Welcome back for part three of the “old sketches from Jon” series. Previously, we looked at my high school drawings and some study aids I used in college. This is the last “old sketch” phase, covering the time after high school until age 20 or 21. Around then, life started giving me more stuff to do and seemingly less time to do it in. I got serious about college (relatively speaking), and became more involved in the usual extracurricular activities of 20-somethings. Eventually, other things like long term relationships, grad school, and career concerns kept me rolling along. Suddenly, I found myself in 2017 having not drawn in 15 years! I guess that’s how time passes when you look back on it; blink and a decade might slip behind you.
I think these sketches from early adulthood were better quality overall than my high school collection. It was during this time that I started using the grid/measurement system, and the realism improved a bit. As you’ll see below, I still informally doodled sometimes, which looked pretty similar to the high school drawings. But I definitely got better at handling details, which is a skill I’m glad didn’t completely fade away. It took some practice the last six months to get back where I was, but I think I’ve even improved since getting back into drawing. Especially considering I’ve actually tried using color, which I hadn’t done before.
Although I have gotten better at drawing realistic subjects, I also believe my sketches have become more boring. Looking at all of this old artwork, from the high school sketches, to these post-high school, then on to the stuff I did this year, that becomes clear. When I was younger, I was more apt to use my imagination and go wild sketching whatever I thought was fun. Maybe it would be beneficial to try to rediscover that aspect of drawing. Although I do love drawing my kids, I am just trying to recreate them as they actually are in real life. It’s not especially creative. I think the Dark Tower posts (1, 2, 3, 4) are the closest I’ve ventured to that creative side lately.
The selection below is a bit more sparse than the high school group. And I had limited ability to take new photos if needed, because some of these were given to the subjects. On those, I pretty much only have my digital backup from years ago. So, here are some sketches:
* Note: The sketch from Braveheart is in no way an endorsement of Mel Gibson. At the time, I didn’t know that he was (based on those publicized recordings) a racist, sexist lunatic. I just knew that I enjoyed that movie.