Composition study

I've been doing some landscape studies in colour in an attempt to brush up my colour chops, but after doing a few I felt that what really made a picture work was the composition. There's too much to think about when you're trying to cover colour, value, composition and drawing all at once so I wanted to focus on composition.

At the moment I'm sitting one floor below the incredible Neil Campbell Ross whose compositions are just killer. I was looking at some of his work for inspiration for this one.

Switching lens

I've been doing some more drawing on my commute but it's been quite difficult since I moved office. The train is shakier and more crowded so it makes things a bit tricky.

Still, I did these two drawings of the same guy the other day. At first I was trying to identify the most prominent anatomical features and make sure that I emphasised them. I wasn't very happy with the drawing though so I gave it another go.
This second time I was going for the big picture. I looked at the face, looked down on the paper and drew the impression that it left in my mind, without worrying too much about individual  features.

I think the first drawing is a more accurate depiction of what I saw but the second one captures the life and gesture better. It was interesting to see how switching from one way of looking to the other produced a very different drawing.

Vila

This past week I found out that an old high school friend has died in a car accident. It's difficult to accept how someone so young, who's only just begun living their life, can be stripped of all their future hopes and aspirations. When tragedy strikes so close to home it's inevitable to be reminded of how fragile and unfair life can be.

Hug your special someone extra tight tonight.

Dilemma

I drew this in frustration over a job situation a while back. The two people in it shall remain unnamed. ;) They know who they are.

November Sketchbook

We've been doing a fill-a-sketchbook-in-30-days challenge at work this month. It's not a huge sketchbook, just a 24-page one from Muji so it's not as difficult as it sounds. For me the idea was to just get drawing. No pressure, just draw. Anything. Most of these were done on my commute so it's mostly people drawing, which I enjoy a lot.

Here are some of my favourites.