I’ve added a new page to the blog, sharing books that are currently inspiring my sketching; the first is Hokusai’s Manga (‘manga’ originally meant ‘light drawings or sketches’). After copying some of his very simple but individual faces (bottom of post) I sat outside a cafe and tried to sketch the faces passing by using a water-brush filled with grey ink. The brush was much faster than a fountain pen as it applies line and shape at the same time. It was very hard to remember all the different aspects of the faces, they were gone in seconds, but very satisfying when it worked (about 1 in 10); great visual memory training! I’ll try whole figures next…

‘Detailer’ water-brush with Lexington grey ink, water-colour, A5 – about 30 seconds for each face…