Whole lotta writin' - Sketching

It is 10.22pm on a modest weekday and I decided to extend my writing antics, not in writing technical reports or journal papers but to update my blog. Given the late hour and the level of tiredness, I will try to remember all of the events from the past couple of weeks and record them here, but I cannot promise that I will not forget some minor episode; the good news is that there were no insignificant occurrences at all, as you shall read in this post and the few that follow...

The first thing that comes to mind is that after an absence of many months, years actually, I decided to start doing some sketching again, for leisure. In my early undergraduate years, it was part of the design syllabus to create sketches of urban and rural landscapes, abstractions as well as some nonsense, hoping to nurture the skills required to master architectural design. I recall the initial painful long stays outdoors, trying to sketch a streetscape, with pad on the lap, shadows changing with the setting sun, people stopping to stare and all the complications of drawing "live" in the street. More happily I recall the advent of the digital camera being accessible to all, my fun, isolated snapping trips and the comfortable sketching at home off the monitor, accompanied by background music, the omnipresent coffee mug and the liberty of intermittent yet regular breaks.

Back to 2010, I decided to start off by a set of sketches of Michelangelo's sculptures (again, off a monitor using photos I took at the plaster cast collection of the V+A or images off the net). Modestly, I think the work is getting better as the number of sketches increases; now, I even upgraded to a proper sketchbook rather than loose sheets!

To be honest, the first few consisted solely of naked (or almost naked) men, which may seem to be suspicious as to my mating habits really are. Not that I am homophobic, but I happen to be heterosexual and nowadays I am shifting towards the female nude (again, Michelangelo works). One problem: the Renaissance genius happened to sculpt mostly males and his females are really as muscular and well-built as any healthy athlete, so I guess I will soon conclude my Michelangelo series and seek an alternative subject...

So this activity started off in September and I am proud to say that I have managed to keep it going (to date) and intend to maintain it! Not that I have any ambitions in the art world, but at least it serves as a break from academia, math and the computer keyboard!