advance, as I was swamped with work up to the last minute. However, I was able to finish my sketches with another color of ink (which was also running low). Lovely day, got three spreads done as I moved from place to place. Back home, one page left in the mini pad. I can't wait to see them all gone and sit down to prepare another batch of refills.
It feels good to use things up, each refilling session serves as a natural checkpoint so I can see how much I've grown and how I've been tending to my practice. I don't really set a goal for this, only that it my rate of acquisition should match that pace and purchase of new materials should be assessed based on how likely I am to use it up before it goes bad. There's something magical in slowing down to smell the roses, to appreciate how far you've come, and to remind yourself of the nice things along the way.
Today's trip is the first time I have to deal with sketching on location without a desk to work on. I picked a corner and finished the sketch standing up. Moved the most used pens to a vertical pocket so they were easier to reach for. I originally did two-tones sketching (with purple-gray and blue-green fountain pen ink) so I could do fast impressions in places where I didn't feel like fanning out my watercolor supplies, but it's actually a fun method to learn values. The elusive, elusive magic of values! If I were to pare down the kit, it would consist only of a pair of waterbrushes filled with different colors.
I would likely spend my time outdoors more often so I should be more comfortable with standing for a long time. My posture is hard on my heels. My pencase should be easy to fish out from my bag. I have to practice getting and returning brushes/pens/stuff from the bag on the go without taking the whole kit out each time so I could weave through the crowd safely.
Here's to getting used to a bolder approach to urban sketching (bolder compared to the way I like to do things). Slowly, I venture out a little farther, one spread to the next. A walk, a jaunt, a romp, a leap.
Afterall, a hundred paintings is a hundred small stolen pockets of time.