A Pear

Watercolor and pencil sketch of a pear, Don West, Artist.
7”x10”, sketched in a medium LEDA sketchbook with watercolor and a B graphite pencil.

Just practicing loosening up with this sketch. Did whatever my impulses said. That’s usually the case but working loosely requires a bit more power to ignore the left brain and just do it. Of course the more one does that, the more natural it becomes and that bit of extra power isn’t needed any longer.

Try it many times in your favorite medium. The additional skills you generate as a result will enhance every effort in future works. The brain remembers every skill in your toolbox and those become naturally reflected in your style for a given subject. When you go back and look at your work, even the bad ones, you’ll see bits of those tools peeking out at you.

I think that’s one reason we tend to be more forgiving of something we’ve sketched after taking a break from looking at it. Plus, we see it as it appears to the viewer as opposed to when we are actively working on it and making all those perceived errors and defects. They meld into a whole when we walk away from it for a while. Usually overnight does it for me. If still don’t like it the next day, I either fix it or call it a “learning experience”. Either way, it’s all good!