Okay, this post is not related to anything this blog is about, however I have a feeling that this might be interesting for atleast someone.
Well when I started to write this post, it was more about how I learned to sketch with all the sketches I did and the reasons why I did them. Now after writing this post, it looks more like a journey, a journey which started sometime back. I had no skill, no proper tools, no knowledge about sketching and at some point I never thought I would do it at all. This all started one day when I was extremely bored and free, and I thought it would be cool to learn how to sketch. I started looking at other people's sketches on
deviantart and tried to replicate most of the things they had done in their sketches.
My first sketch had soldiers in them. At the time I used to watch TV series "Band of brothers" and thought it would be cool to do one of the wallpapers in pencil. It was hard at first, but gradually I learned a few tricks. This was pretty basic and required not a lot of skill.
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Next was a typical skull. Why? well just because I could find a lot of sketches of skulls, which gave me a chance to learn some skills. I practically copied few skull sketches in to get this. I learned some stuff like basic shading, shadows and lighting.
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Up till this point I was sketching using existing pictures. I thought it would be a good idea to do a freehand sketch of something just from my imagination. So I did a guitar with a hand. It almost doesn't make sense but hey! that is what art is all about (makes you wonder what it could be? haha)
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Next came the era of
Mega Fox. At one point, I was totally in love with her. I remember it was the time when
Transformers came out. Remember, this was the first time I did a portrait, it didnt do justice to her but I managed to get something! I learned to use charcoal and paper stumps. I spend hours perfecting the eyes (
to me it was the most difficult part of the face).
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It also got published in a national magazine!!!
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I watched
Inception with a friend and was just amazed by the brilliance. Loved it. I still have it in my *one of the best movies I have watched* list. So I did a sketch called "Dream within a dream". it portrays the part of the movie where they are dreaming within their dream, and one dream is collapsing along with all other dreams (I almost sound loco, but if you have seen the movie you will get it).
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And another Inception one with the totem.
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I tried an all charcoal sketch (remember you can't use an eraser on this one, so no room for mistakes). Made a soldier for some reason!? I think it was related to some TV series but cant recall the name.
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At this point I was finishing University and was not sure about what to do next. Had a lot of options, but limited knowledge on which one would be the best. To give you some idea, I changed my field of work after University. I am glad I did that because I love what I am doing now. Picked the right path after all (hahaha). This one was called "Lost!?"
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I wanted to do some more cartoons. Hence the homer!
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Annnnnd a clever experimentation technique with gravity and hair! I did this comic character with different orientations (as it would appear on the screen).
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By now I had learned some interesting sketching techniques related to toning, shading, lighting, giving a feeling of perspective and learning to use different shades of pencils. I wanted to experiment something new now! I did a glass bulb, which involved some pretty cool new techniques! Sketching glass and metal with specular highlights and sharp lighting shades made this one an interesting sketch. This is called "The Idea!" and you may guess why?!
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The independence day for my country was approaching and I wanted to do something cool for a magazine cover (hoping that it will be cool enough that they will publish it! and yes, my fingers were crossed haha). So I did a remake of the famous Iwo Jima
raising the flag picture, but I replaced the American flag with Pakistani flag! (clever me!!! :D )
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To my surprise it actually made it to the magazine cover for independence day issue! (wohoo)
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After this I mostly did portraits of actresses I liked or had a crush on (hahaha).
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Zooey Deschanel (gosh! she is amazing! love her eyes)
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Mika Combs - I first saw her in the music video
Boys Like Girls - Two Is Better Than One. Later on I found out that she was a model/singer.
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This is it. I have some unfinished sketches, which I started but could not finish because of my epic laziness.
This whole journey, from sketching nothing to being able to sketch something, just gave me the right motivation and a perfect lesson --> "Nothing is impossible!" You can do anything if you have the right motivation and the courage to follow what you really believe in. If you believe you can do it, well you certainly can!!
