Sketches of Reykjavík

I’ve been trying to do more sketches around town, and it must be working because my Moleskine is starting to fill up.

{as always, click photos to enlarge, or mouse over for description}

As in Scotland, nobody pays me any attention when I sketch; in fact, no one seems to notice at all (except for two girls at last week’s outdoor jazz concert, who stood behind me gabbling excitedly in I don’t know what language). 

I notice I can draw for longer sessions than previously, and I’m also making fewer misjudgments of perception and getting a better feel for which details to include and which to leave out. Good. Positive reinforcement!

Sketching in public is starting to become enough of a habit that last night, while waiting for a free concert to begin, I took out my sketchbook and started to draw the performance space. I worked on the drawing during all the breaks between pieces! You can’t really tell what it is… but I remember the place so much better for having drawn it.

I miss the life drawing sessions I did in Toronto and Scotland (my host here was kind enough to call an artist organization for me — she’s a photographer — to confirm there were no such sessions here, at least not during the summer), but I’m attempting to keep my hand in with hasty sketches of random people. As I found last week, outdoor concerts are good for this.

(I don’t feel right drawing during indoor concerts, because there I feel I’m too much of a distraction from the performers. But at outdoor venues I think some distraction is a given, and I’m surely less obtrusive than noisy kids or sirens or whatever.)

After I got home from that concert I felt inspired to try another rendering in color, so I sat down with my paints. I made it look like these two are in the same band but they’re not. (Don’t worry, I’ll share their music later; it’s worth its own post!)

And here is a completely gratuitous photo of myself, snapped in the convenient full-length mirror of the restroom at the National Gallery. I’m very happy with my colorful outfit. 🙂 (You can’t tell from the pic, but my scarf is dark purple and my pants are dark teal.)