Search This Blog

Thursday 16 April 2015

Inspired by my Neighbourhood

Now that the nicer weather has reached us, I'm determined to get out and walk to exercise and tone my winter atrophied muscles in preparation for this year's canoe trip. I was going to take my camera along and went to my studio to get it and remembered that I had bought a new sketchbook for a challenge that never materialized. I've been wanting to sketch outside more and so I took the sketchbook off the bookcase shelf and decided to use it to document my walks around the neighbourhood. I could "kill two birds with one stone", although I don't know how much walking I will actually get done if I'm stopping to sketch in between.

I walked along the Humber River which runs along the back of our house and took the trail up to the Islington Avenue bridge. I noticed some graffiti underneath the bridge that I had long admired and so I sat down to sketch it quickly. Then I climbed the hill up to Islington Avenue and crossed the bridge stopping halfway to do a quick sketch of the Humber River and it's banks. Walking further, I came across a Bell Canada manhole cover that really had an interesting pattern so I added that to the sketchbook. I found a half of a seed pod on the ground with an interesting design so I picked it up to add to my book when I got home.

Continuing my walk, I added some crocuses I saw blooming (there's not much else blooming yet) as well as some lilac branches that were beginning to bud. I sketched a funny sign I saw in someone's yard that said," IF YOUR DOG POOPS, YOU SCOOP". The final thing I sketched into my book was a pine cone that had dropped off a tree. Adding some of my observations, what the weather was like and the date, I completed my page. I was actually on route for an hour and ten minutes but not all of it was walking. I'm hoping to keep up this habit and maybe tone up and improve my observation and sketching skills.


No comments:

Post a Comment