Photograph: Josh NicholasPhotograph: Josh Nicholasfter a lifetime of scribbling on scrap paper, a few years ago I finally started taking drawing seriously. I was backpacking and bought a tin of crayons. I loved it instantly. I spent the rest of the trip sitting in gutters and scribbling wonky buildings; in pubs drawing malformed fellow patrons.Many who see me scribbling say they’d be afraid to do the same. They have no talent for drawing, they say. But neither do I.
When I was a kid, my grandma took me to visit Senaka Senanayake, a famous Sri Lankan artist. I gazed up at the walls of his house in central Colombo, plastered with his colourful drawings and paintings. Many of them were decades old, from when Senaka was aFor years I thought all artists were like that – imbued with some gift the rest of us were denied. But I’ve come to realise that while I may never become Senaka, I can always get closer.
Through practice, I’ve gotten better at forcing myself slow down , to closely observe and measure. To “construct” the drawing rather than just letting fly.. I was still using crayons and the finer details aren’t there, but I appreciate these drawings a lot more. Here’s a very bad view of Angkor Thom in Cambodia. I still remember sitting on the rock and drawing this.I hate how obsessed the online art world is with brands and tools, but you really do need to pick the right tool for what you’re trying to accomplish. More recently I’ve moved on to painting with watercolours and drawing with fineliners. The smaller lines allow me to capture greater detail than the thick crayons. The colour brings life to pictures in ways my old scribbles lacked.
Faces are my still favourite thing to scribble. My portraits used to looked like aliens – short foreheads, gigantic eyes, lopsided ears. Just see this drawing of my now-wife from when we were dating a few years ago.I’ve worked a lot on my portraits. I borrowed all the books my library had, and have watched countless hours of YouTube tutorials. I understand better the theory behind creating